B_03 Family Inequalities and the Evaluation of Social Justice

Sections:: Bielefeld
Disciplines:: Sociology
Belongs to:: Social divisions: effects of status and distribution systems on cohesion (B: Socioeconomic Orders of Status and Distribution)

Abstract

The principle of merit serves to justify existing social inequalities. By contrast, principles of equality and need aim to reduce inequalities. This work package investigates the influence of the family environment on these principles of justice.

We examine the legitimacy of status and distributional orders as “just orders,” guided by the core questions of Research Area B. Our previous research on the intergenerational transmission of attitudes provides the foundation for this project.

Principles of justice shape whether people perceive inequalities as just or unjust. Principles such as merit or entitlement can legitimize inequalities and thereby foster cohesion among unequal groups. In contrast, principles of equality and need challenge inequalities and aim at redistribution in favor of socially disadvantaged groups.

Attitudes toward these principles of justice are influenced by individuals’ social positions. Societal dynamics of inequality and the design of the welfare state also play a role. This work package examines the family as an additional factor shaping these attitudes.

We conceptualize the family both as a site of value formation and as a context in which inequalities between family members exist. These inequalities may be reflected in differing conceptions of justice among family members. At the same time, families are social contexts in which cohesion under conditions of inequality is experienced and practiced, due to mutual dependencies between family members.

Transfer Activities

A central focus of knowledge transfer activities is the preparation of reports for youth and adult education.

This work package (WP) addresses evaluations of fundamental status and distributional orders—such as the principles of equality, need, merit, and entitlement—and thereby contributes to the first guiding question of Research Area B concerning cohesion among unequal groups, for which the legitimacy and acceptance of “just orders” are central. Social justice research has, for several decades, provided important empirical insights into the perceived legitimacy of social inequalities and of societal redistribution. Evaluations of different status and distributional principles—such as equality, need, merit, or entitlement—vary substantially across social groups and societies, thereby moderating the significance of social inequalities for social cohesion. A given level of inequality may threaten cohesion in contexts in which principles of equality and need are regarded as just, while posing less of a challenge in contexts in which principles of merit and entitlement are considered just.

Thus, it is not only the discrepancy between actual and perceived just distributions that matters for cohesion, but also a high degree of agreement on fundamental orientations within a society. Shared values and basic orientations are frequently described as key factors of social cohesion.

While existing research has primarily focused on the role of individual social positions, societal inequality dynamics, or welfare state regimes in shaping support for principles of social justice, this WP turns attention to the family as an agent of socialization, as well as to family inequalities and family cohesion—dimensions that have received limited attention in international research to date. Family members not only mutually influence and reinforce one another’s attitudes, values, and opinions; rather, family inequalities—for example within partnerships or between (adult) siblings—shape, according to the WP’s central hypothesis, individual differences in support for principles of social justice.

The research questions of the WP overlap thematically with those of other work packages, particularly within Research Focus 1 of Research Area B. By focusing on family inequalities, the WP builds on the earlier project BIE_F_03 from the first funding phase and further develops it in line with the guiding questions of Research Area B regarding the legitimacy of status and distributional orders as “just orders.” Moreover, in keeping with the overarching theme of democratic cohesion, the WP assumes a connecting role between the work packages of empirical inequality research (B_01, B_02), on the one hand, and normative approaches from a constitutional law perspective (B_04), on the other.