Injustice at Work

254 Pages·2009·3.921 MB·English

by  Francois Dubet

I W
NJUSTICE AT ORK
T Y C S S
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Injustice at Work, by François Dubet (2009)
I W
NJUSTICE AT ORK
François Dubet
With the collaboration of Valérie Caillet, Régis Cortéséro,
David Mélo, Françoise Rault
RO Routledge
U
T
LED Taylor & Francis Group
G
E
LONDON AND NEW YORK
First published2009 by Paradigm Publishers
Published 2016 by Routledge
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Dubet, François.
Injustice at work / François Dubet ; in collaboration with Valérie Caillet ... [et al.].
p.cm. — (The Yale cultural sociology series)
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-1-59451-687-0 (hardcover : alk. paper)
1.Discrimination in employment—France. 2. Equality—France.
3.Social justice—France. I. Caillet, Valérie. II. Title.
HD4903.5.F7D828 2009
331.13’30944—dc22
2009007361
Designed and Typeset by Straight Creek Bookmakers.
ISBN 13: 978-1-59451-687-0 (hbk)
ISBN 13: 978-1-59451-688-7 (pbk)
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Introduction 1
“Real-Life” Injustices 1
Equality 5
Merit 7
Autonomy 10
Principles, Values, or Ideologies? 12
The Polyarchy of Principles 14
Critical Dynamics 17
Our Focus 21
Notes 23
1 Equality 25
Of “Castes” and Contempt 26
The Just Order and Honor 31
Discrimination and Equal Opportunity 38
“As for Me, I’m OK” 46
Notes 52
2 Merit 53
Merit Is Just 54
Unrecognized Merit 60
Exploitation 68
What Does Merit Measure? 73
Note 80
3 Autonomy 81
“But I Love My Job” 82
Independence and Autonomy 87
From Vocation to Self-Realization 92
v
VI CONTENTS
The Manual Trades 97
Alienation 101
Note 106
4 Law, Power, and Recognition 107
Defending One’s Rights 108
Power 115
Recognition 123
Notes 133
5 Why Is the World So Unjust? 135
Equality Versus Egoism and Anomie 136
Merit Versus Privilege and Favoritism 140
Autonomy Versus Egalitarianism and the Cruelty
of Merit 147
“Everything’s Getting Worse” 153
Notes 158
6 The Social Distribution of Feelings of Injustice 159
The Distribution of Injustices and Social Status 160
A “Pragmatic” Approach to the Principles
of Justice 173
Perceived Injustices and “Off-the-Job” Inequalities 179
Subjective Injustice Spans the Political Spectrum 185
Notes 191
7 Injustice and Action 193
Just Inequalities 194
Destiny and Sin 196
Are the Victims Really Innocent? 200
“We’re All Part of the System” 206
The Gulf Between Justice and
Collective Action 212
Notes 220
Conclusion 221
An Unjust World 221
Classes Without Society 223
Injustice and Action 227
Connected and Confl icting Principles 230
The Limits of Justice 233
Notes 236
Reference List 237
About the Author 245
Acknowledgments
I wish to thank warmly all participants of the interviews on which this
book is based. My gratitude also goes to the students and colleagues of
the department of sociology of the Université Victor-Segalen in Bordeaux
who participated in this work and to my colleagues at the Cadis in Paris
for their encouragement prior to the writing of this book. Finally, my
grateful thoughts go to Mireille Gaultier who administered this research
and prepared the manuscript. The research was funded by the French
ministry of family, health, and solidarities.
vii
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Introduction
“Real-Life” Injustices
INJUSTICE IS PRIMARY (Moore 1978). Though we may not all be capable of
saying clearly what is just and what a just world should be, we all know
what is unjust and why. Suffi ce it to ask, “Why do you think the situation
or conduct you object to is unfair?” and everyone will be able to elabo-
rate arguments based on principle and, in so doing, “play the philoso-
pher.” It is in this sense that criticism is a natural social activity (Walzer
1990). Injustice benefi ts from a sort of existential primacy over the
justifi cations, arguments, and generalizations that evince the principles
of justice grounding or underpinning the primary emotions (Boltanski/
Thévenot 1991). Everyone acts as a theoretician in this domain—not
because we are capable of condemning injustice, but because our criti-
cism will always involve or imply arguments based on principles that
are perceived as being more or less universal, and therefore bound by
the obligations of coherence and reciprocity. That is not fair because
we’re all equals, because I’m being exploited, because they’re fl outing
the rules, because they’re ignoring merit, because they’re disrespecting
me as a human being . . . and because what goes for me goes for every-
one else, too.
To understand social injustice, it is not enough to describe and de-
cry inequalities of the sort reported in surveys and statistics, for the only
inequalities that count are those the subject fi nds unfair. An inequality
we deem fair is hardly noticed since it seems self-evident and “natural.”
Measuring real inequalities is a Sisyphean task for empirical reasons—
which ones do we pick?—and for moral reasons, as certain inequalities
may be perceived as being perfectly fair. Hence, an analysis of social
injustice presupposes that we put ourselves at the juncture between
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