Sustainable Social Justice Initiative

The Sustainable Social Justice Initiative focuses the combined efforts of our students, academic colleagues and community partners in the pursuit of social justice. Through the Initiative we identify the common aims and priorities that we all share, and facilitate collaborative projects that harness the skills and expertise of all involved. These opportunities benefit students by engaging in the real world application of skills and knowledge, supports our academic colleagues to generate meaningful impact from research and supports our community partners to achieve their aims for a fairer, safer and more inclusive society.

Developed by academics within the University of Plymouth criminology team, the Initiative supports all of our social science students including those studying sociology and anthropology. We aim to expand their disciplinary knowledge and understanding of social justice and apply it to contribute effectively within collaborative multi-agency partnership settings focused on achieving change.

Students are supported to become socially conscious and valuable citizens, with the relevant skills and experiences needed to influence and impact changes in our social systems and structures for the benefit of the most excluded and marginalised. Our community partners benefit from the involvement of both students and expert academic staff who provide additional skills capacity to achieve our shared goals for a better society.

Academic colleagues within criminology, sociology, anthropology and beyond are engaged in cutting edge research into the contemporary issues that are central to the development of a sustainable, socially just world for all of our communities. Research that explores violence, inequalities, social harms, consumer culture, the political economy, drug use and rehabilitation, community justice, desistance, alcohol and the night-time economy and victimisation.

Our local, national and global research is conducted across disciplines, institutions and organisations. It seeks to include our students and partners in the development of ideas for new research into under-researched or misunderstood areas of social life. As academics we have a responsibility to ensure our research is robust, ethical and has impact. SSJI collaborative projects bring together our students, social justice organisations and communities in the co-production of knowledge aimed at developing sustainable solutions to social issues.

Embedded within our teaching and learning is a process that guides students in their reflections about what matters in our world. The SSJI provides keys opportunities for students to engage with these issues in a way that provides a real-world contextualisation of their academic knowledge. In these employment and partnership settings, our students enhance key skills to become socially-minded citizens, able to facilitate their own aspirations for future study or employment.