Current Societal Concerns about Justice

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xv

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2. Doing Justice to the Justice Motive

   • Melvin J. Lerner

   Pages 1-8

3. Distributive Justice in a Real World

   • Russell Hardin

   Pages 9-24

4. The Power of the Myth of Self-Interest

   • Dale T. Miller, Rebecca K. Ratner

   Pages 25-48

5. Empathy, Altruism, and Justice: Another Perspective on Partiality

   • C. Daniel Batson

   Pages 49-66

6. Intergenerational Relations, Inequality, and Social Justice

   • Karen S. Cook, Shawn Donnelly

   Pages 67-83

7. Have Feminists Abandoned Social Activism? Voices from the Academy

   • Faye J. Crosby, Janet Todd, Judith Worell

   Pages 85-102

8. From Is to Ought and the Kitchen Sink: On the Justice of Distributions in Close Relationships

   • Barbara Reichle

   Pages 103-135

9. Justice and Leadership: A Social Co-Constructionist Agenda

   • James R. Meindl, Karen J. Thompson

   Pages 137-153

10. Victims without Harmdoers: Human Casualties in the Pursuit of Corporate Efficiency

    • Melvin J. Lerner

    Pages 155-170

11. Mass Unemployment under Perspectives of Justice

    • Leo Montada

    Pages 171-193

12. What Is Fair in the Environmental Debate?

    • Susan Clayton

    Pages 195-211

13. Is Justice Finite? The Case of Environmental Inclusion

    • Susan Opotow

    Pages 213-230

14. Are Proenvironmental Commitments Motivated by Health Concerns or by Perceived Justice?

    • Elisabeth Kals

    Pages 231-258

15. Tradeoffs between Justice and Self-Interest

    • Leo Montada

    Pages 259-275

16. Back Matter

    Pages 277-286

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What role does justice play in the formation of public opinion and the scholarly debates about social problems? Does the perception of injustice force problems to appear on the political agenda? Does the perception of an injustice give momentum to social change? Or are violations of self-interest or threats to one's material welfare the more important factors? Or are empathy-driven concerns for the needy and the disadvan­ taged motivations to solve societal problems? What is known about the role justice concerns play in leadership? In several chapters of this volume, justice concerns and justice motives are viewed in relation to other concerns and motivations; welfare, self-interest, altruism. It is argued that the consensus of political theorists converges on mutual advantage as the main criterion of acceptable solutions to solving socie­ tal problems. In economics, self-interest is considered the driving force and provides the criterion of acceptable solutions. Sociological and social psychological exchange theories share these basic assumptions. Thus, questions are raised and answered concerning how justice and these other important motives appear in the analyses of societal prob­ lems and the search for solutions. Moreover, in addition to the issue of conflicting motives-self­ interest, altruism, justice-it is commonly recognized that the definition of what is just and what is unjust is open to question. In public as well as in scientific dialogues, diverging views about justice have to be integrated or decided upon.

• Generation
• Nation
• conflict
• environment
• gender
• public opinion
• social justice

• FbI-Psychologie, University of Trier, Trier, Germany

  Leo Montada

• Department of Psychology, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Canada

  Melvin J. Lerner

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