Justice and Change in Social World

Running head: JUSTICE AND CHANGE IN SOCIAL WORLD
Justice and Change in Social World
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Author Note

JUSTICE AND CHANGE IN SOCIAL WORLD1
How the common good is challenged by the issue
-Principle of common good and its relation to other CST principles, particularly that of
human dignity
The principle of common good refers to the values of general or common welfare and refers
to factors that are beneficial for most members within a community or the collective benefit
for most people. The concepts of common good can find its history within ancient Greek
philosophers like Plato and Aristotle which refer to benefits that are attainable only by the
community and shared by the members. The later concepts developed with the literature from
moral philosophy and political theories of Aquinas, Machiavelli, Locke, Rousseau, Adam
Smith and Marx. Their philosophies focused on factors such as social welfare and welfare
economics and utilitarianism which in turn were built in the values of human dignity,
economic justice, peace, solidarity and support to the poor (Westra et al. 2016).
-Issues Surrounding Ethical Clothing
The concepts of ethical clothing and fashion are built upon the values of fair trade,
sustainability and prevention of exploitation of people, nature and the environment. However,
some of the key issues that are surrounding the ethical clothing and fashion industry are:
 Exploitative working environment and condition within the factories in order to
support cheap production of clothes.
 Child labor working besides the exploited adults and being subjected to violence as
well as abuses and often made to work overtime, living in unhygienic and cramped
surroundings with poor food quality and wages. The low product price also implies
lesser benefits for the labor

JUSTICE AND CHANGE IN SOCIAL WORLD2
 An environmental risk is posed from the use of insecticides and pesticides in order to
grow cotton that creates a significant environmental problem in the form of pollution
and contamination.
 The water required for growing cotton and for the production process is also
considered unsustainable for the environment that has resulted in a 15% reduction in
the volume of Aralcy in Central Asia.
 The chemicals that are used for the treatment of textiles have toxic effect on the
environment and n the skins of the wearers. These chemicals can contain hazardous
substances such as nickel, lead, chromium as well as Formaldehyde.
 The low cost as well as the disposable nature of the fashion products implies that
most of the waste enters the landfills or incinerators nearly contributing to one
million tons of waste every year in UK alone.
 Ethical rearing of animals for fur is another significant ethical concern for the ethical
clothing industry.
(Reimers et al. 2016; Su et al. 2017; Harris et al. 2016)
-How the issues challenges the common good in the studied context
These factors directly influences the ethical paradigms and the values of common good and
CST as it leads to exploitation of the people, environment and nature. The poor working
condition and unhygienic living conditions not only affects the health but also the dignity
while inequality in wages creates a barrier against solidarity and the common welfare for the
people (Kon 2015).
Ways to address the challenge for a more just society globally and using advocacy and
community engagement to contribute to the proposed solution