Never mind that "social equity" appears in both the Comprehensive Plan and the Transportation System Plan - no one knows what that means - at least not yet. So far it appears to be one of those "feel good" terms that get thrown into documents for political reasons. If it means something particular, we ought to know.
At the Planning Commission on Monday, March 24, the engineering and planning staff were asked what was meant by "social equity". Not having an answer, they said they would check into it and get back to the Commission. Whatever the result, we are eagerly awaiting the definition of the term and how it relates to Lake Oswego's land use pwlans.
"Social Equity" is a tricky concept to nail down. Does it refer to equal opportunity or equal outcomes? Can public bodies and the people who work for the public interest determine what is fair, just or equitable, and what should be done for the (our) common good? Whose values - those of the staff or the occupants of the city that employes them? What policies and practices are to be engaged or trusted?
Here are a few ideas to ponder:
Friedrich Hayek
New Studies in Philosophy, Politics, Economics and the History of Ideas (1978)
To discover the meaning of what is called social justice has been one of my chief preoccupations for more than 10 years. I have failed in this endeavor - or rather, have reached the conclusion that with reference to society of free men, the phrase has no meaning whatever.
Individualism and Economic Order (1948)
There is all the difference in the world between treating people equally and attempting to make them equal. While the first is the condition of a free society, the second means as De Tocqueville describes it, " new form of servitude."
The Constitution of Liberty (1960)
Even the striving for equality by means of a directed economy can result only in an officially enforced inequality - an authoritarian determination of the status of each individual in the new hierarchal order.
"Social' or Distributive Justice" (1982)
A claim for equality of material position can be met only by a government with totalitarian powers.
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What is Social Equity? Professor Bernadette McSherry
Melbourne Social Equity Institute, University of Melbourne
Part of the problem in trying to define the concept of social equity is that it reflects ideas of “fairness” and “justness” which have a normative* component in that they are based on moral values or considerations. What one person thinks is fair may differ markedly from what another thinks is fair. Those working in different disciplines may also have different conceptions of the term. Philosophers such as John Rawls have explored how an equitable society may be brought about through notions of distributive justice and legal theorists have looked at equitable decision-making in terms of procedural fairness.
The concept of social equity also plays a role in areas such as regional planning, with Sharon Harwood, Bruce Prideaux and Doris Schmallegger (2011: 15) equating the concept with “the reduction in inter and intra regional differences in per capita income and employment” [references omitted] as well as in recent environmental research with sociologists including Daniel Faber exploring the effects of high pollution on disadvantaged communities.
*In philosophy, normative statements make claims about how things should or ought to be, how to value them, which things are good or bad, and which actions are right or wrong.
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Can We Achieve Equity for Social Equity in Public Administration?
In 2000 when the National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA)
established the Standing Panel on Social Equity, it put forth the following definition
for social equity in public administration:
The fair, just and equitable [emphasis added] management of all institutions serving the public directly or by contract; and the fair and equitable distribution of public services, and implementation of public policy; and the commitment to promote fairness, justice and equity [emphasis added] in the formation of public policy. (National Academy of Public Administration, n.d.)
This definition clearly dismisses the idea of public administration as the neutral implementation of public policy by calling for fairness, justice, and equity in the provision of public policy, However, unlike the relatively objective nature of economy, efficiency, and effectiveness, the terms fair, just, equitable, and equity are highly normative and make it more difficult to reach agreement on what they mean and how they are incorporated in practice.
The fair, just and equitable [emphasis added] management of all institutions serving the public directly or by contract; and the fair and equitable distribution of public services, and implementation of public policy; and the commitment to promote fairness, justice and equity [emphasis added] in the formation of public policy. (National Academy of Public Administration, n.d.)
This definition clearly dismisses the idea of public administration as the neutral implementation of public policy by calling for fairness, justice, and equity in the provision of public policy, However, unlike the relatively objective nature of economy, efficiency, and effectiveness, the terms fair, just, equitable, and equity are highly normative and make it more difficult to reach agreement on what they mean and how they are incorporated in practice.
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