Research In The View Of Fraser’s Justice

This paper is a probe into research on Fraser’s justice concept. As a contemporaryrepresentative for Frankfurt school in American, Fraser puts forward her theory ofjustice on the basis of criticizing Axel Honneth’s “recognition of justice”.Fraser affirms the rationality in the theory of recognition by Honneth. Fraserconceives that the theory observes the increasing importance of cultural factors tosocial conflicts and changes in modern society and reflects the appeal for identityjustice in diversified new movement in contemporary western society. According toFraser, social and economic inequalities existing in contemporary capitalism hasnever disappeared. Instead, the inequalities are increasing in new ways and “theproblem of distributive justice should not be ignored”. Fraser points out disruptionbetween identity politics and class politics and disruption between recognition andredistribution in contemporary western society. She puts forward the concept ofjustice, a binary view to integrate recognition and redistribution in order to integratesuch disruption. Later, based on absorbing views of many critics, Fraser develops heridea into the3-dimension theory of justice included in political dimension (right ofrepresentation) and puts forward “equal participation” as the initial norm to penetrateinto and measure three spheres of justice as economy, politics and culture. Thus,3-dimension idea of justice based on unary norm is formed.Apparently, different from Rawls and other theorist of liberalism who start withconstructing an orderly and righteous society or conducting a positive design onprinciples of justice, Fraser reveals and describes unjust relations existing in variousscenes in negative ways. From such angle, Fraser probes into the unjust suffered byvulnerable groups and oppressed groups from institutional setting and structure andappeal for justice aiming at concrete unjust relations and institutions. Fraser’s practiceis more realistic compared with liberalism scholars of justice who divide justicesimply into redistribution justice or recognition justice.Dispute between Fraser and Honneth on theory of recognition and their thoughtshave jointly created new paradigms of social critical theory which not only stresssocial critic but also emphasize methods and norms. They rebuild overall critical theory on capitalist society which not only contains reality of modernism society afterdiversification but also responds the fragmented impact of post-modernism theoryupon social science.From the range of social critic, Fraser’s3-dimension idea of justice is close toMarx’s political, economic and social critique of capitalism. She points out thestrategy of class struggle plus cultural recognition and tries to lay theoreticalfoundation for various new social movements and world-wide anti-globalizationmovements in today’s western society. Moreover, it is noticeable that Fraser, as aradical left-wing representative in western world, puts forward idea of justice andpractice. In spite of this, her resolution is still established within the framework ofcapitalist system. Her resolution, which makes an attempt to solve the unjust undercapitalist system, is incomplete and hard to change unjust situation in capitalist worldfundamentally.The focal point to criticize and object in Fraser’s theory cannot be referenced inChina’s current social reality. However, her concrete critic and analysis on variousunjust phenomena can be used for reference for us to identify the contradiction andconflict existing in China’s current society and propel the realization of social justiceand fair. Fundamentally, we must construct justice discourse system in accordancewith China’s reality requirement based on Marx’s concept of justice. This is also therequirement to build socialist with Chinese characteristics.