Michele Moody-Adams, Making Space for Justice Social Movements, Collective Imagination, and Political Hope, Columbia University Press 2022.

Thank you NetGalley for providing me with this uncorrected proof for review.

This book is so enlightening, beginning with its title, through its chapter headings to the clear way in which Michele Moody-Adams explains the beginnings of her work in the detailed acknowledgements. Here she refers to her long-term interest in moral progress – ‘towards producing a more just social world’. This is a wonderful introduction to a subject with so many complexities!

Moody-Adams has written and presented papers from 1999, providing a well-considered background to a book that argues that of philosophical theory should not supplant progressive social movements as the catalyst to developing understanding and the development of moral progress. I feel as though Moody-Adams is bringing the way in which social reform takes place back to a solid beginning. So often the work of activists has been neglected in favour of theory in so many areas of social reform. The value of people, their actions and beliefs , together with recognition of the immeasurable value of hope burgeons under Moody-Adams’ hand. This book is an invaluable asset in achieving an understanding of achieving social justice.

Social Movements, Collective Imagination, and Political hope is a book that justifies returning to time and again. This is what I have done, and believe that this way of digesting the material has assisted in my understanding as a non-philosopher. Martin Luther King’s belief that theory alone could not resolve racial injustice is one example Moody-Adams draws upon. More recently, the response to the video of George Floyd’s murder demonstrates the value of protests of the active rather than theoretical kind. Another example used is the women’s movement response to sexual harassment.

Moody-Adams questions John Rawls’ concept of social justice and its impact on what actually happens. She is keen to consider and discount the argument that social movements can be identified by irrationality, impulsiveness and susceptibility. Of course, some are – so how do those which are not identify themselves as valuable and different? A definition is provided, and this, together with the evidence that irrationality informs some of the most recent events in American movements, is worthy of debate. Moody-Adams provides the tools to enjoin in such debate.

The sections cover Social Movements and the power of Collective Imagination, and The importance of Political Hope. The latter would strike a particular chord in those who are active in party, as well as movement, politics. The chapters in this section are The Empire of Affect and the Challenge of Collective hope and Hope and History. Even a cursory glance through the bibliography provides an insight into the breadth of this work. The works cover books familiar from feminist texts, texts about racism, and general manifestations of injustice; those concerned with party political behaviour and democracy; fictional texts such as The Handmaid’s Tale; Judith Butler’s Excitable Speech: A Politics of the Performance; Erich Fromm’s The Revolution of Hope; a reference to Thomas Jefferson – A Film by Ken Burns; reference to the act of pulling down statues; and works about philosophy as well as philosophical treatises. At the end of the book are detailed notes on each citation in the chapters.

I particularly liked the hope engendered by the arguments for activism and the defence through well-reasoned argument for social movements in Moody- Adams’ book. This seems to me to be an important breakthrough after a period where academic theory seemed to take an inordinate precedence over the actions by ‘ordinary’ citizens that can be taken to effect change. Theory does have an important place; it serves as a valuable foundation to understanding. However, the warmth I feel for the activism Moody-Adams describes so thoughtfully is likely to be replicated in any reader. Moody-Adams has shown so skilfully the very special place social movements, imaginative responses and hope have in moral progress.
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Making Space for Justice discusses how various progressive movements have presented questions about the meaning of justice and how demands for justice can be met. This is a fairly academic book that needs a few read throughs but I did enjoy the discussion about hope vs hopelessness.