ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that while transformative justice as a rough normative orientation can be commended for its greater responsiveness to the needs of communities than liberal-legalist forms of transitional justice, its scope is increasingly attracting criticism for being too conceptually opaque. It deals with the assumption that it is not primarily ‘the retributive roots and narrow agenda of its practitioners’ that prevents the emergence of a practice that addresses social injustice, though undoubtedly these have unduly limited the imaginary of justice. The homogenising and emphatically pejorative use of the concept of elites is striking as it is distinctly at odds with how other large-scale projects for economic or social transformation see them and interact with them. Elites are a key determinant of the success of social movements – some elites will have incentive to orchestrate or respond to reform movements or victim networks in society, while others will have incentives to thwart them.
