Abstract

This thesis focuses on structural injustice and political solidarity in resistance to structural injustice. The first article grapples with the tension between complicity in structural injustice and political solidarity in resistance to injustice. I explore how complicity in structural injustice can inhibit the conditions needed for a meaningful sense of political solidarity. However, given that it is not realistic to eliminate all complicity in structural injustice, I argue that solidarity requires that we reckon with complicity and offer an account of what this involves. The second article focuses on Iris Marion Young’s practical concern that interpreting our responsibility for structural injustice as backward-looking blameworthiness tends to produce defensiveness, thus pushing individuals away from joining in collective movements towards justice. I argue that tendencies towards defensiveness are, in part, caused by the fact that we have conflated backward-looking responsibility with punishment. Drawing on insights from restorative and transformative justice movements, I argue that we can disentangle backward-looking responsibility from punishment in order to begin addressing the cultural problem of defensiveness in discussions about responsibility for injustice. The third article explores solidarity-building in the context of the contemporary “digital age”. I clarify the connection between María Lugones’ concept of “world”-travelling and solidarity-building, develop an account of “whole-hearted solidarity”, and discuss two worries about the use of social media for “world”-travelling and solidarity-building. I close by discussing some hopeful possibilities about how social media can, despite these worries, be used as a helpful tool for finding opportunities for “world”-traveling and building solidarity.