Speaker: Elizabeth Cohen, Syracuse University
Title: Out of Line: Line-Standing, Queues, and Distributive Justice
Topic: PT Workshop
Time: Friday, June 4th; 4:00pm PST
ZOOM LINK:
https://ucla.zoom.us/j/8217815316?pwd=dlU4enhrUTVBOVFSUFhRamJsd2dwdz09
Meeting ID: 821 781 5316
Passcode: 4289
One tap mobile
+12133388477,,8217815316#,,,,,,0#,,4289# US (Los Angeles)
+16692192599,,8217815316#,,,,,,0#,,4289# US (San Jose)
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The password-protected paper is both attached and available on the PT website at
https://polisci.ucla.edu/events/workshops/political-theory-workshop
The password is (case-sensitive) UCLAtheory
Abstract:
Time is a fundamental ingredient of social justice. Yet political theory does not often directly interrogate the temporality of distributive justice. This paper examines one aspect of distributive justice and time. It looks at the impact of members of a society thinking of themselves to be waiting in queues to access political opportunities, goods, and standing. The process of “waiting in line” has become a common metaphor to describe the experience of seeking social and political mobility. Queues are associated with powerful social justice expectations and related emotions. Once people believe they have invested time waiting in line, they tend to treat their place in line to be a form of property, they expect the principle of first come first served to apply, and they react strongly to even a suggestion that a line has been “cut” or arbitrarily reordered. Such frames have important implications for how anyone seeking social mobility will regard immigrants, or anyone they believe should be behind them in a line.
