Citation

Kobayashi A, Ray B. Can. Geogr. 2000; 44(4): 401-417.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2000, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/j.1541-0064.2000.tb00721.x

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The geographies of civil risk, human rights and social justice in relation to a pluralist notion of justice lie at the heart of this paper. We define civil risk as a failure of human rights, brought about by institutional processes constructed over time, space and place, which create disadvantages for marginalized social groups. Geography is integral both to civil risk and social justice because marginalization is a spatial process articulated through the deployment of institutional power across space to create socially constructed differences between dominant and subordinate groups. In this respect, we emphasize that rights are constructed in relation to dominant interests, and not according to the conditions of risk that give rise to marginalized individuals and groups. Drawing on research in social theory that emphasizes the importance of positionality and social difference, the paper argues that a principle of risk rather than rights must motivate social justice. We examine distinct forms of marginalization in Canada - gender, sexual orientation, ‘race’ and aboriginal status - to illustrate the importance of the historico-geographical context of marginalization and the paradoxical nature of the relationship between risk and rights. In considering these forms of marginality and their landscapes, we argue the need for a pluralist notion of justice that will explicitly take positionality into account in achieving equality rights, reducing civil risk and mediating shared spaces.