Abstract:
This paper attempts to develop a conceptualisation of social justice in higher education based on a close
reading of the current literature in the field. An important assumption we make is that higher education
is a valuable mechanism for social justice. We set the literature against policy documents that detail
South African aspirations with regard to the achievement of social justice goals. Our aim is to stimulate
debate on and engagement with issues of social justice in the local and global context that continues
to manifest increasing socio-economic injustices. We argue that human liberation from global social
injustice is intertwined at the individual and collective level and that it requires a collective human agency
inherent in the radical tradition of social justice, which exhibits impressive credentials for facilitating the
achievement of social justice.
