Introduction: The Challenge of Social Justice in Contemporary Society

In the face of increasing global challenges that cut across many facets of life, the economic, political, social, and cultural outcomes for the majority of the world’s population continue to deteriorate. The combination of natural resource extraction fueled by the demands of late-stage capitalism and its devastating impact on the environment have contributed to global warming and climate change. This has further contributed to the marginalisation of already vulnerable populations in both developed and developing countries. As a result of these challenges, there is increased political instability around the world, high frequency of natural disasters with increased loss of life, costly damage to infrastructure, and protracted conflicts, among other things, thereby putting already marginalised groups under severe stress. These unfolding forms of economic, political, social, and cultural marginalisation are taking place in a communication environment characterised by rapid technological changes that have opened up the digital communicative space for these issues to be brought into public limelight. While contentious issues can now be easily communicated through digital communicative spaces such as social media, these spaces have also not been spared the vagaries of neoliberalism. Given the devastating effects of late-stage capitalism, on the one hand, and the rise of social media and expansive discursive affordances, on the other hand, it is imperative to explore what these possibilities are and how communication can play a role in advancing social justice issues in an increasingly challenging and difficult world for marginalised and minoritised groups hence the focus of this book.