ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the creation of a test for social justice that can be applied to social policy in general. It also focuses on how this can be developed in order to provide a critical understanding of issues related to housing. The chapter outlines the contemporary discussions on the role and function of housing studies as an area of academic study. It argues that there is merit in looking at housing issues and housing policy through a normative lens and that this approach broadens housing studies as a sub-discipline. Kemeny discusses theoretical approach within the broader epistemological framework of social science: "each discipline develops its own set of conceptual tools for the analysis of its particular dimension". A number of philosophers undertake the broad project of applied philosophy, which brings together philosophical theoretical frameworks with particular issues or experiences within society.
