Exploitation and Unjust Structures: Towards an Account of Systemic Exploitation

Applied philosophers have often defined ‘exploitation’ as a narrow, transaction-specific concept, ignoring its broader social or structural context. On this view, structural injustices are treated as irrelevant to explaining why exploitation is morally wrongful. This paper argues that this approach overlooks how background injustices frequently enable and shape exploitative transactions, making it easier for one party to take unfair advantage of another. While structural injustice is not itself the wrong-making feature of exploitation, it can causally influence how often exploitative transactions occur. In recognizing this causal role, I further contend that the remediation of background injustices is one important factor in determining who is responsible for addressing instances of exploitation.