The Challenges For Social and Environmental Justice Posed By The Global Panoptican, Penal States and Disappearing States In An Increasingly Vulnerable and Unequal World

Facing up to an Unequal World has praxis implications for sociologists. The most important challenges are understanding the interconnected social, economic and environmental problems pose an ‘existential risk’ to life as we know it. The environment of the problem and the range of inter related ways in which the challenges can be addressed requires not merely transdisciplinary and cross cultural capability when designing policy responses, but the will to grasp the nettle as to why some live at the expense of the majority in this generation and the next.

The paper  makes a plea for a different form of governance  that weighs up the social, economic and environmental indicators of wellbeing, in order to enable equitable distribution of resources and to ensure that some are not living at the expense of others and future generations of life. It moves beyond a critique to suggesting an alternative form of governance and democracy that spans communities of interest at a planetary level.

The starting point is to address the five areas of priority drawing on the  cosmopolitan agenda of Danielle Archibugi as:

i)                    Control over the use of force;

ii)                  Acceptance of cultural diversity by ensuring internal sovereignty based on rules that enable freedom and diversity to the extent that the freedom and diversity of others is not undermined.

iii)                 Strengthening self-determination of people based on participatory democracy and the ‘absence of domination’ over others

iv)                 Monitoring  based on democracy and governance;

v)                   Participatory management of the global commons as the fabric of life.

 Currently the role of the state in Western  democracies acts as protector of residual welfare rights in terms of the social contract applied to citizens within the boundaries of a state or federation. Those outside these constructed containers do not receive protection in states that are becoming increasingly like fortresses.