Social connection model of responsibility” put forward by Iris Marion Young (2006)

I have been much influenced by the philosophical conception of “social connection model of responsibility” put forward by Iris Marion Young (2006) in her book “Responsibility for Justice.” In my understanding, the social connection model postulates that all those who contribute in structural injsutices and  processes, all the stake holders involved must be responsible for the injustice incurred. From Iris Young’s perspective by the term “structural injustice” I understand these are injustices created by the institutions in the society in pursuit of fulfilling their goals and objectives.

            I believe that the social connection model is well implicated into one  my research topics that I am interested in. In this conncetion, I have been looking into the history of solid waste management practices and systems in the city of Kathmandu. Several studies have shown that Kathmandu since 1980s had  agencies such as German Technical Organization, Japan International Cooperation Agency, Kathmandu Metropolitan city and the Government of Nepal, who attempted to tackle the solid waste management issue of Kathmandu city. Despite these attempts, the issue of solid waste management even today remains as a major environmental problem. At imes, the city’s waste is  dumped along the river side or left over the street corridors. It is primarily due to lack of space in landfill site or sometimes communities around the  landfill site obstruct KMC to dump waste at the vicinity of their neighborhood and plus all even public themselves neglect and scatter  waste  along their residential streets. The  communities living near by the landfill site have perception that injustice has been created to them by the  municipality and the government of Nepal by dumping waste  in their neigbhorhoods and not fulfilling their demands of proper health and santitaion.Often times, they claim that they have been suffering from various common diseases like fever, headache and cholera. In this case,I am of the opinion that all the stakeholders involved including public themselves should take a collective responsibility. This will help even the public to be  more responsible and accountable to their actions.

                Similarly, in my understanding, social connection model implies across the borders, too. Implication of this model will help to deal environmental issues such as global warming, climate change, biodiversity and public health issues. All the institutions involved must take collective responsibility for their actions These issues imply to political responsibility of the nations since  the issues are global in its nature and every nation involved need to be aware of their actions and outcomes . Therefore ,combined responsibility by the  nations is required in order to combat such global issues.

Though this concept of social connection model of responsibility is found contrasted to the notion of  liability model which is  applied in legal and moral discourse.  While some people might think the best way for theorizing responsibility for structural injustice is to adopt the liability model, there are problems with this approach. There are good practical as well as theoretical reasons for saying that responsibility in relation to structural injustice is a special kind of responsibility, rather than a separate responsibility understood as guilt, blame, fault, or liability. I opine that the objective of the social model of responsibility is not merely to look back and assign blame. Rather, it is to look forward and explore how the structure and the processes can be modified for better to preventing  the injustice from recurring.