Walls and Bridges: Social Justice and Public Policy (SUNY series in Public Policy)

A fresh and easy-to-understand examination of some of America's most challenging social issues. This useful classroom resource for professors wishing to incorporate notions of justice into their courses examines a variety of America's most challenging social issues (education, poverty, homelessness, crime, and health care), interwoven with racial and ethnic themes. Anthony J. Cortese illustrates how the tension between moral relativism on the one hand, and universal ethics on the other, makes concrete policy discussion difficult. He illustrates how, through a synthesis of justice, law, and power, a social ethics approach to public policy could resolve various intergroup conflicts and social problems. Included at the end of each chapter are What You Can Do exercises and activities that encourage students to apply what they have learned to their own lives.

Author Biography: Anthony J. Cortese is Professor of Sociology at Southern Methodist University. He is the author of Ethnic Ethics: The Restructuring of Moral Theory, published by SUNY Press, and Provocateur: Images of Women and Minorities in Advertising.

Winner of the 2004 Critics' Choice Award presented by the American Educational Studies Association This useful classroom resource for professors wishing to incorporate notions of justice into their courses examines a variety of America's most challenging social issues (education, poverty, homelessness, crime, and health care), interwoven with racial and ethnic themes. Anthony J. Cortese illustrates how the tension between moral relativism on the one hand, and universal ethics on the other, makes concrete policy discussion difficult. He illustrates how, through a synthesis of justice, law, and power, a social ethics approach to public policy could resolve various intergroup conflicts and social problems. Included at the end of each chapter are "What You Can Do" exercises and activities that encourage students to apply what they have learned to their own lives. This useful classroom resource for professors wishing to incorporate notions of justice into their courses examines a variety of America's most challenging social issues (education, poverty, homelessness, crime, and health care), interwoven with racial and ethnic themes. Anthony J. Cortese illustrates how the tension between moral relativism on the one hand, and universal ethics on the other, makes concrete policy discussion difficult. He illustrates how, through a synthesis of justice, law, and power, a social ethics approach to public policy could resolve various intergroup conflicts and social problems. Included at the end of each chapter are "What You Can Do" exercises and activities that encourage students to apply what they have learned to their own lives. Book jacket "This useful classroom resource for professors wishing to incorporate notions of justice into their courses examines a variety of America's most challenging social issues (education, poverty, hopelessness, crime, and health care), interwoven with racial and ethnic themes. Anthony J. Cortese illustrates how the tension between moral relativism on the one hand, and universal ethics on the other, makes concrete policy discussion difficult. He illustrates how, through a synthesis of justice, law, and power, a social ethics approach to public policy could resolve various intergroup conflicts and social problems. Included at the end of each chapter are "What You Can Do" exercises and activities that encourage students to apply what they have learned to their own lives."--Jacket WALLS AND BRIDGES......Page 4 Contents......Page 6 Preface......Page 8 1. A Social Ethics Approach to Social Problems......Page 12 2. The Crisis and Denial of Access in Education......Page 32 3. Welfare, Poverty, and the Legitimization of Social Inequality......Page 64 4. Sidewalk Stories: The Forgotten Homeless People......Page 92 5. Medical Apartheid: The Unequal Distribution and Quality of Health Care......Page 116 6. Crime and Prison: The Social Control of Deviance......Page 142 7. Social Ethics and Implications for Public Policy......Page 168 Appendix: Implications for Social Policy......Page 180 References......Page 184 B......Page 200 E......Page 201 H......Page 202 M......Page 203 P......Page 204 S......Page 205 V......Page 206 Z......Page 207 Anthony J. Cortese. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 173-188) And Index. Mode Of Access: World Wide Web. State University of New York Press ISBN-13:,9780791459072