IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/pophec/v22y2023i4p470-494.html

Feasibility and social rights

Author

Listed:
  • Charlie Richards

Abstract

Social interactions and personal relationships are essential for a minimally good life, and rights to such things – social rights – have been increasingly acknowledged in the literature. The question as to what extent social rights are feasible – and properly qualify as rights – however, remains. Can individuals reliably provide each other with love and friendship after trying, for instance? At first glance, this claim seems counterintuitive. This paper argues, contrary to our pre-theoretic intuitions, that individuals can reliably provide each other with such relationships, rendering even “thick†social rights feasible. This conclusion challenges the assumption that such things cannot be reliably provided after trying, and suggests that a surprisingly wide class of social rights are feasible. Claiming relationships characterised by love or friendship as a matter of justice, therefore, is possible, and our theories of justice should appropriately widen to accommodate this fact where appropriate.

Suggested Citation

  • Charlie Richards, 2023. "Feasibility and social rights," Politics, Philosophy & Economics, , vol. 22(4), pages 470-494, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:pophec:v:22:y:2023:i:4:p:470-494
    DOI: 10.1177/1470594X231163280
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1470594X231163280
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/1470594X231163280?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Fabre, Cécile, 2003. "Justice and the Compulsory Taking of Live Body parts," Utilitas, Cambridge University Press, vol. 15(2), pages 127-150, July.
    2. David Marmaros & Bruce Sacerdote, 2006. "How Do Friendships Form?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 121(1), pages 79-119.
    3. Parijs, Philippe Van, 1997. "Real Freedom for All: What (if Anything) Can Justify Capitalism?," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198293576.
    4. Brownlee, Kimberley, 2016. "Ethical Dilemmas of Sociability," Utilitas, Cambridge University Press, vol. 28(1), pages 54-72, March.
    5. Andrew Mason, 2021. "What’s wrong with everyday lookism?," Politics, Philosophy & Economics, , vol. 20(3), pages 315-335, August.
    6. Pablo Gilabert & Holly Lawford-Smith, 2012. "Political Feasibility: A Conceptual Exploration," Political Studies, Political Studies Association, vol. 60(4), pages 809-825, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Nora Gordon & Sarah Reber, 2018. "The effects of school desegregation on mixed-race births," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 31(2), pages 561-596, April.
    2. Patacchini, Eleonora & Zenou, Yves, 2012. "Ethnic networks and employment outcomes," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(6), pages 938-949.
    3. Sharon Barnhardt & Erica Field & Rohini Pande, 2017. "Moving to Opportunity or Isolation? Network Effects of a Randomized Housing Lottery in Urban India," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 9(1), pages 1-32, January.
    4. repec:mod:depeco:0002 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Michael Howlett & Ishani Mukherjee, 2014. "Policy Design and Non-Design: Towards a Spectrum of Policy Formulation Types," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 2(2), pages 57-71.
    6. Murat, Marina, 2014. "Out of Sight, Not Out of Mind. Education Networks and International Trade," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 53-66.
    7. Picard, Pierre M. & Zenou, Yves, 2015. "Urban Spatial Structure, Employment and Social Ties: European versus American Cities," IZA Discussion Papers 9166, IZA Network @ LISER.
    8. Manuel Sá Valente, 2025. "Get old or die trying: Longevity justice in social insurance," Politics, Philosophy & Economics, , vol. 24(2), pages 124-145, May.
    9. Yann Bramoullé & Bernard Fortin, 2009. "The Econometrics of Social Networks," Cahiers de recherche 0913, CIRPEE.
    10. Francesco Drago & Friederike Mengel & Christian Traxler, 2020. "Compliance Behavior in Networks: Evidence from a Field Experiment," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 12(2), pages 96-133, April.
    11. Mary J. Fischer, 2008. "Does Campus Diversity Promote Friendship Diversity? A Look at Interracial Friendships in College," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 89(3), pages 631-655, September.
    12. Ermisch, John & Belot, Michèle, 2006. "Friendship ties and geographical mobility: evidence from the BHPS," ISER Working Paper Series 2006-33, Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    13. Marina Murat, 2017. "International Students and Investments Abroad," Global Economy Journal (GEJ), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 17(1), pages 1-33, March.
    14. Tim Goedemé & Wim Van Lancker, 2009. "A Guaranteed Minimum Income for EuropeÂ’’s Elderly. Options and Pitfalls in the Design of a Harmonised Basic Pension Scheme in the European Union," Working Papers 0901, Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy, University of Antwerp.
    15. Pickering, Jonathan & Jotzo, Frank & Wood, Peter J., 2015. "Splitting the difference: can limited coordination achieve a fair distribution of the global climate financing effort?," Working Papers 249508, Australian National University, Centre for Climate Economics & Policy.
    16. Artner, Annamária, 2013. "A fiatalok munkanélküliségének kérdéséhez Európa példáján keresztül [Contribution to the problem of the youth unemployment through the example of Europe]," Közgazdasági Szemle (Economic Review - monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Közgazdasági Szemle Alapítvány (Economic Review Foundation), vol. 0(12), pages 1370-1392.
    17. Markus Mobius & Tuan Phan & Adam Szeidl, 2015. "Treasure Hunt: Social Learning in the Field," NBER Working Papers 21014, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    18. Colussi, Tommaso & Romano, Livio, 2016. "Is There a Preferential Treatment for Locals in the Labor Market? Evidence from Takeovers," IZA Discussion Papers 10418, IZA Network @ LISER.
    19. William E. Even & Austin C. Smith, 2022. "Greek Life, Academics, and Earnings," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 57(3), pages 998-1032.
    20. Daniel Eisenberg & Ezra Golberstein & Janis L. Whitlock & Marilyn F. Downs, 2013. "Social Contagion Of Mental Health: Evidence From College Roommates," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 22(8), pages 965-986, August.
    21. Michèle Belot & John Ermisch, 2009. "Friendship ties and geographical mobility: evidence from Great Britain," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 172(2), pages 427-442, April.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:pophec:v:22:y:2023:i:4:p:470-494. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.