Introduction:Thinking Sociologically about Human Rights

This book introduces undergraduate and graduate students, scholars, policymakers, and activists to the theories and substantive issues of the sociology of human rights - a nascent but rapidly growing field in academia. Whereas philosophers, legal scholars, and political scientists have, for some time, devoted considerable attention to human rights, it is only recently that a significant number of sociologists have begun to use their disciplinary lens to examine the social underpinnings and implications of human rights. For this reason, the emerging field remains pluralist in theory, methods, and substantive orientation (Cushman 2011). From the outset, the new domain had a pronounced theoretical inclination. In the mid-1990s, Turner (1993) grounded human rights in a sociological theory of the body, while Waters (1996) advanced a social constructionist theory of human rights. Later, Sjoberg et al. (2001) set the tone for further research by using sociological tools to illuminate both the language and the practices of human rights in the contemporary world.

In another early intervention, Pearce (2001) emphasized the role of African perspectives in shaping human rights, and urged sociologists not to hypostatize the opposition between "Western" and "non-Western" conceptions of human rights. Finally, Hajjar (2005) urged sociologists to consider not only the debates and conflicts surrounding the drafting, implementation, and enforcement of international law by nation-states, but also the role of popular mobilizations in generating rights claims. Soon after, the new domain found expression in the Thematic Group on Human Rights and Global Justice in the International Sociological Association in 2006 and the Section on Human Rights in the American Sociological Association in 2008. With a view to complementing the contributions of their colleagues from other disciplines, sociologists aim to elucidate the economic, political, social, and cultural forces that impact the construction, interpretation, implementation, and enforcement of human rights norms, policies, and laws. Far from treating human rights as immutable properties of persons, sociologists conceptualize human rights as highly contested claims that vary across historical time and geographic space.

At the outset, the following question emerges: How have human rights accumulated over time? In essence, sociologists seek a middle ground between the Enlightenment assertion of the inevitability of progress and postmodern skepticism about the possibility of advancement. On the one hand, it is clear that rights have accumulated both on a global scale and within nation-states since the publication of the US Declaration of Independence (1776) and the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (1789) - two signal documents cited by scholars and policymakers (Lauren 2003). On the other hand, it is equally evident not only that the accumulation of rights has been anything but a linear process guided by Nature or by some other trans-historical force, but also that significant contributions to the corpus of human rights have come from non-Western cultures (both from the ancient world - before the codification of the "West" as a social construct - and from the modern world) (Lauren 2003).

Not only does the modern concept of human rights have antecedents in ancient religious traditions emphasizing dignity - long before the advent of Europe as a self-conscious entity - it has also been influenced by contributions from peoples formerly conquered and dominated by Europe (Lauren 2003; Ishay 2008). As a consequence, social scientists' attentiveness to the historicity of human rights is closely connected to their critique of Eurocentrism - a vision that installs Europe as the model for the rest of the world, thereby underestimating the role of non-European peoples (for example, in the quest for national self-determination in former colonies) in shaping human rights doctrine (Blaut 1993; Nandy 1995; Amin 2010). Indeed, as a renowned scholar has noted: "Third World diplomats made pivotal contributions to some of the most significant events in the UN human rights project. Their arguments shifted debates that determined the universality of rights. Their votes shaped the two most authoritative instruments in human rights law, the International Covenants" (Burke 2010: 1-2).

In sum, the human rights canon - though subject to critique from post-colonial scholars - does reflect the influence of Third World movements, governments, and academics in the post-Second World War period. Far from being a mere historical detail, this insight has a significant bearing on the quest for a genuinely global, non-Eurocentric, and defensible form of universalism - the consideration of which constitutes one of the major functions of this book. For the sake of precision, it is worth noting that the term "Third World," which was popularized in the 1950s as a way of distinguishing recently decolonized nations from the "First World" (i.e., the US, Western Europe, Japan, and other wealthy nations) and the "Second World" (i.e., the Soviet Union and its satellites in Eastern Europe) - has been replaced in much of the literature by the term "Global South." When analyzing conceptions of human rights during the post-1945 period, this book employs the term "Third World"; when examining notions of human rights in the contemporary period, this book uses the term "Global South."

By training and inclination, sociologists tend to emphasize the social character of human rights. While it may well be the case that rights are grounded in human physiology and/or the intrinsic human capacity for sociability - a philosophical question that recurs in the sociological literature and harbors potential ramifications for the possibility of universalism - it is clear that human rights are achieved not only through the efforts of enlightened politicians and jurists, but also through the organized struggles of ordinary people. In other words, aggrieved parties, social movement organizations (SMOs), and their non-governmental organization (NGO) allies participate in the epistemic community built around human rights. In this light, it is worth mentioning that the US has provided innumerable examples of large-scale mobilizations in the name of human rights. Attentive to the struggles of people of color, workers, women, the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) community, immigrants, and persons living with disabilities, sociologists are particularly interested in how human rights - once achieved on the level of the nation-state - empower aggrieved parties vis-à-vis other groups and the state.

Throughout the book, reference is made to the role of movements in advancing rights claims. At the same time, the book emphasizes that movements do not always get what they want; and the actual outcomes of struggles tend to be ambiguous and precarious in terms of lasting policies at the state level. Thus, it is difficult not only to assert that a specific movement "produced" a given piece of legislation (since there are levels of mediation involved), but also to predict whether a given policy will endure (since all policies can be modified or repealed with changes in alliances, political climate, and even economic circumstances). Accordingly, sociologists of human rights must remain circumspect in evaluating the consequences and outcomes - in terms of enduring state policies and altered power relations - of rights-oriented struggles. In this light, the literature on social movement consequences and outcomes proves particularly useful (Giugni 1998; Amenta et al. 2010).

Whether operating within institutes on human rights, programs in peace and justice studies, in their home departments, or independently, social scientists have increasingly recognized the importance of human rights not only for the legal system, but also for public policymaking, social movements, the transmission of norms across societies, the preservation of cultural life, and the protection of the natural environment. In delineating a sociological perspective on human rights (defined as a set of protections and entitlements that regulate relations among such social actors as transnational corporations, national and local governments, communities, families, and individuals), this book complements the contributions of political scientists, anthropologists, and geographers, all of whom have placed their disciplinary imprints on the analysis of human rights.

Fundamental Questions

En route to demonstrating the utility of the sociological perspective on human rights, this book explores two fundamental questions. First, what do sociologists have to offer to scholarship and practice in the domain of human rights? The short answer is that sociologists bring a fresh perspective to the analysis of the origins, evolution, and the possible future of human rights norms, laws, treaties, institutions, and practices. More precisely, sociologists, especially those with interests in political...