Solidarity and Social Justice in Contemporary Societies – Lectures
Index
Lecture 1 – Introduction & Key Terms ............................................................................................. 2
Lecture 2 – Solidarity & Policy responses ........................................................................................ 4
Lecture 3 – Solidarity and public responses .................................................................................... 8
Lecture 4 – Social Justice ............................................................................................................ 14
Course: Solidarity and Social Justice in Contemporary Societies (201900020)
Content: Lectures 1st exam (week 1-4)
Language: English
Year: 2026
Institution: Utrecht University
, Lecture 1 – Introduction & Key Terms
Ted Talk: why gender equality is good for everyone.
• Privilege is invisible to those who have it.
• Intersectionality makes that we all have different experiences.
Discussing contested concepts: people don’t necessarily agree on what a concept means.
Social inequality: the uneven allocation of burdens and valued resources across members of a
society based on their group membership in combination with the undervaluation of these members
of society based on their group membership.
• Being disadvantaged
o Distributive justice
o Economic or rights-based
• To answer the question “is social inequality rising?” you have to take into account that there are
different ways of social inequality and different aspects to them.
Perspectives on if we should address this and how, differ:
o Necessary for ecologically sustainable human development;
o Inequality isn’t the problem – living standards and wellbeing are;
o But maybe we’re willing to accept inequality?
Social dilemma: situation in which individuals are better off if they don’t act cooperatively, but
everybody is better off if everyone cooperates compared to the situation in which no one cooperates.
• Cf. Collective action problem: Situations in which individuals must cooperate to achieve a
better collective outcome, but where pursuing their own self -interest does not lead to the best
result for the group.
• In what way(s) can reducing social inequalities be seen as a social dilemma?
o Looking at it from the perspective of the better-offs in society; they have to give up
something (some of the privileges) that they already had.
o Social policy as a crucial part of the way in which welfare states attempt to identify and
address social inequalities; you need to first create resources with tax money, and by
paying tax money the government can spend some of these resources on reducing
inequalities.
Types of social dilemmas
• Situations in which a course of action that offers positive outcomes for the self leads to
negative outcomes for the collective.
o Take-some / resource dilemma; tragedy of the commons.
• Situations in which an action that results in negative consequences for the self would, if
performed by enough people, lead to positive consequences for the collective.
o Give-some / public good dilemma.
Reducing social inequality
• Neoliberal ideology → Focus on monetary metrics, Smaller government (because they see
government support as government interference against liberty), Belief in social mobility (you
can do anything if you put in the work), Deservingness of success (and failure);
• Retrenchment (reduction of welfare states) & Fragmentation of welfare state policies →
Emphasis on individual responsibility as opposed to welfare state support (general trend in a
lot of western societies).
Index
Lecture 1 – Introduction & Key Terms ............................................................................................. 2
Lecture 2 – Solidarity & Policy responses ........................................................................................ 4
Lecture 3 – Solidarity and public responses .................................................................................... 8
Lecture 4 – Social Justice ............................................................................................................ 14
Course: Solidarity and Social Justice in Contemporary Societies (201900020)
Content: Lectures 1st exam (week 1-4)
Language: English
Year: 2026
Institution: Utrecht University
, Lecture 1 – Introduction & Key Terms
Ted Talk: why gender equality is good for everyone.
• Privilege is invisible to those who have it.
• Intersectionality makes that we all have different experiences.
Discussing contested concepts: people don’t necessarily agree on what a concept means.
Social inequality: the uneven allocation of burdens and valued resources across members of a
society based on their group membership in combination with the undervaluation of these members
of society based on their group membership.
• Being disadvantaged
o Distributive justice
o Economic or rights-based
• To answer the question “is social inequality rising?” you have to take into account that there are
different ways of social inequality and different aspects to them.
Perspectives on if we should address this and how, differ:
o Necessary for ecologically sustainable human development;
o Inequality isn’t the problem – living standards and wellbeing are;
o But maybe we’re willing to accept inequality?
Social dilemma: situation in which individuals are better off if they don’t act cooperatively, but
everybody is better off if everyone cooperates compared to the situation in which no one cooperates.
• Cf. Collective action problem: Situations in which individuals must cooperate to achieve a
better collective outcome, but where pursuing their own self -interest does not lead to the best
result for the group.
• In what way(s) can reducing social inequalities be seen as a social dilemma?
o Looking at it from the perspective of the better-offs in society; they have to give up
something (some of the privileges) that they already had.
o Social policy as a crucial part of the way in which welfare states attempt to identify and
address social inequalities; you need to first create resources with tax money, and by
paying tax money the government can spend some of these resources on reducing
inequalities.
Types of social dilemmas
• Situations in which a course of action that offers positive outcomes for the self leads to
negative outcomes for the collective.
o Take-some / resource dilemma; tragedy of the commons.
• Situations in which an action that results in negative consequences for the self would, if
performed by enough people, lead to positive consequences for the collective.
o Give-some / public good dilemma.
Reducing social inequality
• Neoliberal ideology → Focus on monetary metrics, Smaller government (because they see
government support as government interference against liberty), Belief in social mobility (you
can do anything if you put in the work), Deservingness of success (and failure);
• Retrenchment (reduction of welfare states) & Fragmentation of welfare state policies →
Emphasis on individual responsibility as opposed to welfare state support (general trend in a
lot of western societies).
