Abstract
The argument most frequently used to justify the call for sustainability in business and life or society more generally is based on notions of distributive justice. This chapter sees a strong link between sustainability and justice, but in a different way, concerned more with the development and exercise of the virtue of justice by individuals. Sustainability is thus more personal, and is something involving personal effort. It is a work of justice.
Difficulties with the utilitarian and rights approaches to sustainability as just allocation are discussed. Sustainability is seen as a debate about purpose, about what is to be valued, and movement toward sustainability is to be achieved by a work of justice—engaging in that debate both in the local community and between communities, and developing the virtues, including justice, which will facilitate that debate.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Agosto, D. E., Gasson, S., & Atwood, M. (2008). Changing mental models of the IT professions: A theoretical framework. Journal of Information Technology Education, 7, 205–221.
Aristotle. (1953). Nicomachean ethics. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books.
Aristotle. (nd). Politics (Trans. Warrington, J.). Publication details not stated: Heron Books Series, published in assoc with JM Dent.
Brundtland, G. H. (1990). Our common future (Australian ed.). Canberra: World Commission on Environment and Development.
Carter, A. (2009). Distributive justice and environmental sustainability. Heythrop Journal, XLI, 449–460.
Confucius. (1997). The analects (Trans. Leys, S.). New York: Norton.
Cotton, A. H. (2001). Private thoughts in public spheres: Issues in reflection and reflective practices in nursing. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 36(4), 512–519.
Dobson, A. (1998). Justice and the environment: Conceptions of environmental sustainability and theories of distributive justice. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Elkington, J. (1999). Cannibals with forks: The triple bottom line of 21st century business. Oxford: Capstone.
Gardner, H. (2011). Truth, beauty, and goodness reframed: Educating for the virtues in the twenty-first century. New York: Basic Books.
GRI. (2006). Sustainability reporting guidelines G3. Amsterdam: Global Reporting Initiative.
Hamilton, E. (1961). Introduction to The Republic. In E. Hamilton & H. Cairns (Eds.), The collected dialogues of Plato (1st ed., pp. 575–576). New York: Pantheon Books.
Harris, H. (2008). Promoting ethical reflection in the teaching of business ethics. Business Ethics: A European Review, 17(4), 379–390.
Hazelwood, L. S. (2000). Sustainability as justice: Toward a Christian, ecofeminist ethic of sustainability using the example of sustainable agriculture (PhD). Union Theological Seminary, New York.
Jacobs, M. (1999). Sustainable development as a contested concept. In A. Dobson (Ed.), Fairness and futurity: Essays on environmental sustainability and social justice (pp. 21–45). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Li, C. (2008). The Confucian concept of ren and the feminist ethics of care: A comparative study. In D. A. Bell (Ed.), Confucian political ethics (pp. 175–197). Princeton: Princeton University Press.
MacIntyre, A. (1985). After virtue (2nd ed.). London: Gerald Duckworth.
MacIntyre, A. (1988). Whose justice? Which rationality? Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press.
MacIntyre, A. (2004). Questions for Confucians. In K.-l. Shun & D. B. Wong (Eds.), Confucian ethics: A comparative study of self, autonomy, and community (pp. 203–218). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Meadows, D. H., Meadows, D. L., Randers, J., & Berhens, W. W. III (1972). The limits to growth: A report to the club of Rome’s project on the predicament of mankind. London: Earth Island.
Nagel, T. (2005). The problem of global justice. Philosophy and Public Affairs, 33(2), 113–147.
Nosco, P. (2008). Confucian perspectives on civil society and government. In D. A. Bell (Ed.), Confucian political ethics (pp. 20–45). Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Nozick, R. (1993). The nature of rationality. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
O’Donovan, O. (2002). Common objects of love. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.
Rawls, J. (1971). A theory of justice (1st ed.). Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Sandel, M. J. (2009). Justice: What’s the right thing to do? London: Penguin.
Sen, A. (2004). Why we should preserve the Spotted Owl. London Review of Books, 26(3), 10–11.
Sen, A. (2011). The idea of justice. Cambridge: Belknap-Harvard
Sinnott-Armstrong, W. (2012). Consequentialism. In E. N. Zalta (Ed.), The Stanford encyclopedia of philosophy (Winter 2012 ed.). http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2012/entries/consequentialism/.
Slote, M. (2010). Justice as a virtue. In E. N. Zalta (Ed.), Stanford encyclopedia of philosophy (Fall 2010 ed., pp. 429–448). http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2010/entries/justice-virtue/.
Slote, M. (2011). The impossibility of perfection: Aristotle, feminism, and the complexities of ethics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Tencati, A., & Perrini, A. (Eds.). (2011). Business Ethics and Corporate Sustainability. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2014 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Harris, H. (2014). Sustainability Is a Work of Justice: Virtue Not Distribution. In: Sandhu, S., McKenzie, S., Harris, H. (eds) Linking Local and Global Sustainability. The International Society of Business, Economics, and Ethics Book Series, vol 4. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9008-6_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9008-6_4
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-017-9007-9
Online ISBN: 978-94-017-9008-6
eBook Packages: Business and EconomicsEconomics and Finance (R0)