When Science Meets Social Justice

About this episode:

A conversation with sociologist Bradley Campbell on how we can look at social justice more analytically.

"Social justice efforts informed by critical theory deliberately ignore the insights that might come from other sociological perspectives. It’s possible to view social life as domination and oppression, but it’s also possible to view it as a network of relationships, or as an arena of rational transactions similar to a marketplace, or as a stage where actors play their parts, or as a system where the different parts contribute to the functioning of the whole.

If you’re going to change the social world, it’s important to have some understanding of how social life works, but there’s no justification for relying exclusively on critical theory."

Shermer and Campbell discuss: the telos of sociology: truth or activism? • can we make people better? • evaluating ideologies • victimhood culture vs. honor culture • conflicting rights and social tradeoffs • CRT, DEI, cancel culture, identity politics • equality vs. equity • overt racism vs. systemic racism

Bradley Campbell is a professor of sociology at California State University, Los Angeles. His work examines moral conflict, including violent conflicts such as genocide as well as nonviolent conflicts on college campuses over politics and free speech.