Welcome to Sustainability & Social Justice. This online module was developed by UNB Sustainability and the Office of Experiential Education to introduce the role of social justice in sustainability.

To begin, let’s define social justice and social equity:

Social justice is a broad term that can be defined in many ways. The image of a “just society” is different for everyone since it is based heavily on personal views and opinions.

In general, there are a few core principles to all social justice:

• the acknowledgement that injustices (social, cultural, structural, economic) exist and persist
• different groups have been made unequal, and inequality is maintained by the powerful
• injustice is sanctioned and passed on through social systems and institutions that communities use (law, education, media, family, culture, etc.)
• social justice can be developed through intervention and community action, whether it be education, abolition, reparation, reclamation, restitution, etc.

​​​​Social equity includes fair, just, and equitable public institutions, services, and policies. It includes fair access to the basic requirements for safe and healthy communities and individuals. Social equity tries to apply the concept of equity at a community, institution, country, or global level.

Equity should not be confused with equality (which is the idea that everyone starts on a “level playing field” and should get the same). Equity instead acknowledges that there is no level playing field. Instead, different people and groups face different biases and barriers. As a result, for different people or groups to achieve equal or similar outcomes, treatment (such as access, policies, and more) must be different to account for the various biases and barriers faced.

Now, let's review our definition of sustainability from our Sustainability 101 module and look at how it connects to social justice:

In general, sustainability is development that meets today’s needs without compromising the needs of the future. Sustainability includes three different areas:

1) Economic sustainability 

Economic sustainability aims to maintain intact global communities and ensure that everyone has access to secure sources of livelihood.

The goal of ensuring everyone has access to secure sources of livelihood is fundamentally one that promises equity to all individuals and groups in terms of accessing employment-related opportunities, such as education, training, fair wages, or access to land in order to engage in traditional subsistence activities.  

2) Social sustainability

The goal of social sustainability is to protect the basic requirements for keeping individuals and communities healthy, secure, and respected while ensuring that they are available and accessible to all. This goal includes aspects of both social equity and justice, as we can break those basic requirements into items, including:

• Access to clean water
• Access to sufficient, nutritious food 
• Access to healthcare 
• Access to community resources
• And more...

Ensuring all individuals and communities have access to these necessities and that they are available in culturally appropriate forms is a social equity and social justice issue.

3) Environmental sustainability

The goal of environmental sustainability is to conserve natural resources and protect global ecosystems by supporting health and well-being, now and in the future.

It has been observed that those who are often impacted most deeply by environmental issues, including climate change and its effects, such as drought, flooding, and severe weather, live among the most marginalized groups. The poorest people and poorest countries are often hit hardest and have the fewest resources for adaptation, mitigation, and rebuilding after natural disasters. Better conserving resources and supporting health and well-being can help address and alleviate some of these effects. This would be a powerful step toward improving social justice globally.

In this module, we will take a closer look at how social equity and social justice impact and integrate with ideas about sustainability. We'll also look at some Canadian organizations working to promote social equity and social justice. Finally, we'll also look at ways to get involved in supporting social justice issues related to sustainability.

Power and privilege are fairly complex ideas about society, which are often misunderstood or simplified, especially in the media and in social media.

In general, power is the ability to influence others and impose one’s beliefs. Power can take different forms (such as social, economic, and political power) and how it is applied changes depending on context. It is closely tied to things like social status, socioeconomic status, and law. It is unequally distributed in society – some people and groups have more power than others. Some people and groups may have lots of one type of power but little of another. Often, individuals may not be aware of the power that they hold based on the groups they are part of, or the ways that they benefit from this connection. Having power or benefiting from being a member of a group that has power is where privilege begins.

Privilege includes the unearned advantages, benefits, or rights that come from being a member of a dominant social group. It is historically based, which means that the advantages often come from that group having help more power over others over a long period of time. Most people are born into privilege based on their race, sex, country of origin, or other dimensions.

It is important to remember that programs or initiatives intended to increase equity, such as scholarships intended for people of a marginalized group, are not a form of privilege. Instead, equity-improving programs help individuals or groups without privilege gain access to opportunities they would otherwise have been excluded from.

Oppression is the very opposite of privilege. It occurs when a group lacks power, and has their freedoms, rights, access or opportunities withheld because of their membership to that group. Most people are born into oppression. There are examples of oppression throughout history and continuing into the current day. Often oppression is enforced by social systems such as the legal system and government.

Because both privilege and oppression are supported or enforced by the social systems that individuals are raised in, it can be easy to assume that the way things are is the way they are – that is, that change is unnecessary or impossible. If you have lived on the privileged side of the system, you may not recognize the inequalities that occur or you may not understand the harm. Because someone with privilege is less likely to have experienced the negative sides of a system, they often do not recognize their privilege – often this is described as privilege feeling invisible.

On the opposite side, the harm in a social system can appear very real and very obvious to a group that is experiencing oppression.

To complicate matters, people can be privileged in some ways and marginalized, or even oppressed, in others.

For example, any community living in poverty is likely to experience considerable social barriers to stable health, safety, employment, housing, and more. However, for racialized communities living in poverty, their economic status and their race intersect and may increase the experience of oppression. In this example, the non-racialized community is not likely to think of their position as “privileged” – they are experiencing oppression due to a lack of socioeconomic power. Compared to communities living above the poverty line or those with excess wealth, their access, opportunities and in some cases, freedoms and rights, are significantly limited.

However, the fact that they belong to the dominant social group based on race is a form of privilege over their counterparts in the racialized community. Because of their racial identity, the racialized community will have even less control or power over their circumstances and even fewer opportunities.

Finally, it’s important to be clear that people who experience oppression are not powerless. Resistance to oppression and challenging injustices is also power.