What Can Social Egalitarianism Do for You? Social Egalitarianism and Social Critique

Social egalitarianism has become a bit of a buzz-theory among political theorists concerned with issues of social injustice and inequality. According to its proponents social equality extends the focus of the existing liberal debate on social and distributive justice beyond political institutions to the social relationships each and every citizen lives in. This means that social egalitarians deal with complex social issues such as practices of (dis)esteem and (mis)recognition, gender norms and hierarchies of power and status. However, social egalitarianism is sometimes charged with being “too normative”, “too abstract” or “too indeterminate” to really help tackle existing social inequalities and injustices. Put differently, social egalitarianism sometimes seems to lack a distinct critical social edge. However, as I will try to argue, social egalitarianism properly conceived is a major tool of social critique, and – in addition- it even offers an attractive normative vision of what societies should be like In my paper, I will focus on two issues to highlight the critical credentials of social egalitarianism and how its normative vision also proves useful in the actual struggle against existing injustices. First, I will look at epistemic injustice and epistemic privilege. Second, I will look at microaggressions and everyday racism. As my analysis of both cases will show, social egalitarianism can do both: social critique and guide emancipatory struggles.