Public procurement is an important market and a key area of public spending. As such, it has increasingly come into focus as a tool for promoting social policy objectives. In this vein, ‘social value’ is an increasingly important concept in public purchasing.

In a new article titled “From social justice to social value: The changing fortunes of using public purchasing for social ends”, Wright, Conley, Mamode and Sarter propose a framework for conceptualising the relationship of social justice and different notions of value that exist within public procurement. Starting with contract compliance, the article traces the origins of the concept of 'social value'. Exploring the development of social aspects, especially relating to equality, it outlines conflicts between different concepts of ‘value’ that have shaped this development over the past four decades.