The chapter examines the concept of injustice with special reference to its occurrence online. It also focuses on poverty as economic deprivation and fear together with injustice as essential components of vicious circle which may seriously impact transformative education, noting that transformative education is basically focussed at imbibing values and skills that will develop the individual’s worldviews and encourage them to act individually or collectively so that they can improve social conditions and eventually eradicate the ills of society.
TopThe Concept Of Justice And Injustice
Most definitions described injustice as “violation of another's rights or of what is right” or “lack of justice” (e.g. American Heritage Dictionary). This can be interpreted to mean that a clear understanding of injustice will be unachievable without a clear understanding of what justice means. Maiese (2003a) described justice as action in accordance with the requirements of some law which whether as grounded in human consensus or societal norms, are supposed to ensure that all members of society receive fair treatment. She affirmed that issues of justice arise in several different spheres and play a significant role in causing, perpetuating, and addressing conflict, and argued that just institutions tend to instill a sense of stability, well-being, and satisfaction among society members, while perceived injustices can lead to dissatisfaction, rebellion, or revolution.
Meanwhile, Freudenthaler and Mikula (1998) contended that most theories of social justice consider the concept of entitlement as the central aspect of justice given that justice often refer to a state where people get what they deserve or what they are entitled to. This means that people would perceive a situation, event, or treatment as just, if they get what they are due by virtue of who they are or what they have done (Lerner, 1991). Further elements of the experience of injustice which have been discussed frequently are unfulfilled wants, attributions of responsibility to agents other than the victim, and perceived lack of justification.
The rule of justice is plain, namely, that a good man ought not to swerve from the truth, nor to inflict any unjust loss on anyone, nor to act in any way deceitfully or fraudulently (Brace, 2005).
According to Ascention Health (2007), it is important to distinguish between four different types of justice: when considering the concept of justice