Preliminary communication
SOCIAL JUSTICE AND “THE BLOCKADE”
Zoran Kurelić
orcid.org/0009-0001-0531-5541
; Faculty of Political Science, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
In this article, the author shows why the student movement for free education
(“the blockade”) is wrong in asserting that the cause of injustice in higher
education is the implementation of an allegedly neo-liberal project – the
Bologna Process. Furthermore, he claims that, in a serious discussion which
would include all interested parties, the students’ demand of “everything free
on all levels in the highest possible numbers” could not be defended as a just
demand. A socially just higher education would not be one which would be
available free of charge to all interested parties, but one which would ensure
access to higher education to the poor. The expos of the article is divided
into three sections. First, Kurelić presents some ideological-theoretical for-
mulations used in advocating free education. Then he attempts to show the
short-sightedness of such formulations by referring to the example of criticism
aimed at the higher education reform in Croatia, the so-called Bologna.
In the third and final section, he explains why he is of the opinion that egalitarian
liberals such as Scanlon and Barry, developing their line of argument
from the position of social justice, would ask for much more than cancellation
of school fees on all levels, and why the demand formulated according to
Barry’s categories is more solid.
Keywords
Bologna Process; student blockade; social justice; Brian Barry
Hrčak ID:
71129
URI
Publication date:
21.6.2011.
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