ABSTRACT
The recent acceleration of economic globalization, and the deepening of the ecological crises that are now impacting people's daily lives, suggests that a radical rethinking of how to address social justice issues is needed. Social justice thinking has largely been framed in terms of middle-class assumptions about individualism, progress, a world of unlimited exploitable natural resources, and education as a source of individual empowerment. The use of a sociological interpretative framework seemed ideally suited to bringing into focus economic, political, and educational inequities. The use of the cultural commons as the conceptual framework for analyzing the various forms of discrimination, as well as for guiding educational reforms, has several advantages that a sociological framework lacks. The future prospects of the poor and marginalized are inextricably tied to the future prospects of the cultural and environmental commons.
