Human rights, civil rights Books

Book SynopsisFor over a thousand years, Muslim scholars worked to ensure that Islamic law was always fresh and vibrant, that it responded to the needs of an evolving Muslim community and served as a moral and spiritual compass. They did this by "hacking" Islamic law in accordance with changing times and contexts, diving into the interconnected Islamic legal tradition to recalibrate what was outdated, making some laws work better and more efficiently while leaving others undisturbed. These hacking skills made Islamic law both flexible and relevant so that it could meet the needs of a community with changing values while remaining true to its ancient roots. Today, the hacking process has stalled in the face of unprecedented structural challenges, and Islamic law has stagnated. This book is designed to revitalize the hacking tradition by getting readers involved in the process. It walks them through the ins and outs of Islamic legal change, vividly describing how Muslim scholars have met new and evolving challenges on topics as diverse as abolition, democracy, finance, gender, human rights, sexuality, and more. And it provides step-by-step instructions for readers to hack laws for themselves, so that through their engagement and creativity, they can help Islamic law regain its intrinsic vitality and resume its role as a forward-looking source for good in the world.Trade Review"In this original and thought-provoking book, Rumee Ahmed shows how law and practice can interact to shape as well as reflect a community's collective wisdom. He tackles with authority a highly complex and contested set of concepts in Islamic law, making them highly accessible."—Ziba Mir-Hosseini, University of London"A superb introduction to changing and reforming Islamic law from within the tradition."—Ziauddin Sardar, author of Mecca: The Sacred City and Editor of Critical Muslim"This book is a must-read for believers as well as researchers—those tired of being apologists, those who have exhausted the dull repertoire of arguments that Islam is a religion of peace, and those facing an onslaught of hatred, discrimination, and misrepresentation. Rumee Ahmed honors a timeless faith, a Holy Book, a wise Prophet, and generations of enlightened acolytes who do not defend the faith as much as they uphold its very tenets."—Azza Karam, UN Population Fund and UN Inter-Agency Task Force on Religion and Development"A creative and accessible exploration of Islamic law and tradition. I learned a lot from this book." —Eboo Patel, Founder and President of the Interfaith Youth Core, and author of Acts of Faith and Interfaith Leadership"Nothing is trickier than convincing believers that religious law evolves—and that they should try to shape its evolution. Sharia Compliant takes on this task with verve and optimism...by busting myths and urging development the book makes a meaningful contribution to contemporary Islamic thought and politics." —Noah R. Feldman, Harvard Law School and author of The Fall and Rise of the Islamic State"In this superbly written work, Rumee Ahmed skillfully turns complex notions into accessible ideas. He shows the reader how to independently connect classical Islamic law with the challenges of contemporary life, using real-life examples. This book is for the scholar, activist, and lay person alike. It achieves the difficult task of democratizing the production of Islamic legal knowledge today by making it possible for all to participate in its creation. A considerable and much-needed feat!"—Marwa Sharafeldin, Musawah: Global Movement for Equality and Justice in the Muslim Family"In a book aimed mainly at fellow Muslims, Ahmed (Univ. of British Columbia, Canada) suggests that more efficient solutions can recapture the ability of Islamic law to adapt to contemporary needs. He speaks of patching (accommodating) and hacking (revising) as vehicles through which temporary and long-lasting applications can be made to a variety of domestic, commercial, and criminal proceedings....Recommended."—L. Rosen, CHOICE"Ahmed's in-depth book demonstrates how flexible Islamic law can be as it evolves to tackle the issues of 21st century life and will appeal to lay readers interested in the textual origins of popularly held beliefs about the Koran."—Publisher's Weekly"Rumee offers us hope that change is not only feasible in Islamic law but is integral to it, as that is how it has survived through centuries of Muslim communities in all times, places and context....I am grateful for his book."—Junaid Jahangir, Maydan"Rumee Ahmed has provided a spirited, accessible (and no doubt in some corners controversial) handbook for harmonizing proposed ethical and moral components in the Islamic tradition. The book should be required reading for those who want to understand how modern thinkers in Islamic law grapple with legitimacy, tradition, and a changing world."—Ian M. Hartshorn, Terrorism and Political Violence

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Book SynopsisIndigenous people in Colombia constitute a mere three percent of the national population. Colombian indigenous communities' success in gaining collective control of almost thirty percent of the national territory is nothing short of extraordinary. In Managing Multiculturalism, Jean E. Jackson examines the evolution of the Colombian indigenous movement over the course of her forty-plus years of research and fieldwork, offering unusually developed and nuanced insight into how indigenous communities and activists changed over time, as well as how she the ethnographer and scholar evolved in turn. The story of how indigenous organizing began, found its voice, established alliances, and won battles against the government and the Catholic Church has important implications for the indigenous cause internationally and for understanding all manner of rights organizing. Integrating case studies with commentaries on the movement's development, Jackson explores the politicization and deployment of multiculturalism, indigenous identity, and neoliberalism, as well as changing conceptions of cultural value and authenticity—including issues such as patrimony, heritage, and ethnic tourism. Both ethnography and recent history of the Latin American indigenous movement, this works traces the ideas motivating indigenous movements in regional and global relief, and with unprecedented breadth and depth. Trade Review"Engaging, informed, and provocative, this book is a must-read from one of the leading lights of indigenous studies. Jean Jackson brings five decades of work with indigenous people to bear on contemporary debates. Managing Multiculturalism offers a major intervention into legal pluralism, reindigenization, and multiculturalist discourses."—Andrew Canessa, University of Essex"A deep and impressive work of historical ethnography. With tact and critical rigor, Jean Jackson interrogates her own changing attitudes over a half-century of research in Colombia. The result is an acute analysis of new performances of 'indigeneity' that renew and reinvent old traditions in contexts of neoliberal multiculturalism. Jackson offers provocative stories and resonant images that force us to grapple with the paradoxes and contradictions of entangled cultural transformation. Never content with simple answers, she sustains an engaged, self-critical realism, open to surprise and contingency."—James Clifford, author of Returns: Becoming Indigenous in the Twenty-First Century"Managing Multiculturalism is a powerful braided narrative. Jean Jackson traces, how, over time, indigenous people in Colombia have struggled to define themselves, constructing notions of cultural belonging that are increasingly tied to ever more complex political structures and legal foundations. Jackson also uses the recent history of indigenous identity formation as a frame for questioning the development of her own ideas about cultural authenticity, pointing out the limitations that ethnographers and other social analysts—both Colombian and from the global North—have faced over the years in trying to square the circle, by unsuccessfully forcing a multifarious process to conform to anthropological notions of culture. Taking readers by the hand and leading them, step by step, through the analytical quandaries she faced and the mistakes she confesses to have made, Jackson uses her personal experience to expose the fault-lines of indigenous studies."—Joanne Rappaport, Georgetown University"[Jackson] provides a nuanced, personal account of how the goals of indigenous communities and local community activists have changed over time.Managing Multiculturalism is an impressive work of historical ethnography and amply demonstrates the fruitfulness of long-term ethnographic research."––S. D. Glazier, Choice"Jackson's highly readable monograph makes an important contribution to the literature about ethnicity, identity formation, and interstate and ethnic-minority relations....[It] offers a much-needed look into the political organization of indigenous groups in the tropical forest."—Brett Troyan, Journal of Interdisciplinary History"[A] provocative meditation on the struggle for Indigenous recognition in Colombia....Jackson, one of the leading anthropologists of Latin America, brings five decades of experience to bear in telling this story. [Her] commitment to Colombia and its Indigenous movement(s) is clear."—María Elena García, Native American and Indigenous Studies Journal"While multiculturalism is often considered a rather innocuous if circular concept that 'does' what it 'is,' Jackson deftly illustrates multiple ways that it is edgily ideological and often cynically governmental, focused as much or more on containment and control as on acceptance and plurality....Managing Multiculturalism more than succeeds in illuminating the value of reflective and engaged anthropological work over the long span of a career that provides intellectual, analytical, and testimonial dimensions to cultural survival and indigenous human rights in the Americas."—Kathleen S. Fine-Dare, American Ethnologist"[Offers] valuable insight on indigenous politics in Colombia. Jackson expertly deploys the concept of indigeneity to tie together a broader reflection on the evolution of her 'object of study, methodology, and theoretical approach' and reviews in great detail over four decades of rights development and indigenous cultural politics."—Marcela Velasco, Revista de Estudios Colombianos"Jackson's historical analysis provides useful elements for tracing the entanglements of indigenous strategies and complex, often contradictory, political and legal contexts....[The] rich examples and informed, thought-provoking discussion of how the meanings and performances of indigeneity have changed over time make Managing Multiculturalism a must-read for anyone interested in indigenous studies and in broader questions about cultural difference."—Giovanna Micarelli, Wasafiri"Jean Jackson's Managing Multiculturalism... is an insightful and compelling appraisal of the organization and mobilization by indigenous people in Colombia since the 1970s as a distinctive indigenous movement. For Jackson, this process has been both cause and effect of a broader one: a notable shift among Colombians from anxiety about, to celebration of indigenous belonging."—Sebastián De La Rosa Carriazo, H-LatAmTable of ContentsIntroduction: 1. Indigenous Colombia 2. Tukanoan Culture and the Issue of "Culture" 3. The State's Presence in the Vaupés Increases 4. The Indigenous Movement and Rights 5. Reindigenization and Its Discontents Conclusion: Indigeneity's Ironies and Contradictions

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Book SynopsisWhat does it mean to be a "rights-holder" and how does it come about? Remote Freedoms explores the contradictions and tensions of localized human rights work in very remote Indigenous communities. Based on field research with Anangu of Central Australia, this book investigates how universal human rights are understood, practiced, negotiated, and challenged in concert and in conflict with Indigenous rights. Moving between communities, government, regional NGOs, and international UN forums, Sarah E. Holcombe addresses how the notion of rights plays out within the distinctive and ambivalent sociopolitical context of Australia, and focusing specifically on Indigenous women and their experiences of violence. Can the secular modern rights-bearer accommodate the ideals of the relational, spiritual Anangu person? Engaging in a translation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights into the local Pintupi-Luritja vernacular and observing various Indigenous interactions with law enforcement and domestic violence outreach programs, Holcombe offers new insights into our understanding of how the global rights discourse is circulated and understood within Indigenous cultures. She reveals how, in the postcolonial Australian context, human rights are double-edged: they enforce assimilation to a neoliberal social order at the same time that they empower and enfranchise the Indigenous citizen as a political actor. Remote Freedoms writes Australia's Indigenous peoples into the international debate on localizing rights in multicultural terms.Trade Review"A vibrant, thoughtful analysis of the political and gendered experiences of indigenous rights, human rights, and citizenship among aboriginal communities in Australia. Remote Freedoms draws on Holcombe's years of research to offer accessible, nuanced engagements with anthropological theories of personhood, translation, politics, and justice." -- Dorothy L. Hodgson * Rutgers University *"Australia has an ambivalent approach to human rights, especially regarding Aboriginal peoples. This highly-readable book brings a fresh perspective. Contrasting legal and rights approaches, Holcombe examines how Aboriginal women experiencing violence resist victimhood, but have few alternatives to change their circumstances. The national political context which frames the focus on Central Australia makes it all the more compelling." -- Gaynor Macdonald * University of Sydney *"Holcombe's achievement is to make it clearer to outsiders what is at stake as Anangu dialogue, among themselves and with outsiders, about experiments in reconciling human rights principles and vernacular notions of social justice." -- Timothy Rowse * Oceania *Table of ContentsContents and AbstractsIntroduction: Indigenous Rights as Human Rights in Central Australia chapter abstractThis chapter provides a brief history of human rights and how the discourse of human rights is understood in law and policy within the Australian state. Australia's ambivalent relationship with human rights is examined, providing a backdrop to the lack of ethnographic treatments of human rights. Tracing the ethnographic focus on land rights as a form of cultural rights, it then lays the foundation for understanding how broader human rights concerns have been decoupled from Indigenous rights. Exploring the parameters for recognition of Indigenous human rights, this chapter interrogates the normative principles embodied within the human rights discourse. Considering how an Anangu person becomes a "human-rights holder," the chapter unpacks the elements that specify this type of personhood. The tensions between culture and human rights are explored via the key tenets of a human-rights-based ontology, enabling a discussion of human rights culture in relation to Anangu cultures. 1The Act of Translation: Emancipatory Potential and Apocryphal Revelations chapter abstractThis chapter examines concepts of rights that arise as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is translated into the local vernacular of Pintupi-Luritja. The semantic properties of English and possible equivalent Anangu concepts are juxtaposed in the translation context, and the limitations and possibilities of the universal human rights discourse are reimagined. This chapter then sets up the core challenges and possibilities of the local uptake of this discourse. Interrogating the assumptions embedded in the Declaration is also to interrogate the foundations of the secular modern person. Can this rights bearer accommodate the ideals of the relational spiritual Anangu person? The anthropological literature on this relational or sociocentric person is discussed. Revisiting this early ethnographic subject is essential if we are to reconsider this distinction in terms of a continuum, rather than a dichotomy and thus also to encourage a local dialogue with human rights. 2Engendering Social and Cultural Rights chapter abstractThis chapter explores the relationality of gender and forming and becoming an Anangu "woman" or "man." The family is one of these core sites and one of the most contested sites within the realm women's human rights. The gendered sociality of work practices are explored as sites that reinforce the status quo of gendered roles and responsibilities. This chapter also begins the discussion on women's rights as human rights by recalling the history between early feminism and the Indigenous civil rights movement within Australia. This discussion enables a consideration of the tensions between collectivist and individualist approaches to women's rights as it actively works through the idea that universal concepts, such as women's human rights, can take hold only when they are encountered within local and particular contexts. By exploring where the principles of human rights are operating in several NGOs the work of human rights is revealed. 3"Stop Whinging and Get on with It": The Shifting Contours of Gender Equality (and Equity) chapter abstractThis chapter examines the contested contours of complementarity and equality through the lens of gender by exploring how gender as a relational practice is manifest in a range of social contexts that assert gender segregation. The social ramifications of the ceremonial practices of "men's business" are explored as a paradigmatic location for making gender. Likewise, the Aboriginal English term "women's business" captures a range of practices to include female sexuality and reproductive rights. This chapter begins to specify a regional and local perspective as mediated through notions of gender complementarity, rather than equality. Although the applicability of feminism is challenged, there is a range of indicators of social transformation where these social practices of gender segregation are being modified and adapted, notably in the changing relations of reproduction. The chapter also examines the social and ontological structures that mediate violence and that have become known as "family violence." 4"Women Go to the Clinic, and Men Go to Jail": The Gendered Indigenized Subject of Legal Rights chapter abstractThis chapter explores the intersections among legal rights, local perceptions of social justice, and gender violence. Spousal or intimate partner violence exposes multiple sites of articulation with formal rights via the legal system at the same time as revealing Anangu responsibilities in customary terms. Anangu women's interactions with and responses to the legal system, including the police, reflect contradictory and competing discourses between family and the state system. The formal legal system representing Aboriginal people has instrumentalized women as the "victims" and men as the "perpetrators" through the extensive range of mandatory reporting and sentencing laws. This chapter specifically elaborates the ways in which rights that entail some specification of suffering, injury, or inequality compel an identity defined by subordination. Seeking to explain Anangu women's lack of compliance with pressing charges against violent spouses, the chapter considers whether mandatory reporting and mandatory sentencing reduce the suffering of victims. 5Therapy Culture and the Intentional Subject chapter abstractThis chapter examines therapeutic interventions, including the Cross Borders Indigenous Family Violence Program and the Women's Shelter outreach service. These programs and services aim, respectively, to change the status of the "perpetrator" to an empathizer and to alter the subjectivity of clients from a "victim" to an actor. Exploring these methods and approaches, the chapter analyzes the ways in which this new Aboriginal self is inscribed as the inner subjectivities of the participants/clients are managed. As these therapeutic technologies aim to foster the responsibilization discourse they must first question and dismantle the sociocentric structures of feeling that guide Anangu decision making. These programs and services closely follow the framework and concepts that underpin human rights. The role these therapeutic technologies plays in the production of individuals' "freedom to choose" and freedom to associate offers insight into the incremental transformation of Anangu subjects into human rights holders. 6Civil and Political Rights: Is There Space for an Aboriginal Politics? chapter abstractThis chapter explores the ways in which citizenship has become the mechanism for neoliberal reform. How do the tensions in human rights as political entailments play out between the regulatory dimensions of citizenship and its emancipatory promise? The behavioral norms that this citizen has to comply with are explored in terms of rights as entailments as these unfold via the responsibilization discourse and ubiquitous working of the good governance project. This chapter ultimately asks: What are the terms for an efficacious Aboriginal politics with and against the state, and is there room to expand the political imagination to incorporate alternative terms and modalities? In the course of the case study discussion on governance, a pluralist approach is articulated as this concept is specified as "good enough" or as "effective and legitimate." It has come to incorporate the foundational dimensions of a multicultural and a self-consciously "incomplete" human rights. 7International Human Rights Forums and (East Coast) Indigenous Activism chapter abstractThe penultimate chapter returns to the sites where human rights and Indigenous human rights took their shape and continue to evolve—the United Nations Headquarters in New York City and Geneva. In discussing the soft advocacy within the UNPFII, its other roles as educatory and emancipatory through further development of the second wave Indigenism are elaborated, along with the performative aspects of these UN sites as a "public audit ritual." The multivalent concept of "good governance" is also located here. Although the methodology of this chapter has telescopic tendencies, it is also a reflection of the issues that confound the possibilities for the mobilization of this discourse to remote central Australia. A key question explored is whether and how the Indigenous human rights discourse, at this international level, circulates to remote central Australia, where arguably it is most needed. Conclusion chapter abstractThis chapter summarizes the dimensions of human rights that underpin a diverse range of government policies, approaches, and programs in very remote central Australia. Many of these dimensions are the acknowledged public goods of accountability, representation and gender equity. For Anangu citizens the entailments of citizenship are dual edged. Whether explicit or tacit, there has been an increasing coupling of rights and duties. By exploring this discourse, the relationship between what constitutes a [human] right and what constitutes a person was revealed. This book agitates for alternative understandings of human dignity and more porous human rights that are less dependent on liberal definitions of humanity. Yet, the moral language and social justice potential of human rights has much to offer Anangu. The conclusion locates local practices that intersect with and explicitly draw from human rights norms to reveal what it takes for sociomoral normative practices to change.

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Book SynopsisThis searing memoir shares the trauma and triumphs of Lakhdar Boumediene and Mustafa Ait Idir's time inside America's most notorious prison. Lakhdar and Mustafa were living quiet, peaceful lives in Bosnia when, in October 2001, they were arrested and accused of participating in a terrorist plot. After a three-month investigation uncovered no evidence, all charges were dropped and Bosnian courts ordered their freedom. However, under intense U.S. pressure, Bosnian officials turned them over to American soldiers. They were flown blindfolded and shackled to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where they were held in outdoor cages for weeks as the now-infamous military prison was built around them. Guantanamo became their home for the next seven years. They endured torture and harassment and force-feedings and beatings, all the while not knowing if they would ever see their families again. They had no opportunity to argue their innocence until 2008, when the Supreme Court issued a landmark ruling in their case, Boumediene v. Bush, confirming Guantanamo detainees' constitutional right to challenge their detention in federal court. Weeks later, the George W. Bush–appointed federal judge who heard their case, stunned by the absence of evidence against them, ordered their release. Now living in Europe and rebuilding their lives, Lakhdar and Mustafa are finally free to share a story that every American ought to know. Learn more at witnessesbook.com or donate to a crowdsourced restitution fund at GoFundMe.com/witnesses.Trade Review"The U.S. government didn't want you to hear about life in the 'legal black hole' of Guantanamo. Having won the right to a judicial hearing and secured their release, Lakhdar Boumediene and Mustafa Ait Idir tell the urgent, compelling story behind their detention and one of the most important Supreme Court decisions of this century. It's a revealing and moving look at what the U.S. government tried desperately to hide."—David Cole, Professor, Georgetown Law, and National Legal Director, ACLU"Lakhdar Boumediene and Mustafa Ait Idir are two of the most notorious victims of the U.S.'s post-9/11 program of rendition, torture, and indefinite detention. Kidnapped on groundless suspicions, they are perfectly placed to reflect on the horrors of Guantanamo and the 'war on terror.' With a warmth and intelligence sadly lacking in America's treatment of them, this powerful joint memoir exposes their captors' cruelty and the Kafkaesque twists and turns of the U.S. government's efforts to build a case against them."—Andy Worthington, author of The Guantánamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America's Illegal Prison"Witnesses of the Unseen courageously exposes an ugly episode in U.S. history, restoring to Lakhdar Boumediene and Mustafa Ait Idir the humanity hijacked from them by the American government. This book transcends geography and time to take readers from Boumediene and Ait Idir's early years of innocence to their long imprisonment in the cages of Guantanamo. A must read for all people of conscience."—Shakeel Syed, Former Executive Director, Islamic Shura Council"This no-frills account of their time in Guantánamo is disturbing, as the authors detail their mistreatment at the hands of prison guards and interrogators and how they were held in outdoor cages as the prison was built around them. Readers will be shocked by the lack of evidence against the men and how the tenuous ties among a group of casual friends fueled the government's crusade against them. An intense, important read for anyone interested in the American government's misguided efforts at Guantánamo. "—Kirkus Reviews "This book gives us insight into a dark period of U.S. history that is bound to repeat itself, unless more people like Mustafa and Lakhdar agree to tell their stories. Through their compelling first person accounts, told with enormous sensitivity, we learn how a culture of fear and suspicion can result in cruelty, injustice, and total disregard for humanity. There is horror, but there is also immense hope in this world where dedicated people, including the victims who have suffered untold indignities, speak up and speak out."—John Heffernan, Executive Director, Speak Truth To Power, Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights"In Guantanamo, Mustafa and Lakhdar often lifted my spirits and gave me reasons to smile and to laugh in the midst of so much pain and darkness. I urge everyone to read this moment of history, which is so beautifully and graciously captured by my two brothers and friends."—Mohamedou Ould Slahi, author of Guantánamo Diary"This book is crucial reading for all Americans. From a faculty perspective, it is invaluable to students in a number of disciplines: political science, criminal justice, and public administration are ones that come readily to mind because of the constitutional issues raised. At its most basic, this book offers two compelling and disturbingly similar accounts of former Guantanamo detainees Lakhdar Boumediene and Mustafa Ait Idir about their imprisonment in the notorious gulag over seven years...This book would be an excellent resource for exploring issues of ethics, checks and balances, and other issues. Highly recommended"—S. E. Blankenship, Choice"There is much that shocks the conscience in Mr. Boumediene and Mr. Idir's book, even to those of us who have read nearly everything about Guantanamo in the 16 long years since it opened. Their resilience, and continuing recovery from the brutal treatment meted out by the United States government, is deeply moving." —Alka Pradhan, Human Rights Counsel, Military Commissions Defense OrganizationTable of ContentsEpilogue: Epilogue:

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Book SynopsisModern democracies face tough life-and-death choices in armed conflicts. Chief among them is how to weigh the value of soldiers' lives against those of civilians on both sides. The first of its kind, Whose Life Is Worth More? reveals that how these decisions are made is much more nuanced than conventional wisdom suggests. When these states are entangled in prolonged conflicts, hierarchies emerge and evolve to weigh the value of human life. Yagil Levy delves into a wealth of contemporary conflicts, including the drone war in Pakistan, the Kosovo war, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the US and UK wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Cultural narratives about the nature and necessity of war, public rhetoric about external threats facing the nation, antiwar movements, and democratic values all contribute to the perceived validity of civilian and soldier deaths. By looking beyond the military to the cultural and political factors that shape policies, this book provides tools to understand how democracies really decide whose life is worth more.Trade Review"A tour de force. Theoretically innovative and empirically rich. With devastating precision Yagil Levy dismantles many of the myths of heroic soldiers and hapless civilians. He shows that the wages of war are far more calculated and deliberate than previously thought."—Thomas W. Smith, University of South Florida, St. Petersburg"Yagil Levy's provocative book is an essential correction to standard assumptions about how actors in democratic states weigh the costs of war. Whose Life Is Worth More? reveals the deeper political and social factors that inform hierarchies of life and death among citizens,soldiers, and enemy non-combatants."—Jennifer M Welsh, Canada 150 Research Chair in Global Governance and Security, McGill UniversityTable of Contents1. Introduction: What Determines the Value of Life, and How Has It Been Studied? 2. Determinants of the Death Hierarchy 3. How to Identify Variations in Risk Transfer 4. Risking One's Own Soldiers in Jenin and Basra 5. Passive Force Protection in Iraq and Gaza 6. Strategic Transfer of Risk in the Kosovo War 7. Tactical Transfer of Risk in Fallujah and Gaza 8. Re-Risking One's Own Soldiers: The Surge in Iraq and Afghanistan 9. Conclusion

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Book SynopsisThe Politics of Love in Myanmar offers an intimate ethnographic account of a group of LGBT activists before, during, and after Myanmar's post-2011 political transition. Lynette J. Chua explores how these activists devoted themselves to, and fell in love with, the practice of human rights and how they were able to empower queer Burmese to accept themselves, gain social belonging, and reform discriminatory legislation and law enforcement. Informed by interviews with activists from all walks of life—city dwellers, villagers, political dissidents, children of military families, wage laborers, shopkeepers, beauticians, spirit mediums, lawyers, students—Chua details the vivid particulars of the LGBT activist experience founding a movement first among exiles and migrants and then in Myanmar's cities, towns, and countryside. A distinct political and emotional culture of activism took shape, fusing shared emotions and cultural bearings with legal and political ideas about human rights. For this network of activists, human rights moved hearts and minds and crafted a transformative web of friendship, fellowship, and affection among queer Burmese. Chua's investigation provides crucial insights into the intersection of emotions and interpersonal relationships with law, rights, and social movements.Trade Review"The Politics of Love in Myanmar is highly original, compelling, and powerful. Lynette Chua's ethnography excavates the emotional bonds and 'way of life' that developed through human rights practice by LGBT activists in post-2011 Myanmar. Beautifully written and brilliantly theorized, the book is highly recommended reading for scholars interested in human rights, legal mobilization, social movements, and LGBT politics." -- Michael McCann * University of Washington *"Lynette Chua deftly opens a new window on the empirical investigation of emotions, demonstrating the surprising ways that emotions animate not just relationships and social movements, but the interpretation, assertion, and lived meaning of rights. The lessons drawn from the vivid, human lives of Tun Tun, Tin Hla, and their fellow activists are a revelation." -- Kathryn Abrams * University of California, Berkeley *"In addition to being a pioneering and timely study of LGBT mobilization in Myanmar, Chua's book is a valuable contribution to the study of human rights and sociolegal scholarship on rights and social movements." -- Wei Wei * American Journal of Sociology *Table of ContentsContents and AbstractsIntroduction chapter abstractThis introduces the book's central concept of human rights practice as a way of life and presents an overview of the Burmese LGBT movement. It sets out the three motivating questions of the book: How did the Burmese LGBT movement emerge? How do LGBT activists of the movement make sense of human rights and put them into action, that is, practice human rights? What are the implications of their human rights practice? The chapter also explains the significance of the book: a study about how human rights matter in a society where they were suppressed for decades and where self-conceptions have been informed by Buddhist beliefs and other cultural sources of knowing, feeling, and interacting with the world. 1Human Rights Practice as a Way of Life chapter abstractThis chapter elaborates on the book's central concept, human rights practice as a way of life, to explain how it advances human rights studies and sociolegal research on the relationship between rights and social movements. This concept has three salient features: (1) The practice comprises recursive, overlapping social processes of formation, grievance transformation, and community building, (2) which are shaped by and shape emotions and interpersonal relationships and (3) produce three outcomes: self-transformation of the rights bearer, the creation of a distinctive emotion culture, and the introduction of new claims by a new collective claimant, LGBT rights for LGBT people, into Burmese politics. The chapter also uses the concept to explain the flaws and limitations of Burmese LGBT activists' human rights practice. By tracing processes and attending to emotions and relationships, the concept emphasizes the complexities of agency when assessing the power and prospects of human rights. 2Forming the Movement: Founding Emotions and Social Ties chapter abstractThis chapter draws from the author's fieldwork to illustrate formation processes, the first of three sets of processes that make up Burmese LGBT activists' human rights practice as a way of life. As the chapter details the movement's emergence from formation processes, it begins to show how emotions and interpersonal relationships constitute human rights practice. To get in touch with and encourage other Burmese to participate in their human rights workshops and join the movement, movement pioneers make use of preexisting ties rooted in all kinds of suffering caused by the violence of the Burmese state and the discrimination of queer Burmese. By tapping these relationships, they also stir up raw emotions that stem from the suffering, affections toward movement leaders, and a mix of apprehension, courage, and composure that recruits have to muster to answer their calls. 3Transforming Grievances: Emotional Fealty to Human Rights chapter abstractThis chapter draws from the author's fieldwork to illustrate grievance transformation, the second set of social processes of human rights practice as a way of life. Grievance transformation elicits, remakes, and produces emotions to cultivate Burmese LGBT activists' fealty to human rights and perpetuate their practice. To make human rights relevant to their lives, they engage familiar cultural schemas and resources, using common experiences, Buddhist karmic beliefs and social norms that support the movement's cause and sidelining those that are disadvantageous to it. Their unique interpretation, centered around dignity, social belonging, and responsibility, depicts human rights as a collective good to be collectively achieved. The processes of grievance transformation lead to three interrelated outcomes—self-transformation, distinctive emotion culture, and new political claims of LGBT rights in Myanmar—demonstrating how human rights practice has the potential to influence formal institutions of law and politics from the bottom up. 4Building Community: Emotional Bonds Among Activists chapter abstractThis chapter uses empirical details to illustrate community building, the third set of processes in the human rights practice as a way of life. Community-building processes engender affinity, camaraderie, solidarity, and fellowship, which germinate affective ties among those who commit to their practice, forming a community of Burmese LGBT activists. The bonds emerge from the affinity of sharing the collective marker of "LGBT" and from the social interactions involved in practicing human rights together. They bind people together as LGBT activists, draw them to stay with the movement, and sustain the practice itself. Community building contributes to self-transformation, distinctive emotion culture, and new claims and claimant by emphasizing LGBT identities as an embodiment of dignity, facilitating bonding inclusive of all queer Burmese, and creating an LGBT activist community. They further highlight the potential to influence formal institutions of law and politics starting from personal and grassroots changes. 5Faults, Fault Lines, and the Complexities of Agency chapter abstractThis chapter examines the flaws and limitations of Burmese LGBT activists' human rights practice as a way of life. Power dynamics, differences, and divides among activists result in varying degrees of self-transformation and adoption of their distinctive emotion culture. Their ability to make LGBT rights claims is also hampered by deep norms, beliefs, power, and hierarchy in Burmese society. Because the shortcomings arise from the social processes of human rights practice, they also critically inform the power and prospects of human rights to stimulate collective action and social change. They are just as vital as the enthusiasm and optimism encountered in previous chapters. The shortcomings, together with the positive outcomes, indicate that human rights practice is far from overtaking the old and entrenched modes of feeling, interacting, and knowing already existing in Burmese society. Instead, with human rights, LGBT activists offer an alternative way of life alongside others. Conclusion chapter abstractThis chapter takes stock of the book's central concept, human rights practice as a way of life. It looks at the concept's principal features and contributions to human rights scholarship as well as the sociolegal study of rights and social movements. It considers the book's broader lessons for understanding the potential of human rights to advance collective action and attain social progress. It concludes with the intellectual premises with which the book started: the socially contingent nature of human rights, reflecting on what relational and emotional emphases mean for their empirical study.

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Book SynopsisIndigenous people in Colombia constitute a mere three percent of the national population. Colombian indigenous communities' success in gaining collective control of almost thirty percent of the national territory is nothing short of extraordinary. In Managing Multiculturalism, Jean E. Jackson examines the evolution of the Colombian indigenous movement over the course of her forty-plus years of research and fieldwork, offering unusually developed and nuanced insight into how indigenous communities and activists changed over time, as well as how she the ethnographer and scholar evolved in turn. The story of how indigenous organizing began, found its voice, established alliances, and won battles against the government and the Catholic Church has important implications for the indigenous cause internationally and for understanding all manner of rights organizing. Integrating case studies with commentaries on the movement's development, Jackson explores the politicization and deployment of multiculturalism, indigenous identity, and neoliberalism, as well as changing conceptions of cultural value and authenticity—including issues such as patrimony, heritage, and ethnic tourism. Both ethnography and recent history of the Latin American indigenous movement, this works traces the ideas motivating indigenous movements in regional and global relief, and with unprecedented breadth and depth. Trade Review"Engaging, informed, and provocative, this book is a must-read from one of the leading lights of indigenous studies. Jean Jackson brings five decades of work with indigenous people to bear on contemporary debates. Managing Multiculturalism offers a major intervention into legal pluralism, reindigenization, and multiculturalist discourses."—Andrew Canessa, University of Essex"A deep and impressive work of historical ethnography. With tact and critical rigor, Jean Jackson interrogates her own changing attitudes over a half-century of research in Colombia. The result is an acute analysis of new performances of 'indigeneity' that renew and reinvent old traditions in contexts of neoliberal multiculturalism. Jackson offers provocative stories and resonant images that force us to grapple with the paradoxes and contradictions of entangled cultural transformation. Never content with simple answers, she sustains an engaged, self-critical realism, open to surprise and contingency."—James Clifford, author of Returns: Becoming Indigenous in the Twenty-First Century"Managing Multiculturalism is a powerful braided narrative. Jean Jackson traces, how, over time, indigenous people in Colombia have struggled to define themselves, constructing notions of cultural belonging that are increasingly tied to ever more complex political structures and legal foundations. Jackson also uses the recent history of indigenous identity formation as a frame for questioning the development of her own ideas about cultural authenticity, pointing out the limitations that ethnographers and other social analysts—both Colombian and from the global North—have faced over the years in trying to square the circle, by unsuccessfully forcing a multifarious process to conform to anthropological notions of culture. Taking readers by the hand and leading them, step by step, through the analytical quandaries she faced and the mistakes she confesses to have made, Jackson uses her personal experience to expose the fault-lines of indigenous studies."—Joanne Rappaport, Georgetown University"[Jackson] provides a nuanced, personal account of how the goals of indigenous communities and local community activists have changed over time.Managing Multiculturalism is an impressive work of historical ethnography and amply demonstrates the fruitfulness of long-term ethnographic research."––S. D. Glazier, Choice"Jackson's highly readable monograph makes an important contribution to the literature about ethnicity, identity formation, and interstate and ethnic-minority relations....[It] offers a much-needed look into the political organization of indigenous groups in the tropical forest."—Brett Troyan, Journal of Interdisciplinary History"[A] provocative meditation on the struggle for Indigenous recognition in Colombia....Jackson, one of the leading anthropologists of Latin America, brings five decades of experience to bear in telling this story. [Her] commitment to Colombia and its Indigenous movement(s) is clear."—María Elena García, Native American and Indigenous Studies Journal"While multiculturalism is often considered a rather innocuous if circular concept that 'does' what it 'is,' Jackson deftly illustrates multiple ways that it is edgily ideological and often cynically governmental, focused as much or more on containment and control as on acceptance and plurality....Managing Multiculturalism more than succeeds in illuminating the value of reflective and engaged anthropological work over the long span of a career that provides intellectual, analytical, and testimonial dimensions to cultural survival and indigenous human rights in the Americas."—Kathleen S. Fine-Dare, American Ethnologist"[Offers] valuable insight on indigenous politics in Colombia. Jackson expertly deploys the concept of indigeneity to tie together a broader reflection on the evolution of her 'object of study, methodology, and theoretical approach' and reviews in great detail over four decades of rights development and indigenous cultural politics."—Marcela Velasco, Revista de Estudios Colombianos"Jackson's historical analysis provides useful elements for tracing the entanglements of indigenous strategies and complex, often contradictory, political and legal contexts....[The] rich examples and informed, thought-provoking discussion of how the meanings and performances of indigeneity have changed over time make Managing Multiculturalism a must-read for anyone interested in indigenous studies and in broader questions about cultural difference."—Giovanna Micarelli, Wasafiri"Jean Jackson's Managing Multiculturalism... is an insightful and compelling appraisal of the organization and mobilization by indigenous people in Colombia since the 1970s as a distinctive indigenous movement. For Jackson, this process has been both cause and effect of a broader one: a notable shift among Colombians from anxiety about, to celebration of indigenous belonging."—Sebastián De La Rosa Carriazo, H-LatAmTable of ContentsIntroduction: 1. Indigenous Colombia 2. Tukanoan Culture and the Issue of "Culture" 3. The State's Presence in the Vaupés Increases 4. The Indigenous Movement and Rights 5. Reindigenization and Its Discontents Conclusion: Indigeneity's Ironies and Contradictions

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Book SynopsisThe military coup that brought General Pervez Musharraf to power as Pakistan's tenth president resulted in the abolition of a century-old sharecropping system that was rife with corruption. In its place the military regime implemented a market reform policy of cash contract farming. Ostensibly meant to improve living conditions for tenant farmers, the new system, instead, mobilized one of the largest, most successful land rights movements in South Asia—still active today. In The Ethics of Staying, Mubbashir A. Rizvi presents an original framework for understanding this major social movement, called the Anjuman Mazarin Punjab (AMP). This group of Christian and Muslim tenant sharecroppers, against all odds, successfully resisted Pakistan military's bid to monetize state-owned land, making a powerful moral case for land rights by invoking local claims to land and a broader vision for subsistence rights. The case of AMP provides a unique lens through which to examine state and society relations in Pakistan, one that bridges literatures from subaltern studies, military and colonial power, and the language of claim-making. Rizvi also offers a glimpse of Pakistan that challenges its standard framing as a hub of radical militancy, by opening a window into to the everyday struggles that are often obscured in the West's terror discourse.Trade Review"A forgotten struggle; a glorious but fated political moment in which peasants took on Pakistan's military might and for more than a decade seemed to be winning. Rizvi tells this complex story with a lot of flare and feeling, providing historical and social context for a remarkable movement with the most unlikely of heroes." -- Mohammed Hanif * The New York Times *"In this incisive study Rizvi blends history and ethnography to analyze the continuing impacts of colonial land colonization on relationships between state and society, city and country. Theoretically sophisticated, the book represents a milestone in reorienting how we think about contemporary, agrarian Pakistan." -- David Gilmartin * North Carolina State University *"[The Ethics of Staying] addresses urgent questions, such as: How did sharecroppers disarm the Pakistani Army in the midst of dictatorial rule? Why and on what basis did they risk their lives for land they didn't legally own? How have they managed to survive in the context of extreme repression?....[This] book is a hopeful and necessary read." -- Mel Gurr * PoLAR *"[An] engaging ethnographic account....The Ethics of Staying is a fascinating read and should be of interest to scholars of rural social movements, subaltern studies, and development." -- Kurt Schock * Mobilization *"[Rizvi's] detailed and nuanced engagement with an immensely important movement is the real strength here, and readers are left with a convincing picture of claims that exceed legal property rights." -- Humeira Iqtidar * Pacific Affairs *"The Ethics of Staying is a valuable contribution to ongoing debates on land conflicts and popular politics in South Asia. Rizvi's account of the [Punjab Tenants Association's] successful mobilisation for rights to land and livelihood also offers a glimmer of hope at a conjuncture where both Pakistan and India are turning increasingly authoritarian and display ever-decreasing tolerance for the rights-based claims of subaltern movements." -- Kenneth Bo Nielsen * Journal of Contemporary Asia *"In The Ethics of Staying, Mubbashir Rizvi provides an immense depth of ethnographic detail surrounding a farmers' movement that captured the national imagination during a time of military rule. In its endeavour to examine the many internal and external dynamics that shaped the biography of a social movement, it also speaks to the future of any politics against commodification and dispossession. As such, it forms an extremely important contribution to scholarship on civil-military relations, social movements, and land in contemporary Pakistan." -- Aisha Ahmad * Bloomsbury Pakistan *Table of ContentsContents and Abstracts1Introduction chapter abstractThis chapter describes the series of events by which a local struggle became a national event. It introduces the primary interlocutors and takes the reader to three different villages where the author conducted most of the interviews. These villages varied between the oldest predominantly Christian village, another predominantly Muslim village and a third largely mixed Muslim-Christian village in Okara district. It introduces the different occupational castes, the traditional forms of solidarity, and how these bonds of solidarity changed with the rise of the tenants' mobilization. It outlines arguments on the spatial history of rights, the provisional solidarities enabled by social movements, and the varied effect of NGOs and urban activists on rural grassroots mobilizations. 2Politics as Process in Okara Military Farms chapter abstractThis chapter describes the political negotiation, ruptures, and innovations that allowed disparate groups of tenant farmers to come together across caste, gender, and religious differences and mobilize around a class identity as sharecroppers. The ethnographic analysis of AMP mobilization challenges the bifurcation of social movements between the "the politics of distribution" and "the politics of recognition." This chapter argues that the fate of social movements is forged by how they negotiate both sides of power. It argues that peasant movements foreground different concepts of political possibilities from their own alternative and deeply rooted traditions as refracted through social histories. Hence, AMP does not presume an organic, essentialist position that is sometimes projected onto indigenous or peasant communities, nor does it posit a utopian open future. The politics of AMP are provisional, based around tenants' ability to translate customary rights and obligations into political action. Chapter 3: The Afterlife of Colonial Infrastructure chapter abstractThis chapter looks at the regional history of canal colonization and provides a context for the establishment of military farms at the turn of 20th century Punjab. The canal irrigation projects ushered in a new era of regional modernity in Punjab with far reaching consequences for the relationship between land and people in this region. This chapter analyzes the formation of a distinct regional modernity in Punjab that brought the colonial state and peasantry in a direct relationship. It develops the classic theory of gift exchange to analyze the highly personalized relationship between people and colonial institutions that was created through large infrastructure projects that worked through dual idioms of modern technology and customary identities. This chapter illustrates how these dual links are appropriated and repurposed by tenant farmers to make claims over land. Chapter 4: What Remains Buried Under Property? chapter abstractThis chapter examines the moral economy of land rights and the broader understanding of land rights politics as they are understood by different members of AMP. Land is one of the most important yet overlooked elements of social movements because it is often regarded as an economic resource, or exclusively as the object of contestation. However, the variation of land settlements, land relations, and the evolution of the property regime showcase varied cultural understandings of rights, value, and political subjectivity that is shaped by different conceptions of land rights. This abstract question also became an important source of discussion for the tenant farmers once they were able to occupy and cultivate their lands. 5Movement and Mobilization chapter abstractThis chapter describes the subaltern meaning of land rights, which is different from the conception of rights based on citizenship and/or property ownership. This chapter argues that the central force of a social movement is ontological: it ushers a new way of seeing and relating to the world. Social movements have the ability to take particular issues and universalize them as a form knowledge and praxis. For instance, the AMP enlarged tenants' objections to cash contract farming into a discussion of land reform, citizenship rights, democracy, and human rights in Pakistan by relating them to a history of the hardships of settlement, the experience of partition, and the poverty of the sharecropping regime. This provisional political identity is built around a narrative that allowed the tenant farmers to bridge gender, caste, and religious differences. However, this provisional source of solidarity grew weaker as the tenants made some gains. 6Solidarities, Fault Lines, and the Scale of Struggle chapter abstractThis chapter examines the problems faced by AMP as the tenants' leadership allied with urban activists, civil society groups, and NGOs to gain publicity and visibility for their struggle. The aim here is to understand how scalability figures into subaltern politics of survival. The AMP subaltern and highly local articulations of land rights were represented in the abstract and universal framework of "Rights" favored by NGOs and "Class struggle" advocated by Left activists. These organization helped increase the visibility of AMP but they also created strong differences between the tenant farmers causing a split in the movement. 7Coda chapter abstractThe conclusion summarizes the author's approach to the study of AMP as a relationship between land (spatiality), rights, and political subjectivity in Punjab. Rather than looking at the settlement of the Okara military farms or the rise of peasant mobilization in isolation, the author demonstrates the relational aspects of technology, territory, identity, and power in shifting relations of rule and political agency.

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Book SynopsisThe military coup that brought General Pervez Musharraf to power as Pakistan's tenth president resulted in the abolition of a century-old sharecropping system that was rife with corruption. In its place the military regime implemented a market reform policy of cash contract farming. Ostensibly meant to improve living conditions for tenant farmers, the new system, instead, mobilized one of the largest, most successful land rights movements in South Asia—still active today. In The Ethics of Staying, Mubbashir A. Rizvi presents an original framework for understanding this major social movement, called the Anjuman Mazarin Punjab (AMP). This group of Christian and Muslim tenant sharecroppers, against all odds, successfully resisted Pakistan military's bid to monetize state-owned land, making a powerful moral case for land rights by invoking local claims to land and a broader vision for subsistence rights. The case of AMP provides a unique lens through which to examine state and society relations in Pakistan, one that bridges literatures from subaltern studies, military and colonial power, and the language of claim-making. Rizvi also offers a glimpse of Pakistan that challenges its standard framing as a hub of radical militancy, by opening a window into to the everyday struggles that are often obscured in the West's terror discourse.Trade Review"A forgotten struggle; a glorious but fated political moment in which peasants took on Pakistan's military might and for more than a decade seemed to be winning. Rizvi tells this complex story with a lot of flare and feeling, providing historical and social context for a remarkable movement with the most unlikely of heroes." -- Mohammed Hanif * The New York Times *"In this incisive study Rizvi blends history and ethnography to analyze the continuing impacts of colonial land colonization on relationships between state and society, city and country. Theoretically sophisticated, the book represents a milestone in reorienting how we think about contemporary, agrarian Pakistan." -- David Gilmartin * North Carolina State University *"[The Ethics of Staying] addresses urgent questions, such as: How did sharecroppers disarm the Pakistani Army in the midst of dictatorial rule? Why and on what basis did they risk their lives for land they didn't legally own? How have they managed to survive in the context of extreme repression?....[This] book is a hopeful and necessary read." -- Mel Gurr * PoLAR *"[An] engaging ethnographic account....The Ethics of Staying is a fascinating read and should be of interest to scholars of rural social movements, subaltern studies, and development." -- Kurt Schock * Mobilization *"[Rizvi's] detailed and nuanced engagement with an immensely important movement is the real strength here, and readers are left with a convincing picture of claims that exceed legal property rights." -- Humeira Iqtidar * Pacific Affairs *"The Ethics of Staying is a valuable contribution to ongoing debates on land conflicts and popular politics in South Asia. Rizvi's account of the [Punjab Tenants Association's] successful mobilisation for rights to land and livelihood also offers a glimmer of hope at a conjuncture where both Pakistan and India are turning increasingly authoritarian and display ever-decreasing tolerance for the rights-based claims of subaltern movements." -- Kenneth Bo Nielsen * Journal of Contemporary Asia *"In The Ethics of Staying, Mubbashir Rizvi provides an immense depth of ethnographic detail surrounding a farmers' movement that captured the national imagination during a time of military rule. In its endeavour to examine the many internal and external dynamics that shaped the biography of a social movement, it also speaks to the future of any politics against commodification and dispossession. As such, it forms an extremely important contribution to scholarship on civil-military relations, social movements, and land in contemporary Pakistan." -- Aisha Ahmad * Bloomsbury Pakistan *Table of ContentsContents and Abstracts1Introduction chapter abstractThis chapter describes the series of events by which a local struggle became a national event. It introduces the primary interlocutors and takes the reader to three different villages where the author conducted most of the interviews. These villages varied between the oldest predominantly Christian village, another predominantly Muslim village and a third largely mixed Muslim-Christian village in Okara district. It introduces the different occupational castes, the traditional forms of solidarity, and how these bonds of solidarity changed with the rise of the tenants' mobilization. It outlines arguments on the spatial history of rights, the provisional solidarities enabled by social movements, and the varied effect of NGOs and urban activists on rural grassroots mobilizations. 2Politics as Process in Okara Military Farms chapter abstractThis chapter describes the political negotiation, ruptures, and innovations that allowed disparate groups of tenant farmers to come together across caste, gender, and religious differences and mobilize around a class identity as sharecroppers. The ethnographic analysis of AMP mobilization challenges the bifurcation of social movements between the "the politics of distribution" and "the politics of recognition." This chapter argues that the fate of social movements is forged by how they negotiate both sides of power. It argues that peasant movements foreground different concepts of political possibilities from their own alternative and deeply rooted traditions as refracted through social histories. Hence, AMP does not presume an organic, essentialist position that is sometimes projected onto indigenous or peasant communities, nor does it posit a utopian open future. The politics of AMP are provisional, based around tenants' ability to translate customary rights and obligations into political action. Chapter 3: The Afterlife of Colonial Infrastructure chapter abstractThis chapter looks at the regional history of canal colonization and provides a context for the establishment of military farms at the turn of 20th century Punjab. The canal irrigation projects ushered in a new era of regional modernity in Punjab with far reaching consequences for the relationship between land and people in this region. This chapter analyzes the formation of a distinct regional modernity in Punjab that brought the colonial state and peasantry in a direct relationship. It develops the classic theory of gift exchange to analyze the highly personalized relationship between people and colonial institutions that was created through large infrastructure projects that worked through dual idioms of modern technology and customary identities. This chapter illustrates how these dual links are appropriated and repurposed by tenant farmers to make claims over land. Chapter 4: What Remains Buried Under Property? chapter abstractThis chapter examines the moral economy of land rights and the broader understanding of land rights politics as they are understood by different members of AMP. Land is one of the most important yet overlooked elements of social movements because it is often regarded as an economic resource, or exclusively as the object of contestation. However, the variation of land settlements, land relations, and the evolution of the property regime showcase varied cultural understandings of rights, value, and political subjectivity that is shaped by different conceptions of land rights. This abstract question also became an important source of discussion for the tenant farmers once they were able to occupy and cultivate their lands. 5Movement and Mobilization chapter abstractThis chapter describes the subaltern meaning of land rights, which is different from the conception of rights based on citizenship and/or property ownership. This chapter argues that the central force of a social movement is ontological: it ushers a new way of seeing and relating to the world. Social movements have the ability to take particular issues and universalize them as a form knowledge and praxis. For instance, the AMP enlarged tenants' objections to cash contract farming into a discussion of land reform, citizenship rights, democracy, and human rights in Pakistan by relating them to a history of the hardships of settlement, the experience of partition, and the poverty of the sharecropping regime. This provisional political identity is built around a narrative that allowed the tenant farmers to bridge gender, caste, and religious differences. However, this provisional source of solidarity grew weaker as the tenants made some gains. 6Solidarities, Fault Lines, and the Scale of Struggle chapter abstractThis chapter examines the problems faced by AMP as the tenants' leadership allied with urban activists, civil society groups, and NGOs to gain publicity and visibility for their struggle. The aim here is to understand how scalability figures into subaltern politics of survival. The AMP subaltern and highly local articulations of land rights were represented in the abstract and universal framework of "Rights" favored by NGOs and "Class struggle" advocated by Left activists. These organization helped increase the visibility of AMP but they also created strong differences between the tenant farmers causing a split in the movement. 7Coda chapter abstractThe conclusion summarizes the author's approach to the study of AMP as a relationship between land (spatiality), rights, and political subjectivity in Punjab. Rather than looking at the settlement of the Okara military farms or the rise of peasant mobilization in isolation, the author demonstrates the relational aspects of technology, territory, identity, and power in shifting relations of rule and political agency.

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Book SynopsisDespite the progress of decades-old disability rights policy, including the landmark Americans with Disabilities Act, threats continue to undermine the wellbeing of this population. The U.S. is, thus, a policy innovator and laggard in this regard. In Politics of Empowerment, David Pettinicchio offers a historically grounded analysis of the singular case of U.S. disability policy, countering long-held views of progress that privilege public demand as its primary driver. By the 1970s, a group of legislators and bureaucrats came to act as "political entrepreneurs." Motivated by personal and professional commitments, they were seen as experts leading a movement within the government. But as they increasingly faced obstacles to their legislative intentions, nascent disability advocacy and protest groups took the cause to the American people forming the basis of the contemporary disability rights movement. Drawing on extensive archival material, Pettinicchio redefines the relationship between grassroots advocacy and institutional politics, revealing a cycle of progress and backlash embedded in the American political system.Trade Review"David Pettinicchio has written a broad and ambitious study of the evolution of American disability policy and disability rights, incorporating changing policy approaches, governmental institutions, and social movement activities into his account. Drawing on legislative documents, policy debates, and sociological concepts, the book situates disability within broader social policy frameworks and political trends. It will be of interest to anyone seeking to understand the interplay of disability policies, politics, and rights within the context of American policy-making." -- Richard K. Scotch, Professor of Sociology, Public Policy, and Political Economy * University of Texas at Dallas *"This excellent addition to the policy feedbacks literature shows how federal policy helped disabled activists become fully mobilized citizens. But progress is not always linear. Recurrent retrenchment efforts mean that the push for civil rights for the disabled is incomplete, and their economic citizenship not yet fully realized. A must-read for those interested in social movements and citizen participation." -- Andrea Louise Campbell, Arthur and Ruth Sloan Professor of Political Science * MIT *"David Pettinicchio explains the odd but important development of disability politics and policy in the context of changing political alliances and definitions of civil rights. It's a compelling story, with lessons for advocates, policy makers, and anyone who wants to understand either group." -- David S. Meyer * University of California, Irvine *"Empirically, [this book] is a rigorous treatment of the successes and setbacks of the disability rights movement....A number of folks in our field...have discussed the importance of considering institutional actors, and what movement mobilization looks like from their point of view, rather than analyzing movements only from the perspective of movement actors. Pettinicchio does this admirably." -- Joshua A. Basseches * Mobilizing Ideas *"Politics of Empowerment is an important work that will both broaden the view of those interested specifically in the American disability rights movement and those more generally interested in social movements of all kinds." -- Stephen J. Meyers * Mobilization *"[A] meticulous historical and political account of the development of disability policy in the United States....I recommend this book to readers who are interested in understanding how people, politics, and governmental and organizational goals align to increase access and opportunity for marginalized groups." -- Catherine Kramarczuk Voulgarides * Contemporary Sociology *"Politics of Empowerment is a really, really good book. David Pettinicchio tells the story of disability policy in the United States with great care and close attention to detail....This book is both a specific history of disability policy as well as a broad story of the politics of social change....Politics of Empowerment is in many ways the best kind of scholarship: it generates new thinking and ideas, and it gives the rest of us a strong foundation to build upon." -- Jeremy R. Levine * American Journal of Sociology *Table of ContentsContents and Abstracts1The Political Evolution of Disability chapter abstractChapter 1 outlines the key tenets of the book's thesis: that disability rights entered into an already-defined agenda space revolving around social services and vocational rehabilitation. It did so by way of political entrepreneurs incrementally carving a path for rights to develop. These policies empowered a group of Americans once thought of exclusively as clients deserving of social services to be citizens entitled to civil rights. But, while it began as an elite-driven movement, disability rights would soon be threatened by policy rollbacks and retrenchment that ultimately mobilized a constituency to defend against these attacks. The political evolution of disability rights therefore provides an opportunity for contextualizing—in terms of time and space—the relationship between social movements, political entrepreneurship, policy shifts, and organizational transformations in the broader struggle for civil rights. 2It's Ability, Not Disability, That Counts chapter abstractChapter 2 further contextualizes the evolution of disability rights by examining the service-provision-dominated policy agenda in the first half of the twentieth century. Until the 1960s, a disability policy monopoly promoted a policy image emphasizing ability over disability—the idea that rehabilitation was necessary to overcome disability and create "good citizens." The chapter investigates the kinds of institutional constraints that prevented any significant policy reforms, requiring elites to pursue incremental policy changes. Political entrepreneurs championed the removal of architectural barriers, promoting equal access by using existing rhetoric about economic self-sufficiency through rehabilitation—and consequently laying the groundwork for rights to flourish. Ultimately, their efforts also helped frame the plight of a heterogeneous group as the common struggle of a community. 3Reshaping the Policy Agenda chapter abstractChapter 3 provides a systematic analysis of the kinds of institutional changes that helped political entrepreneurs extend the political discourse around disability to include civil rights. Beginning with the Great Society, the 1960s and 1970s saw an increasing number of congressional committees and administrative agencies involved in disability issues. While this helped gain disability a place on the agenda, it also generated conflict as different policy frameworks clashed. The chapter draws on the equal rights to transit debate as an example. Chapter 3 also points to the consequences of legislative change: that the way actors went about promoting a new logic around "the problem" of disability shaped policy outcomes, backlash, and most certainly the tools and motivations available to a political constituency to push for their rights. And, in mobilizing against political, economic, and social institutions, the disability rights movement necessarily challenged cultural understandings and meanings of disability. 4How Disability Advocacy Made Citizens out of Clients chapter abstractChapter 4 explains how disability organizations and policy coevolved. In the 1970s, the disability organizational sector underwent an advocacy explosion, as it adapted to a new rights-focused policy environment. Existing service-provision groups adopted political advocacy, alongside a proliferation of new advocacy organizations. The chapter illustrates the interdependent relationship between disability organizations and political entrepreneurs in protecting and advancing disability rights, especially when faced with growing backlash and political threats. Chapter 4 uses the transit debate, as well as educational mainstreaming, to situate the growing demand for advocacy as sympathetic elites confronted attempts to roll back rights. Changes in the disability voluntary sector encouraged the expansion of new mobilizing structures that would bring activists together. 5Politics Is Pressure chapter abstractChapter 5 looks at the rise of disability protest in the context of political threats to existing disability rights legislation. The disability rights movement in the government reflected critical structural and organizational transformations that politicized a constituency. Political entrepreneurs supplied the policy instruments around which disability groups helped mobilize everyday citizens with disabilities to champion their rights. The use of extra-institutional, disruptive tactics was not only necessary when institutional means became less available; it also drew public attention to the kinds of inequality disabled people faced. Educational mainstreaming, equal access to transit and Medicaid, and in-home care serve as salient examples of the decades-old unsettled issues that generated uncertainty and back-stepping, which fueled contentious politics and mobilized a movement. Chapter 5 points to this critical transformation in disability rights from an elite-driven movement in the government to a broader grassroots movement in the streets. 6Empowering the Government chapter abstractChapter 6 returns to the reasons why the disability rights struggle is, to this day, a story of unresolved policy entrenchment. The chapter highlights ongoing debates about integrating students with disabilities into regular classrooms and the continued fight over community-based care—key movement issues that are in deadlock. The same institutional configurations that allowed for policy innovation and political entrepreneurship also led to conflict, obstruction, retrenchment, and undesirable policy consequences. Indeed, the case of disability rights reveals the ways in which the duality in America's political institutions creates both the resources and the motivations for citizen action. The chapter speaks to current efforts to undermine policies like the ADA that are rooted in their political development, negotiation, compromise, and lack of enforcement. It also sheds light on the status of the disability rights movement today and the importance of citizen engagement in this civil rights struggle.

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Book SynopsisThe United States is the world's leading foreign aid donor. Yet there has been little inquiry into how such assistance affects the politics and societies of recipient nations. Drawing on four decades of data on U.S. economic and military aid, Aiding and Abetting explores whether foreign aid does more harm than good. Jessica Trisko Darden challenges long-standing ideas about aid and its consequences, and highlights key patterns in the relationship between assistance and violence. She persuasively demonstrates that many of the foreign aid policy challenges the U.S. faced in the Cold War era, such as the propping up of dictators friendly to U.S. interests, remain salient today. Historical case studies of Indonesia, El Salvador, and South Korea illustrate how aid can uphold human freedoms or propagate human rights abuses. Aiding and Abetting encourages both advocates and critics of foreign assistance to reconsider its political and social consequences by focusing international aid efforts on the expansion of human freedom.Trade Review"This is a critical book at a time when the U.S. approach to human rights is in deep crisis and global human rights are in grave danger. Jessica Trisko Darden has given us a beautifully written and compellingly readable account of how U.S. foreign aid has tragically supported regimes that unleashed violence against their own citizens."—William Easterly, New York University"Jessica Trisko Darden's new book is a masterful look at the dangerous and often unintended consequences of U.S. foreign aid. By combining state-of-the-art quantitative methods with detailed case studies, she convincingly shows that foreign aid often deeply harms the citizens it is purported to help. The book should be required reading for international political economy, human rights, and foreign policy scholars. It persuasively calls for a radical reimagination of the American foreign aid process."—Amanda Murdie, University of Georgia"This is a fascinating study of one of the darker sides of American foreign policy. Drawing on her own family's experience as well as decades of diplomatic history, Jessica Trisko Darden shows how foreign aid—widely seen as a bipartisan vehicle for promoting American values abroad—has often played into the hands of ruthless autocrats."—Robert Worth, contributing writer, The New York Times Magazine"This book is a sobering but necessary corrective to the notion that foreign aid delivers only beneficial ends."—Chris Preble, War on the Rocks"[This] study makes a significant contribution to the literature on foreign aid and its political effects. Recommended."—K. Buterbaugh, CHOICE"Aiding and Abetting provides a short, readable account of U.S. foreign aid and assistance and the role of both in subsidizing state violence and repression by recipients....This work should serve as a yield sign to those policymakers and military officials who consider bi-lateral foreign assistance in areas of supposed strategic American interests....[and] as a guide to better envision the enduring effects of U.S. assistance."—Harrison Manlove, RealClear Defense"Perhaps the most striking sections of Aiding and Abetting are where Trisko Darden discusses the policy implications of her findings....Aiding and Abetting [also] raises several questions for future research."—Inken von Borzyskowski, Democracy and Autocracy"This is a timely book and it fills an important gap in the current literature. Aid policymakers have yet to take into account the effects of aid on state violence, which has been well established in the empirical literature. This work constitutes a call to action to do so."—Emily Silcock, Contemporary Arab Affairs"Trisko Darden makes important points about the fungibility of foreign assistance, the challenges of constraining the executive in the realm of foreign policy, and the plausibility of effective aid sanctions... Aiding and Abettingprovides both quantitative and qualitative evidence that foreign assistance in general likely enables or emboldens governments that are facing civil conflict to cause harm to civilian populations and otherwise engage in repressive measures. This is no doubt a challenge to individuals who want to see foreign aid used to bring about economic development and widespread poverty alleviation. Simultaneously, one hopes, it is a challenge even to those who seek to use foreign aid for the purpose of promoting national security, calling upon policymakers to think about how best to support allied regimes while also holding them to the highest standards of human rights protection."—Matthew S. Winters, H-Diplo"Overwhelmingly, studies of human rights and foreign aid have analyzed how a recipient state's human rights record may impact the amount of foreign aid they receive from the US. [Trisko] Darden correctly points out that 'relatively little work has been done to demonstrate the opposite: how foreign aid affects human rights' (17)... [T]he case study chapters allow for a closer examination of the mechanics of exactly how US foreign aid contributes to human rights abuses."—Evan W. Sandlin, Human Rights ReviewTable of ContentsIntroduction: Aiding Freedom: Human Rights and U.S. Foreign Assistance 1. Abetting Violence: The Coercive Effect of Foreign Aid 2. Patterns of Foreign Aid and State Violence 3. Indonesia: Arming and Oppressing 4. El Salvador: Buying Guns and Butter 5. South Korea: Constraining Coercion 6. Aiding and Abetting in the Twenty-First Century Conclusion: Can "Do No Harm" Be Done?

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Book SynopsisModern democracies face tough life-and-death choices in armed conflicts. Chief among them is how to weigh the value of soldiers' lives against those of civilians on both sides. The first of its kind, Whose Life Is Worth More? reveals that how these decisions are made is much more nuanced than conventional wisdom suggests. When these states are entangled in prolonged conflicts, hierarchies emerge and evolve to weigh the value of human life. Yagil Levy delves into a wealth of contemporary conflicts, including the drone war in Pakistan, the Kosovo war, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the US and UK wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Cultural narratives about the nature and necessity of war, public rhetoric about external threats facing the nation, antiwar movements, and democratic values all contribute to the perceived validity of civilian and soldier deaths. By looking beyond the military to the cultural and political factors that shape policies, this book provides tools to understand how democracies really decide whose life is worth more.Trade Review"A tour de force. Theoretically innovative and empirically rich. With devastating precision Yagil Levy dismantles many of the myths of heroic soldiers and hapless civilians. He shows that the wages of war are far more calculated and deliberate than previously thought."—Thomas W. Smith, University of South Florida, St. Petersburg"Yagil Levy's provocative book is an essential correction to standard assumptions about how actors in democratic states weigh the costs of war. Whose Life Is Worth More? reveals the deeper political and social factors that inform hierarchies of life and death among citizens,soldiers, and enemy non-combatants."—Jennifer M Welsh, Canada 150 Research Chair in Global Governance and Security, McGill UniversityTable of Contents1. Introduction: What Determines the Value of Life, and How Has It Been Studied? 2. Determinants of the Death Hierarchy 3. How to Identify Variations in Risk Transfer 4. Risking One's Own Soldiers in Jenin and Basra 5. Passive Force Protection in Iraq and Gaza 6. Strategic Transfer of Risk in the Kosovo War 7. Tactical Transfer of Risk in Fallujah and Gaza 8. Re-Risking One's Own Soldiers: The Surge in Iraq and Afghanistan 9. Conclusion

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Book SynopsisA unique investigation into how alliances form in highly polarized times among LGBTQ, immigrant, and labor rights activists, revealing the impacts within each rights movement. Queer Alliances investigates coalition formation among LGBTQ, immigrant, and labor rights activists in the United States, revealing how these new alliances impact political movement formation. In the early 2000s, the LGBTQ and immigrant rights movements operated separately from and, sometimes, in a hostile manner towards each other. Since 2008, by contrast, major alliances have formed at the national and state level across these communities. Yet, this new coalition formation came at a cost. Today, coalitions across these communities have been largely reluctant to address issues of police brutality, mass incarceration, economic inequality, and the ruthless immigrant regulatory complex. Queer Alliances examines the extent to which grassroots groups bridged historic divisions based on race, gender, class, and immigration status through the development of coalitions, looking specifically at coalition building around expanding LGBTQ rights in Washington State and immigrant and migrant rights in Arizona. Erin Mayo-Adam traces the evolution of political movement formation in each state, and shows that while the movements expanded, they simultaneously ossified around goals that matter to the most advantaged segments of their respective communities. Through a detailed, multi-method study that involves archival research and in-depth interviews with organization leaders and advocates, Queer Alliances centers local, coalition-based mobilization across and within multiple movements rather than national campaigns and court cases that often occur at the end of movement formation. Mayo-Adam argues that the construction of common political movement narratives and a shared core of opponents can help to explain the paradoxical effects of coalition formation. On the one hand, the development of shared political movement narratives and common opponents can expand movements in some contexts. On the other hand, the episodic nature of rights-based campaigns can simultaneously contain and undermine movement expansion, reinforcing movement divisions. Mayo-Adam reveals the extent to which inter- and intra-movement coalitions, formed to win rights or thwart rights losses, represent and serve intersectionally marginalized communities—who are often absent from contemporary accounts of social movement formation.Trade Review"In the real world, queer alliances come together and fall apart again and again. Erin Mayo-Adam's fascinating grassroots interviews show how these often uncontrolled and uncontrollable 'rights episodes' both empower and exploit sexually marginalized, vulnerable people. A must read for anyone interested in twenty-first century rights formation and the future of the LGBTQ movement." -- Susan Burgess * Ohio University *"Erin Mayo-Adam's compelling book paints an intimate portrait of how coalitions form and break down at the grassroots level. An essential read for those who study and participate in movements, Queer Alliances illustrates what makes social movements tick from a fresh perspective and explains how rights can both liberate people and reinstate hierarchies." -- Julie Novkov * University at Albany, SUNY *

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Book SynopsisThe United States is the world's leading foreign aid donor. Yet there has been little inquiry into how such assistance affects the politics and societies of recipient nations. Drawing on four decades of data on U.S. economic and military aid, Aiding and Abetting explores whether foreign aid does more harm than good. Jessica Trisko Darden challenges long-standing ideas about aid and its consequences, and highlights key patterns in the relationship between assistance and violence. She persuasively demonstrates that many of the foreign aid policy challenges the U.S. faced in the Cold War era, such as the propping up of dictators friendly to U.S. interests, remain salient today. Historical case studies of Indonesia, El Salvador, and South Korea illustrate how aid can uphold human freedoms or propagate human rights abuses. Aiding and Abetting encourages both advocates and critics of foreign assistance to reconsider its political and social consequences by focusing international aid efforts on the expansion of human freedom.Trade Review"This is a critical book at a time when the U.S. approach to human rights is in deep crisis and global human rights are in grave danger. Jessica Trisko Darden has given us a beautifully written and compellingly readable account of how U.S. foreign aid has tragically supported regimes that unleashed violence against their own citizens."—William Easterly, New York University"Jessica Trisko Darden's new book is a masterful look at the dangerous and often unintended consequences of U.S. foreign aid. By combining state-of-the-art quantitative methods with detailed case studies, she convincingly shows that foreign aid often deeply harms the citizens it is purported to help. The book should be required reading for international political economy, human rights, and foreign policy scholars. It persuasively calls for a radical reimagination of the American foreign aid process."—Amanda Murdie, University of Georgia"This is a fascinating study of one of the darker sides of American foreign policy. Drawing on her own family's experience as well as decades of diplomatic history, Jessica Trisko Darden shows how foreign aid—widely seen as a bipartisan vehicle for promoting American values abroad—has often played into the hands of ruthless autocrats."—Robert Worth, contributing writer, The New York Times Magazine"This book is a sobering but necessary corrective to the notion that foreign aid delivers only beneficial ends."—Chris Preble, War on the Rocks"[This] study makes a significant contribution to the literature on foreign aid and its political effects. Recommended."—K. Buterbaugh, CHOICE"Aiding and Abetting provides a short, readable account of U.S. foreign aid and assistance and the role of both in subsidizing state violence and repression by recipients....This work should serve as a yield sign to those policymakers and military officials who consider bi-lateral foreign assistance in areas of supposed strategic American interests....[and] as a guide to better envision the enduring effects of U.S. assistance."—Harrison Manlove, RealClear Defense"Perhaps the most striking sections of Aiding and Abetting are where Trisko Darden discusses the policy implications of her findings....Aiding and Abetting [also] raises several questions for future research."—Inken von Borzyskowski, Democracy and Autocracy"This is a timely book and it fills an important gap in the current literature. Aid policymakers have yet to take into account the effects of aid on state violence, which has been well established in the empirical literature. This work constitutes a call to action to do so."—Emily Silcock, Contemporary Arab Affairs"Trisko Darden makes important points about the fungibility of foreign assistance, the challenges of constraining the executive in the realm of foreign policy, and the plausibility of effective aid sanctions... Aiding and Abettingprovides both quantitative and qualitative evidence that foreign assistance in general likely enables or emboldens governments that are facing civil conflict to cause harm to civilian populations and otherwise engage in repressive measures. This is no doubt a challenge to individuals who want to see foreign aid used to bring about economic development and widespread poverty alleviation. Simultaneously, one hopes, it is a challenge even to those who seek to use foreign aid for the purpose of promoting national security, calling upon policymakers to think about how best to support allied regimes while also holding them to the highest standards of human rights protection."—Matthew S. Winters, H-Diplo"Overwhelmingly, studies of human rights and foreign aid have analyzed how a recipient state's human rights record may impact the amount of foreign aid they receive from the US. [Trisko] Darden correctly points out that 'relatively little work has been done to demonstrate the opposite: how foreign aid affects human rights' (17)... [T]he case study chapters allow for a closer examination of the mechanics of exactly how US foreign aid contributes to human rights abuses."—Evan W. Sandlin, Human Rights ReviewTable of ContentsIntroduction: Aiding Freedom: Human Rights and U.S. Foreign Assistance 1. Abetting Violence: The Coercive Effect of Foreign Aid 2. Patterns of Foreign Aid and State Violence 3. Indonesia: Arming and Oppressing 4. El Salvador: Buying Guns and Butter 5. South Korea: Constraining Coercion 6. Aiding and Abetting in the Twenty-First Century Conclusion: Can "Do No Harm" Be Done?

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Book SynopsisSocial justice and human rights movements are entering a new phase. Social media, artificial intelligence, and digital forensics are reshaping advocacy and compliance. Technicians, lawmakers, and advocates, sometimes in collaboration with the private sector, have increasingly gravitated toward the possibilities and dangers inherent in the nonhuman. #HumanRights examines how new technologies interact with older models of rights claiming and communication, influencing and reshaping the modern-day pursuit of justice. Ronald Niezen argues that the impacts of information technologies on human rights are not found through an exclusive focus on sophisticated, expert-driven forms of data management but in considering how these technologies are interacting with other, "traditional" forms of media to produce new avenues of expression, public sympathy, redress of grievances, and sources of the self. Niezen considers various ways that the pursuit of justice is happening via new technologies, including crowdsourcing, social media–facilitated mobilizations (and enclosures), WhatsApp activist networks, and the selective attention of Google's search engine algorithm. He uncovers how emerging technologies of data management and social media influence the ways that human rights claimants and their allies pursue justice, and the "new victimology" that prioritizes and represents strategic lives and types of violence over others. #HumanRights paints a striking and important panoramic picture of the contest between authoritarianism and the new tools by which people attempt to leverage human rights and bring the powerful to account.Trade Review"What is the connection between emerging information technologies and the rise of global human rights? Ronald Niezen addresses this question with imagination and acuity, exploring the extent to which their interplay portends a future of greater political domination, emancipatory potential, or a complex mix of both. A critical issue, and book, worthy of very close attention." -- John and Jean Comaroff * Harvard University *"No longer confined to the courts and clinical reports, the discourse of human rights is now claimed by activists marching in the streets, spray-painted on urban walls, and invoked to enroll participants and engage allies through social media. Ronald Niezen's groundbreaking and insightful book tracks the emergence of these new mediascapes and compellingly explains why they matter." -- Stuart Kirsch * author of Engaged Anthropology: Politics beyond the Text *"#HumanRights shines much-needed light on the use of digital information to illuminate human rights violations around the world. Ronald Niezen spotlights how human rights advocates' embrace of innovative methodologies is shifting the field of practice—to corroborate survivors' stories, verify contested facts, and ultimately contribute to the realization of justice." -- Alexa Koenig * UC Berkeley School of Law *"An insightful human rights analysis, intellectually rigorous and culturally nimble." -- Kirkus Reviews

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Book SynopsisA unique investigation into how alliances form in highly polarized times among LGBTQ, immigrant, and labor rights activists, revealing the impacts within each rights movement. Queer Alliances investigates coalition formation among LGBTQ, immigrant, and labor rights activists in the United States, revealing how these new alliances impact political movement formation. In the early 2000s, the LGBTQ and immigrant rights movements operated separately from and, sometimes, in a hostile manner towards each other. Since 2008, by contrast, major alliances have formed at the national and state level across these communities. Yet, this new coalition formation came at a cost. Today, coalitions across these communities have been largely reluctant to address issues of police brutality, mass incarceration, economic inequality, and the ruthless immigrant regulatory complex. Queer Alliances examines the extent to which grassroots groups bridged historic divisions based on race, gender, class, and immigration status through the development of coalitions, looking specifically at coalition building around expanding LGBTQ rights in Washington State and immigrant and migrant rights in Arizona. Erin Mayo-Adam traces the evolution of political movement formation in each state, and shows that while the movements expanded, they simultaneously ossified around goals that matter to the most advantaged segments of their respective communities. Through a detailed, multi-method study that involves archival research and in-depth interviews with organization leaders and advocates, Queer Alliances centers local, coalition-based mobilization across and within multiple movements rather than national campaigns and court cases that often occur at the end of movement formation. Mayo-Adam argues that the construction of common political movement narratives and a shared core of opponents can help to explain the paradoxical effects of coalition formation. On the one hand, the development of shared political movement narratives and common opponents can expand movements in some contexts. On the other hand, the episodic nature of rights-based campaigns can simultaneously contain and undermine movement expansion, reinforcing movement divisions. Mayo-Adam reveals the extent to which inter- and intra-movement coalitions, formed to win rights or thwart rights losses, represent and serve intersectionally marginalized communities—who are often absent from contemporary accounts of social movement formation.Trade Review"In the real world, queer alliances come together and fall apart again and again. Erin Mayo-Adam's fascinating grassroots interviews show how these often uncontrolled and uncontrollable 'rights episodes' both empower and exploit sexually marginalized, vulnerable people. A must read for anyone interested in twenty-first century rights formation and the future of the LGBTQ movement." -- Susan Burgess * Ohio University *"Erin Mayo-Adam's compelling book paints an intimate portrait of how coalitions form and break down at the grassroots level. An essential read for those who study and participate in movements, Queer Alliances illustrates what makes social movements tick from a fresh perspective and explains how rights can both liberate people and reinstate hierarchies." -- Julie Novkov * University at Albany, SUNY *

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Book SynopsisInternational crime and justice are powerful ideas, associated with a vivid imagery of heinous atrocities, injured humanity, and an international community seized by the need to act. Through an analysis of archival and contemporary data, Imagining the International provides a detailed picture of how ideas of international crime (crimes against all of humanity) and global justice are given content, foregrounding their ethical limits and potentials. Nesam McMillan argues that dominant approaches to these ideas problematically disconnect them from the lived and the specific and foster distance between those who have experienced international crime and those who have not. McMillan draws on interdisciplinary work spanning law, criminology, humanitarianism, socio-legal studies, cultural studies, and human geography to show how understandings of international crime and justice hierarchize, spectacularize, and appropriate the suffering of others and promote an ideal of justice fundamentally disconnected from life as it is lived. McMillan critiques the mode of global interconnection they offer, one which bears resemblance to past colonial global approaches and which seeks to foster community through the image of crime and the practice of punitive justice. This book powerfully underscores the importance of the ideas of international crime and justice and their significant limits, cautioning against their continued valorization.Trade Review"The concepts of international crime and international justice, and the global documents, laws and institutions that aim to put these ideas into practice, are typically promoted as a moral good, a sign of humanity's progress towards a global community. Imagining the International lucidly and convincingly shows why these 'captivating' and 'beautiful' ideas are an ambivalent gift. Through a series of compelling case studies, Nesam McMillan explores the unanticipated effects of international crime and justice—the hierarchies of universal versus local, the legacies of colonialism and the sacrifice of local concerns to an international agenda. Questioning the idea of grounding international solidarity in criminal justice, she urges us to think in more complex and demanding ways about the nature of global interconnection and how it can be fostered in ways that genuinely benefit local communities. This is a timely and provocative book which provides both a map and a critique—it will be valued by scholars and students alike."—Rosanne Kennedy, Australian National University"This insightful book is a much-needed corrective antidote to the nostrums of internationalism. Nesam McMillan unwraps how violence that crosses the gaze of international law becomes appreciated but also appropriated and othered at the same time. This book is a compelling call for inclusiveness and a powerful exhortation for globality to transcend post-coloniality."—Mark A. Drumbl, Washington and Lee University"Imagining the International is an innovative, compelling and much-needed intervention. Forcing us to rethink our assumptions, McMillan questions how certain crimes are established as globally important and others not, and explores the ethical, cultural, and political implications of creating hierarchies of suffering delinked from human experience."—Eve Darian-Smith, University of California, Irvine"Instead of the idealized discourse about exceptional crimes as a spectacle that objectifies the victims, the global justice project needs to be newly conceptualized from the positions of equality and solidarity. McMillan's book is an important step in this direction."—Katarina Ristic, ConnectionsTable of ContentsIntroduction: The Ideas of "International" Crime and Justice 1. On International Crime, Justice, and Community 2. "Rwanda": The Production of a Global Event 3. International Crime as Spectacle: Scale, Subjectivity, Ethics 4. The Ideal of International Criminal Justice: Transcendence, Otherness, Myth Conclusion: Community Beyond Crime: Untethering International Crime, Justice, and Community

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Book SynopsisA radical vision for the future of human rights as a fundamentally reconfigured framework for global justice. Reinventing Human Rights offers a bold argument: that only a radically reformulated approach to human rights will prove adequate to confront and overcome the most consequential global problems. Charting a new path—away from either common critiques of the various incapacities of the international human rights system or advocacy for the status quo—Mark Goodale offers a new vision for human rights as a basis for collective action and moral renewal. Goodale's proposition to reinvent human rights begins with a deep unpacking of human rights institutionalism and political theory in order to give priority to the "practice of human rights." Rather than a priori claims to universality, he calls for a working theory of human rights defined by "translocality," a conceptual and ethical grounding that invites people to form alliances beyond established boundaries of community, nation, race, or religious identity. This book will serve as both a concrete blueprint and source of inspiration for those who want to preserve human rights as a key framework for confronting our manifold contemporary challenges, yet who agree—for many different reasons—that to do so requires radical reappraisal, imaginative reconceptualization, and a willingness to reinvent human rights as a cross-cultural foundation for both empowerment and social action.Trade Review"Reinventing Human Rights is a major original statement that transcends old debates and opens tremendous new possibilities. Mark Goodale's ambitious, intrepid move is to neither embrace nor vilify human rights but to demand a new vision of them, for a translocal and transformative politics in a diverse and unequal world."—Samuel Moyn, Yale University, author of Not Enough: Human Rights in an Unequal World"Reinventing Human Rights captures the emergent conditions we must address—whether we want to or not. Mark Goodale opens us up to settings often overlooked, but that increasingly signal their presence."—Saskia Sassen, Columbia University, author of Expulsions: Brutality and Complexity in the Global Economy"Goodale... articulates a new vision for conceptualizing human rights, aiming to inspire fresh thinking and approaches to contemporary problems. His approach challenges claims of universality, which have long been a theoretical and practical stumbling block for human rights scholars and practitioners, and emphasizes what he calls translocality to create broader, though still nuanced, alliances among people across tribes, cultures, and nations. ... Recommended."—A. G. Reiter, CHOICE"Reinventing Human Rights... presents an eloquently argued 'only way forward'... in redefining the framework for seeking justice globally. The tenor is normative, earnestly looking for betterment in the world, even as it draws on critical scholarship, showcasing several titles from the Stanford Studies in Human Rights edited by the author."—Harri Englund, Journal of the Royal Anthropological InstituteTable of ContentsOne: Human Rights against the Maelstroms Two: Human Rights, Capitalism, and the Ends of Economic Life Three: Remaking Sovereignty in the Image of Human Rights Four: Human Rights beyond the Rule of Law Five: Decolonizing Human Rights Six: Human Rights Otherwise Seven: The Subjects of Human Rights Eight: Human Rights in a G20 World

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Book SynopsisJustice in the Question of Palestine is often framed as a question of law. Yet none of the Israel-Palestinian conflict's most vexing challenges have been resolved by judicial intervention. Occupation law has failed to stem Israel's settlement enterprise. Laws of war have permitted killing and destruction during Israel's military offensives in the Gaza Strip. The Oslo Accord's two-state solution is now dead letter. Justice for Some offers a new approach to understanding the Palestinian struggle for freedom, told through the power and control of international law. Focusing on key junctures—from the Balfour Declaration in 1917 to present-day wars in Gaza—Noura Erakat shows how the strategic deployment of law has shaped current conditions. Over the past century, the law has done more to advance Israel's interests than the Palestinians'. But, Erakat argues, this outcome was never inevitable. Law is politics, and its meaning and application depend on the political intervention of states and people alike. Within the law, change is possible. International law can serve the cause of freedom when it is mobilized in support of a political movement. Presenting the promise and risk of international law, Justice for Some calls for renewed action and attention to the Question of Palestine.Trade Review"Noura Erakat's incisive exploration of the role of law in shaping the development of Israel/Palestine reveals the consistent genuflection of international legal institutions to Israel's reliance on well-established colonial practices. She also forcefully argues that the skillful use of international law as a tool of struggle can be generative of hope and possibility—for Palestine and the world. Justice for Some is precisely the book we need at this time."—Angela Y. Davis, author of Freedom Is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement"A radical rethinking of the role of law and legal advocacy in the struggle for Palestinian rights. Noura Erakat tells how a refugee problem became a national liberation movement, and the tragic story of how initiative and momentum were squandered after Oslo. Brilliant, inspiring, coldly realistic—and hopeful."—Duncan Kennedy, Carter Professor of General Jurisprudence Emeritus, Harvard Law School"Without any doubt, Justice for Some is the best book on the law and politics of the Palestine/Israel struggle—sophisticated, learned, humane, and creative. Noura Erakat makes a profound contribution to our general understanding of the paradoxical role of law in the contemporary world."—Richard Falk, Former UN Special Rapporteur for Palestine, author of Palestine's Horizon: Toward a Just Peace"Anyone wondering how and why international law has failed so miserably to curb Israeli violations in Palestine and the deleterious effect this has had on the law itself should read this book. Noura Erakat communicates...with the skill of a lawyer and the passion of an activist. Justice for Some is both enriching and inspiring."—Raja Shehadeh, founder of Al-Haq, author of Where the Line Is Drawn: A Tale of Crossings, Friendships, and Fifty Years of Occupation in Israel-Palestine"Through a brilliant and bracing analysis of the Palestine question and settler colonialism, Noura Erakat offers a compelling story of how the antinomies of structure and indeterminacy shaped international law and its possibilities. Justice for Some is a vital lens into movement lawyering on the international plane. At once tragic and inspiring, this book is a must-read for anyone interested in decolonization and the politics of international law."—Vasuki Nesiah, New York University, founding member of Third World Approaches to International Law (TWAIL)"Noura Erakat brings a sophisticated understanding of the role of international law over the last century in the Question of Palestine. This brilliant book will be of great interest to anyone seeking to understand why the outcome, thus far, to the disposition of the Palestine problem has not been a just one."—Rashid Khalidi, author of The Hundred Years' War on Palestine: Settler-Colonial Conquest and Resistance, 1917-2017"Erakat's dissection of these legal and political histories is careful and captivating....This book asks that the Palestinian liberation struggle and Jewish-Israeli society each reckon with the impossibility of a two-state future, reimagining what their interests are—and what they could become. In rejecting the zero-sum formula's inevitability, Erakat sees, and demands, an alternative."—Amanda McCaffrey, Jewish Currents"[A] major scholarly contribution to the critical literature devoted to resolving the Israel/Palestine struggle in line with the dictates of justice....[I] urge a careful reading of Justice for Some by all those interested in the Palestinian struggle as well as those curious about the way law works for and against human wellbeing."—Richard Falk, Mondoweiss"[Erakat] meticulously reveals how Israel ignored international law, the laws of war, duties of an occupying power, and efforts brought through the United Nations to censure its actions....The book will interest those concerned with the law and ethics of war, international law, terrorism laws, and observers of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and its treatment by international bodies. Highly recommended."—S. Zuhur, Choice"Erakat's detailed analysis paints a dismal reality, yet it is one that must be acknowledged and worked from. Her meticulous discussion on the inherent injustice in international law propels attention towards what so far remains overlooked and calls the reader to reflect upon action that veers away from what the international community keeps demanding of Palestinians."—Ramona Wadi, Middle East Monitor"That international law is not an effective starting point for achieving justice in Palestine is a vital insight for leftists developing a progressive foreign policy.Justice for Somemakes clear that winning Palestinian freedom will require confronting the geopolitical power structure that gives international law its meaning."—Gunar Olsen, Jacobin"Noura Erakat eloquently shows that, yes, the Israeli state project has been consolidated and expanded on a platform of might making right since 1948—but not only that. Israeli governments have also actively sought to craft legal justifications for the conquest and colonisation of territory, and to harness international law in their favour....[Erakat] has written a book that is a story of Palestine but is also a story of international law itself. Some of its most important insights are more universal than specific. They are major conceptual contributions with value well beyond the immediate case study."—John Reynolds, Dublin Review of Books"Erakat's critical perspective on international law and the focus on how Palestinians have used it to support their cause is a much-needed addition to the international law literature on the Israeli–Palestinian conflict....This is a book brimming with acute insights that deserves the widest possible readership."—Markus Gunneflo, Journal of Conflict and Security Law"Justice for Some challenges the not infrequent characterization of efforts to resolve the struggle over Palestine as a dichotomy between law/politics, principle/pragmatism or an imposed/negotiated solution. As [Erakat's] incisive analysis points out, these binaries, while not completely inaccurate, are incomplete in that they mask Israel's skilled use of the law to advance its interests while overlooking the political reasons for shortcomings in the Palestinian leadership's use of law as a form of resistance."—Terry Rempel, The Middle East Journal"In this elegantly written and carefully argued book, Erakat strikes a delicate balance that makes an important contribution to the scholarly literature on both Palestine and critical international law....[Her] clear-eyed analysis is not only an excellent account of the law and politics of the Palestinian struggle but also a remarkable and often inspiring assessment of the relationship between law and liberation."—Asla Bâli, Journal of Palestine StudiesTable of ContentsIntroduction 1. Colonial Erasures and the Struggle for Self-Determination 2. Permanent Occupation 3. Pragmatic Revolutionaries 4. The Oslo Peace Process 5. From Occupation to Warfare 6. Conclusion

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Book SynopsisA radical vision for the future of human rights as a fundamentally reconfigured framework for global justice. Reinventing Human Rights offers a bold argument: that only a radically reformulated approach to human rights will prove adequate to confront and overcome the most consequential global problems. Charting a new path—away from either common critiques of the various incapacities of the international human rights system or advocacy for the status quo—Mark Goodale offers a new vision for human rights as a basis for collective action and moral renewal. Goodale's proposition to reinvent human rights begins with a deep unpacking of human rights institutionalism and political theory in order to give priority to the "practice of human rights." Rather than a priori claims to universality, he calls for a working theory of human rights defined by "translocality," a conceptual and ethical grounding that invites people to form alliances beyond established boundaries of community, nation, race, or religious identity. This book will serve as both a concrete blueprint and source of inspiration for those who want to preserve human rights as a key framework for confronting our manifold contemporary challenges, yet who agree—for many different reasons—that to do so requires radical reappraisal, imaginative reconceptualization, and a willingness to reinvent human rights as a cross-cultural foundation for both empowerment and social action.Trade Review"Reinventing Human Rights is a major original statement that transcends old debates and opens tremendous new possibilities. Mark Goodale's ambitious, intrepid move is to neither embrace nor vilify human rights but to demand a new vision of them, for a translocal and transformative politics in a diverse and unequal world."—Samuel Moyn, Yale University, author of Not Enough: Human Rights in an Unequal World"Reinventing Human Rights captures the emergent conditions we must address—whether we want to or not. Mark Goodale opens us up to settings often overlooked, but that increasingly signal their presence."—Saskia Sassen, Columbia University, author of Expulsions: Brutality and Complexity in the Global Economy"Goodale... articulates a new vision for conceptualizing human rights, aiming to inspire fresh thinking and approaches to contemporary problems. His approach challenges claims of universality, which have long been a theoretical and practical stumbling block for human rights scholars and practitioners, and emphasizes what he calls translocality to create broader, though still nuanced, alliances among people across tribes, cultures, and nations. ... Recommended."—A. G. Reiter, CHOICE"Reinventing Human Rights... presents an eloquently argued 'only way forward'... in redefining the framework for seeking justice globally. The tenor is normative, earnestly looking for betterment in the world, even as it draws on critical scholarship, showcasing several titles from the Stanford Studies in Human Rights edited by the author."—Harri Englund, Journal of the Royal Anthropological InstituteTable of ContentsOne: Human Rights against the Maelstroms Two: Human Rights, Capitalism, and the Ends of Economic Life Three: Remaking Sovereignty in the Image of Human Rights Four: Human Rights beyond the Rule of Law Five: Decolonizing Human Rights Six: Human Rights Otherwise Seven: The Subjects of Human Rights Eight: Human Rights in a G20 World

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Book SynopsisGrounded in extensive interviews, longitudinal methods, historical analysis, and archival work, Mikaela Luttrell-Rowland shows how two distinct groups of working young people in Lima, Peru have become political protagonists, resisting and critiquing the daily inequality and injustice they face. She details the ways these young people interpret and address a range of issues affecting their lives—from environmental degradation to second-rate public facilities, gender-based violence to dangerous working conditions—and reveals a range of ways they make sense of their systematic marginalization and their own labor, and in doing so, how they navigate everyday state violence. By attending to the affect, longing, and desires that animate these young people's politics, Luttrell-Rowland conveys the meaning of their lives and work in an economy that invokes their subjectivity and rights while rendering them non-participatory subjects. Though the lives of young people are often imagined as far from politics, these "political children" expose the contradictions of public policy narratives in which the Peruvian state is cast as a neutral site for engagement and action. Through their criticism and activism, the young people in this book demonstrate that such narratives divorce state power from the very places in which it is experienced as structural violence.Trade Review"This powerful ethnography provides a rich account of how the Peruvian state is lived, felt, and understood, demonstrating just how much we can learn when we really listen to children. Through a careful and sensitive analysis of their words and drawings, Mikaela Luttrell-Rowland sheds new light on the enduring legacies of state violence, the affective dimensions of state power, and the neoliberal dynamics of disinvestment and depoliticization. By engaging with two different groups of working children, one organized as a social movement and one not, Luttrell-Rowland reveals how all children—not just those who are activists—are political children."—Jessica K. Taft, University of California, Santa Cruz"In her clear yet nuanced analysis of state power, Mikaela Luttrell-Rowland masterfully foregrounds the political subjectivity and demands of youth. Political Children is a valuable contribution to our understanding of youth as agents and of the contradictions embedded in living in and fighting against injustices informed by legacies of colonialism, war, and economic inequities."—M. Cristina Alcalde, Miami University"From the first to the last page, Political Children makes a powerful call for us to stop, and to listen properly, to what marginalised children have to say about interlocking forms of environmental, structural, historical, and political violence. Zooming in on Lima, Perú but equally relevant to many other settings in the Global South and beyond, the book is a testament to the way in whichin-depth interviews, longitudinal ethnographic fieldwork and archival materials can all be harnessed to give agency to children while delivering insights into both the working of state power and the experience of translocal patterns of capital and environmental inequity. Far from being the silent receivers of rights, or just belonging to their families and hence located 'far from politics', Political Children breaks new ground in demonstrating that children are indeed the carriers of key political insights, which they articulate not simply in the mainstream language of rights but also inthe affective language of longing and desire. Methodologically impressive and theoretically sophisticated, Political Children is a must-read to overcome unexamined assumptions about children and learn what powerful socio-legal research can uncover if we stop and listen to them."—Luis Eslava, Kent Law School"As a lawyer and law professor, Luttrell-Rowland brings a different perspective than that of a typical social scientist to this study of working young people in Lima, Peru.... Recommended."—D. L. Browman, CHOICETable of ContentsContents and Abstracts

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Book SynopsisGrounded in extensive interviews, longitudinal methods, historical analysis, and archival work, Mikaela Luttrell-Rowland shows how two distinct groups of working young people in Lima, Peru have become political protagonists, resisting and critiquing the daily inequality and injustice they face. She details the ways these young people interpret and address a range of issues affecting their lives—from environmental degradation to second-rate public facilities, gender-based violence to dangerous working conditions—and reveals a range of ways they make sense of their systematic marginalization and their own labor, and in doing so, how they navigate everyday state violence. By attending to the affect, longing, and desires that animate these young people's politics, Luttrell-Rowland conveys the meaning of their lives and work in an economy that invokes their subjectivity and rights while rendering them non-participatory subjects. Though the lives of young people are often imagined as far from politics, these "political children" expose the contradictions of public policy narratives in which the Peruvian state is cast as a neutral site for engagement and action. Through their criticism and activism, the young people in this book demonstrate that such narratives divorce state power from the very places in which it is experienced as structural violence.Trade Review"This powerful ethnography provides a rich account of how the Peruvian state is lived, felt, and understood, demonstrating just how much we can learn when we really listen to children. Through a careful and sensitive analysis of their words and drawings, Mikaela Luttrell-Rowland sheds new light on the enduring legacies of state violence, the affective dimensions of state power, and the neoliberal dynamics of disinvestment and depoliticization. By engaging with two different groups of working children, one organized as a social movement and one not, Luttrell-Rowland reveals how all children—not just those who are activists—are political children."—Jessica K. Taft, University of California, Santa Cruz"In her clear yet nuanced analysis of state power, Mikaela Luttrell-Rowland masterfully foregrounds the political subjectivity and demands of youth. Political Children is a valuable contribution to our understanding of youth as agents and of the contradictions embedded in living in and fighting against injustices informed by legacies of colonialism, war, and economic inequities."—M. Cristina Alcalde, Miami University"From the first to the last page, Political Children makes a powerful call for us to stop, and to listen properly, to what marginalised children have to say about interlocking forms of environmental, structural, historical, and political violence. Zooming in on Lima, Perú but equally relevant to many other settings in the Global South and beyond, the book is a testament to the way in whichin-depth interviews, longitudinal ethnographic fieldwork and archival materials can all be harnessed to give agency to children while delivering insights into both the working of state power and the experience of translocal patterns of capital and environmental inequity. Far from being the silent receivers of rights, or just belonging to their families and hence located 'far from politics', Political Children breaks new ground in demonstrating that children are indeed the carriers of key political insights, which they articulate not simply in the mainstream language of rights but also inthe affective language of longing and desire. Methodologically impressive and theoretically sophisticated, Political Children is a must-read to overcome unexamined assumptions about children and learn what powerful socio-legal research can uncover if we stop and listen to them."—Luis Eslava, Kent Law School"As a lawyer and law professor, Luttrell-Rowland brings a different perspective than that of a typical social scientist to this study of working young people in Lima, Peru.... Recommended."—D. L. Browman, CHOICETable of ContentsContents and Abstracts

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Book SynopsisA magisterial comparative study, Proud to Punish recenters our understanding of modern punishment through a sweeping analysis of the global phenomenon of "rough justice": the use of force to settle accounts and enforce legal and moral norms outside the formal framework of the law. While taking many forms, including vigilantism, lynch mobs, people's courts, and death squads, all seekers of rough justice thrive on the deliberate blurring of lines between law enforcers and troublemakers. Digital networks have provided a profitable arena for vigilantes, who use social media to build a following and publicize their work, as they debase the bodies of the accused for purposes of edification and entertainment. It is this unabashed pride to punish, and the new punitive celebrations that actualize, publicize, and commercialize it, that this book brings into focus. Recounted in lively prose, Proud to Punish is both a global map of rough justice today and an insight into the deeper nature of punishment as a social and political phenomenon.Trade Review"Proud to Punish offers a brilliant, compelling analysis of contemporary vigilantism and the politics of extrajudicial punishment. The authors offer innovative insights into crimefighting discourses, retributive violence, its public reception, and responses from law enforcement authorities; and vividly illustrate how these factors become implicated in local and global vigilante configurations."—Atreyee Sen, co-editor of Global Vigilantes: Perspectives on Violence and Justice"Gilles Favarel-Garrigues and Laurent Gayer lead us on a visceral journey across the globe to understand contemporary vigilantism. With a rare blend of theoretical sophistication and empirical grounding, Proud to Punish asks us to confront the fact that vigilantism is neither a relic of the past, nor a product of failed states, but rather a broadly embraced force of the present."—Harel Shapira, The University of Texas at Austin"Proud to Punish is a must-read for all interested in global vigilantism and lynching. Admirably capacious in ranging across space and time, the book offers significant insights on the rough justice impulse in a wide variety of contemporary and historical contexts."—Michael J. Pfeifer, author of The Roots of Rough Justice: Origins of American Lynching

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Book SynopsisThe futures of reproductive justice and LGBTQIA+ liberation are intimately connected. Both movements were born out of the desire to love and build families of our choosingwhen and how we decide. Both movements are rooted in broader social justice liberationist traditions that center the needs of Black and brown communities, the LGBTQIA+ community, gender-nonconforming folks, femmes, poor folks, parents, and all those who have been forced to the margins of society. Taking as its starting point the idea that we all have the human right to bodily autonomy, to sexual health and pleasure, and to exercise these rights with dignity, Queering Reproductive Justice sets out to re-envision the seemingly disparate strands of the reproductive justice and LGBTQIA+ movements and offer an invitation to reimagine these movements as one integrated vision of freedom for the future. Candace Bond-Theriault asserts that for reproductive justice to be truly successful, we must acknowledge th

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Book SynopsisThe futures of reproductive justice and LGBTQIA+ liberation are intimately connected. Both movements were born out of the desire to love and build families of our choosingwhen and how we decide. Both movements are rooted in broader social justice liberationist traditions that center the needs of Black and brown communities, the LGBTQIA+ community, gender-nonconforming folks, femmes, poor folks, parents, and all those who have been forced to the margins of society. Taking as its starting point the idea that we all have the human right to bodily autonomy, to sexual health and pleasure, and to exercise these rights with dignity, Queering Reproductive Justice sets out to re-envision the seemingly disparate strands of the reproductive justice and LGBTQIA+ movements and offer an invitation to reimagine these movements as one integrated vision of freedom for the future. Candace Bond-Theriault asserts that for reproductive justice to be truly successful, we must acknowledge that members of the LGBTQIA+ community often face distinct, specific, and interlocking oppressions when it comes to these rights. Family formation, contraception needs, and appropriate support from healthcare services are still poorly understood aspects of the LGBTQIA+ experience, which often challenge mainstream notions of the nuclear family, and the primacy of blood-relatives. Blending advocacy with a legal, rights-based framework, Queering Reproductive Justice offers a unified path for attaining reproductive justice for LGBTQIA+ people. Drawing on U.S. law and legislative history, healthcare policy, human rights, and interviews with academics and activists, Bond-Theriault presents incisive new recommendations for queer reproductive justice theory, organizing, and advocacy. This book offers readers an invitation to join the conversation, and ultimately to join the movement to that is unapologetically queering reproductive justice.

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Book SynopsisHow can we make sense of human rights in China's authoritarian Party-State system? Eva Pils offers a nuanced account of this contentious area, examining human rights as a set of social practices. Drawing on a wide range of resources including years of interaction with Chinese human rights defenders, Pils discusses what gives rise to systematic human rights violations, what institutional avenues of protection are available, and how social practices of human rights defence have evolved. Three central areas are addressed: liberty and integrity of the person; freedom of thought and expression; and inequality and socio-economic rights. Pils argues that the Party-State system is inherently opposed to human rights principles in all these areas, and that – contributing to a global trend – it is becoming more repressive. Yet, despite authoritarianism's lengthening shadows, China’s human rights movement has so far proved resourceful and resilient. The trajectories discussed here will continue to shape the struggle for human rights in China and beyond its borders.Trade Review"Justice, tradition, contention: only Eva Pils could assess each of these complex constructs in the context of contemporary China, but also argue effectively that human rights have evolved as a social practice. In addition to systematically eviscerating authoritarians' shallow claims to uphold the rule of law, Pils offers a rich view of bottom-up, extraordinarily persistent activism - and the prospect of change in China."—Sophie Richardson, Human Rights Watch "This timely book reflects the ongoing shifts in China's human rights performance and offers insights into the larger ideological, procedural and institutional background in which lawyers in China carry out their struggles. Her sharp critiques of the Chinese system are not only legally valid and morally sound, but also theoretically relevant."—Hualing Fu, University of Hong Kong "The complexity of human rights discourse, law, and social practice in the Chinese context requires a multidimensional analysis and Pils' book meets the challenge. She presents a nuanced study of the Chinese human rights landscape based on years of experience and solid research including exchanges with lawyers, journalists, and other human rights defenders. The book goes beyond a straightforward examination of existing norms, counter-norms, and institutional mechanisms to stress the importance of the practice of human rights advocacy and persistent civil society responses in the face of intensifying repression in the Xi Jinping era."—Kelly Loper, I.con "The book provides a panoramic view for readers who are interested in obtaining comprehensive knowledge of human rights and the role of law in China today.... The book convincingly makes the case that all rights, as well as right violations, are interdependent, which explains why the suppression under China's Party-State needs to be so comprehensive and nuanced."—Asia-Pacific Journal on Human Rights and the Law "[A] rare and precious monograph with a bottom-up perspective. […] Pils fills the knowledge gap in China's human rights praxis."—Human Rights ReviewTable of Contents Map Chronology Acknowledgements List of Abbreviations Introduction 1. Human Rights and Competing Conceptions of Justice, Law and Power in China 2. Institutional Avenues of Human Rights Advocacy 3. Liberty and Life 4. Expression and Thought 5. Inequality and Socio-economic Rights 6. Rights Defenders Conclusion Notes

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Book SynopsisHow can we make sense of human rights in China's authoritarian Party-State system? Eva Pils offers a nuanced account of this contentious area, examining human rights as a set of social practices. Drawing on a wide range of resources including years of interaction with Chinese human rights defenders, Pils discusses what gives rise to systematic human rights violations, what institutional avenues of protection are available, and how social practices of human rights defence have evolved. Three central areas are addressed: liberty and integrity of the person; freedom of thought and expression; and inequality and socio-economic rights. Pils argues that the Party-State system is inherently opposed to human rights principles in all these areas, and that – contributing to a global trend – it is becoming more repressive. Yet, despite authoritarianism's lengthening shadows, China’s human rights movement has so far proved resourceful and resilient. The trajectories discussed here will continue to shape the struggle for human rights in China and beyond its borders.Trade Review"Justice, tradition, contention: only Eva Pils could assess each of these complex constructs in the context of contemporary China, but also argue effectively that human rights have evolved as a social practice. In addition to systematically eviscerating authoritarians' shallow claims to uphold the rule of law, Pils offers a rich view of bottom-up, extraordinarily persistent activism - and the prospect of change in China."—Sophie Richardson, Human Rights Watch "This timely book reflects the ongoing shifts in China's human rights performance and offers insights into the larger ideological, procedural and institutional background in which lawyers in China carry out their struggles. Her sharp critiques of the Chinese system are not only legally valid and morally sound, but also theoretically relevant."—Hualing Fu, University of Hong Kong "The complexity of human rights discourse, law, and social practice in the Chinese context requires a multidimensional analysis and Pils' book meets the challenge. She presents a nuanced study of the Chinese human rights landscape based on years of experience and solid research including exchanges with lawyers, journalists, and other human rights defenders. The book goes beyond a straightforward examination of existing norms, counter-norms, and institutional mechanisms to stress the importance of the practice of human rights advocacy and persistent civil society responses in the face of intensifying repression in the Xi Jinping era."—Kelly Loper, I.con "The book provides a panoramic view for readers who are interested in obtaining comprehensive knowledge of human rights and the role of law in China today.... The book convincingly makes the case that all rights, as well as right violations, are interdependent, which explains why the suppression under China's Party-State needs to be so comprehensive and nuanced."—Asia-Pacific Journal on Human Rights and the Law "[A] rare and precious monograph with a bottom-up perspective. […] Pils fills the knowledge gap in China's human rights praxis."—Human Rights ReviewTable of Contents Map Chronology Acknowledgements List of Abbreviations Introduction 1. Human Rights and Competing Conceptions of Justice, Law and Power in China 2. Institutional Avenues of Human Rights Advocacy 3. Liberty and Life 4. Expression and Thought 5. Inequality and Socio-economic Rights 6. Rights Defenders Conclusion Notes

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Book SynopsisShould African and Muslim-majority countries be obliged to protect LGBT rights, or do such rights violate their cultures? Should Western-based corporations be held liable if their security guards injure union activists in another part of the world, or should such decisions be settled under local or domestic law? In this book, renowned human rights scholar Rhoda E. Howard-Hassmann vigorously defends the universality of human rights, arguing that the entire range of rights is necessary for all individuals everywhere, regardless of sex, color, ethnicity, sexuality, religion or social class. Howard-Hassmann grounds her defense of universality in her conception of human dignity, which she maintains must include personal autonomy, equality, respect, recognition, and material security. Only social democracies, she contends, can be considered fully rights-protective states. Taking issue with scholars who argue that human rights are “Western” quasi-imperialist impositions on states in the global South, and risk undermining community and social obligation, Howard-Hassmann explains how human rights support communities and can only be preserved if states and individuals observe their duties to protect them.Trade Review“Bold yet carefully reasoned, this book reflects Rhoda Howard-Hassmann’s deep commitment to human rights as a bulwark of protection and emancipation. Deeply important and timely.”Shareen Hertel, University of Connecticut “In this eminently readable and engaging book, Rhoda Howard-Hassmann provides a serious consideration of the universality of human rights. It will make a very useful contribution to university classes as each chapter can be used to drill down into the particular topic it discusses, while the entire book can be read as a single argument.”Ari Kohen, University of NebraskaTable of Contents Acknowledgements Introduction Chapter 1. Universal Human Rights Chapter 2: Critical Perspectives on Human Rights Chapter 3: How Rights-Protective Societies Develop Chapter 4: Civil and Political Rights Chapter 5: Culture and Community Chapter 6: Economic and Social Human Rights Chapter 7: Collective Human Rights Chapter 8: Western (Ir)responsibility for Human Rights in the Global South

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Book SynopsisShould African and Muslim-majority countries be obliged to protect LGBT rights, or do such rights violate their cultures? Should Western-based corporations be held liable if their security guards injure union activists in another part of the world, or should such decisions be settled under local or domestic law? In this book, renowned human rights scholar Rhoda E. Howard-Hassmann vigorously defends the universality of human rights, arguing that the entire range of rights is necessary for all individuals everywhere, regardless of sex, color, ethnicity, sexuality, religion or social class. Howard-Hassmann grounds her defense of universality in her conception of human dignity, which she maintains must include personal autonomy, equality, respect, recognition, and material security. Only social democracies, she contends, can be considered fully rights-protective states. Taking issue with scholars who argue that human rights are “Western” quasi-imperialist impositions on states in the global South, and risk undermining community and social obligation, Howard-Hassmann explains how human rights support communities and can only be preserved if states and individuals observe their duties to protect them.Trade Review“Bold yet carefully reasoned, this book reflects Rhoda Howard-Hassmann’s deep commitment to human rights as a bulwark of protection and emancipation. Deeply important and timely.”Shareen Hertel, University of Connecticut “In this eminently readable and engaging book, Rhoda Howard-Hassmann provides a serious consideration of the universality of human rights. It will make a very useful contribution to university classes as each chapter can be used to drill down into the particular topic it discusses, while the entire book can be read as a single argument.”Ari Kohen, University of NebraskaTable of ContentsAcknowledgments vii Abbreviations ix Introduction 1 1 Universal Human Rights 6 2 Critical Perspectives on Human Rights 28 3 How Rights-Protective Societies Develop 49 4 Civil and Political Rights 72 5 Culture and Community 93 6 Economic and Social Human Rights 117 7 Collective Human Rights 139 8 Western (Ir)responsibility for Human Rights in the Global South 158 Notes 182 Index 199

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Book SynopsisBy foot, in buses, prison vans and trains, a steady stream of refugees traveled from the Greek island of Lesbos into Europe. In the autumn of 2015, award-winning writer Navid Kermani decided to accompany them on the "Balkan route." In this perceptive account from the front line of the "refugee crisis," Kermani shows how a seemingly distant world in which war and conflict rage has suddenly collided with our own. Kermani describes the situation on the Turkish west coast where thousands of refugees live in the most desperate conditions, waiting to take the perilous journey across the Mediterranean. Then, on Lesbos, he observes the culture shock amongst those who have survived the ordeal by sea. He speaks to aid workers and politicians, but most importantly of all to the refugees themselves, asking those who have come from Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere what has driven them to risk everything and embark on the long and treacherous journey to Europe. With great sensitivity Kermani reveals, often through small details, the cultural and political upheaval that has caused people to uproot their lives, and at the same time shining a light on Europe's inadequate and at times openly hostile response to the refugees. Interspersed with powerful images by the acclaimed photographer Moises Saman, Upheaval is a much-needed human account of a crisis we cannot ignore.Trade Review"Kermani once more shows his brilliance as a reporter."—Der Standard "The real significance of this reportage lies in the many questions Kermani poses to the reader, in the face of the refugee crisis and its political consequences, as well as rampant levels of hate and fear—questions that cannot remain unanswered."—Die Tagespost "Among the most thoughtful intellectual voices in Germany today."—The New York Review of Books "The moral power behind Kermani's extraordinary achievements is scarcely paralleled among all the great figures of German literature."—Süddeutsche Zeitung "Kermani doesn't conceal a thing. He records everything that he sees and hears. But he also says what he thinks of it all...masterful."—Frankfurter Rundschau "Does Kermani just tell the nice stories? No, he is too good for that. He shows empathy towards the refugees, but also looks more closely to reveal the complex reasons for their flight."—Die Welt "In Upheaval, Navid Kermani shows what a serious public discussion of migration could look like."—Deutschlandradio"Kermani has done a great job of not only capturing something of what the refugees are experiencing as they take the last stage of their journey to what they hope will be a new world, but the mood of the people whose hands they pass through. He shines a light in the dark spaces of our current world and exposes the dirty and shameful way we treat our fellow human beings."—http://blogcritics.org/

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Book SynopsisBy foot, in buses, prison vans and trains, a steady stream of refugees traveled from the Greek island of Lesbos into Europe. In the autumn of 2015, award-winning writer Navid Kermani decided to accompany them on the "Balkan route." In this perceptive account from the front line of the "refugee crisis," Kermani shows how a seemingly distant world in which war and conflict rage has suddenly collided with our own. Kermani describes the situation on the Turkish west coast where thousands of refugees live in the most desperate conditions, waiting to take the perilous journey across the Mediterranean. Then, on Lesbos, he observes the culture shock amongst those who have survived the ordeal by sea. He speaks to aid workers and politicians, but most importantly of all to the refugees themselves, asking those who have come from Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere what has driven them to risk everything and embark on the long and treacherous journey to Europe. With great sensitivity Kermani reveals, often through small details, the cultural and political upheaval that has caused people to uproot their lives, and at the same time shining a light on Europe's inadequate and at times openly hostile response to the refugees. Interspersed with powerful images by the acclaimed photographer Moises Saman, Upheaval is a much-needed human account of a crisis we cannot ignore.Trade Review"Kermani once more shows his brilliance as a reporter."—Der Standard "The real significance of this reportage lies in the many questions Kermani poses to the reader, in the face of the refugee crisis and its political consequences, as well as rampant levels of hate and fear—questions that cannot remain unanswered."—Die Tagespost "Among the most thoughtful intellectual voices in Germany today."—The New York Review of Books "The moral power behind Kermani's extraordinary achievements is scarcely paralleled among all the great figures of German literature."—Süddeutsche Zeitung "Kermani doesn't conceal a thing. He records everything that he sees and hears. But he also says what he thinks of it all...masterful."—Frankfurter Rundschau "Does Kermani just tell the nice stories? No, he is too good for that. He shows empathy towards the refugees, but also looks more closely to reveal the complex reasons for their flight."—Die Welt "In Upheaval, Navid Kermani shows what a serious public discussion of migration could look like."—Deutschlandradio"Kermani has done a great job of not only capturing something of what the refugees are experiencing as they take the last stage of their journey to what they hope will be a new world, but the mood of the people whose hands they pass through. He shines a light in the dark spaces of our current world and exposes the dirty and shameful way we treat our fellow human beings."—http://blogcritics.org/

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Book SynopsisHuman rights have fallen on hard times, yet they are more necessary than ever. People all over the world – from Amazonian villages to Iranian prisons – need human rights to gain recognition, campaign for justice, and save lives. But how can we secure a brighter future for human rights? What changes are required to confront the regime’s weaknesses and emerging global challenges? In this cutting-edge analysis, Alison Brysk sets out a pragmatic reformist agenda for human rights in the twenty-first century. Tracing problems and solutions through contemporary case studies – the plight of refugees, declining democracies such as Mexico and Turkey, the expansion of women’s rights, new norms for indigenous peoples, and rights regression in the USA – she shows that the dynamic strength of human rights lies in their evolving political practice. This distinctive vision demands that we build upon the gains of the human rights regime to construct new pathways which address historic rights gaps, from citizenship to security, from environmental protection to resurgent nationalism, and to globalization itself. Drawing on the author’s extensive experience as a leading human rights scholar and activist, The Future of Human Rights offers a broad and authoritative guide to the big questions in global human rights governance today.Trade Review“An excellent analysis of the full range of issues and tensions that characterize current human rights practice and governance today.”Sam Gregory, Harvard Kennedy School and Program Director, WITNESS “Alison Brysk makes a compelling, pragmatic, and, ultimately, optimistic argument for the incredible resilience of human rights. Combining insightful social science theory with evidence of human rights victories and setbacks, The Future of Human Rights provides a powerful diagnostic, offering vital lessons on the way forward.”Tom Pegram, University College London“Alison Brysk has read widely and thought carefully about human rights. The synthesis presented here, concise but sophisticated, is very much worth reading and pondering. She does not shy away from the problems, but also presents some positive possibilities for the future of human rights.”David P. Forsythe, University Professor Emeritus, University of Nebraska-Lincoln.Table of Contents Chapter 1: Now More Than Ever Chapter 2: Unfinished Business: Mind the Gaps Chapter 3: Expanding Rights: Bridges and Paths Chapter 4: Contracting Rights: Regression and Resistance Chapter 5: Reconstructing Rights in a Post-Liberal World

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Book SynopsisBy 2100, the human population may exceed 11 billion. Having recently surpassed 7.5 billion, it has trebled since 1950. Are such numbers sustainable, given a deepening environmental crisis? Can so many live well? Or should world population be controlled? The population question, one of the twentieth century’s most bitterly contested issues, is being debated once again. In this compelling book, Diana Coole examines some of the profound political and ethical questions involved. Are ethical objections to government interference with individuals’ reproductive freedom definitive? Is it possible to limit population in a non-coercive way that is consistent with liberal-democratic values? Interweaving erudite original analysis with an accessible overview of the crucial debates, Coole argues that a case can be made for reducing our numbers in ways that are compatible with human rights. This book will be essential reading for anyone interested in one of the most important questions facing our planet, from concerned citizens to students of politics, sociology, political economy, gender studies and environmental studies.Trade Review‘This important and accessible work persuasively addresses difficult normative questions about population control, philosophically rejecting common arguments which seek to put any discussion of population policy “off the table” while remaining sensitive to the historical and political context motivating such concerns.’ Elizabeth Cripps, University of Edinburgh‘An informed, subtle and revealing analysis.’ Sarah Conly, author of One ChildTable of Contents Contents Introduction Chapter One Should Population be Controlled? Chapter Two The Ethics of Population Control: Reproductive Freedom and Human Rights Chapter Three The Means of Population Governance Notes

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Book SynopsisBy 2100, the human population may exceed 11 billion. Having recently surpassed 7.5 billion, it has trebled since 1950. Are such numbers sustainable, given a deepening environmental crisis? Can so many live well? Or should world population be controlled? The population question, one of the twentieth century’s most bitterly contested issues, is being debated once again. In this compelling book, Diana Coole examines some of the profound political and ethical questions involved. Are ethical objections to government interference with individuals’ reproductive freedom definitive? Is it possible to limit population in a non-coercive way that is consistent with liberal-democratic values? Interweaving erudite original analysis with an accessible overview of the crucial debates, Coole argues that a case can be made for reducing our numbers in ways that are compatible with human rights. This book will be essential reading for anyone interested in one of the most important questions facing our planet, from concerned citizens to students of politics, sociology, political economy, gender studies and environmental studies.Trade Review‘This important and accessible work persuasively addresses difficult normative questions about population control, philosophically rejecting common arguments which seek to put any discussion of population policy “off the table” while remaining sensitive to the historical and political context motivating such concerns.’ Elizabeth Cripps, University of Edinburgh‘An informed, subtle and revealing analysis.’ Sarah Conly, author of One ChildTable of Contents Contents Introduction Chapter One Should Population be Controlled? Chapter Two The Ethics of Population Control: Reproductive Freedom and Human Rights Chapter Three The Means of Population Governance Notes

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Book SynopsisTorture is not as universally condemned as it once was. From Guantánamo and Abu Ghraib prisons to the death of Giulio Regeni, countless recent cases have shocked public opinion. But if we want to defend the human dignity that torture violates, simple indignation is not enough. In this important book, Donatella Di Cesare provides a critical perspective on torture in all its dimensions. She seeks to capture the peculiarity of an extreme and methodical violence where the tormentor calculates and measures out pain so that he can hold off the victim’s death, allowing him to continue to exercise his sovereign power. For the victim, being tortured is like experiencing his own death while he is still alive. Torture is a threat wherever the defenceless find themselves in the hands of the strong: in prisons, in migrant camps, in nursing homes, in centres for the disabled and in institutions for minors. This impassioned book will appeal to students and scholars of philosophy and political theory as well as to anyone committed to defending human rights as universal and inviolable.Trade Review"After 9/11, popular culture and some pseudo-intellectual arguments have undermined the universal moral condemnation of torture we could once count on. Donatella Di Cesare dissects these false positions one by one. Her book makes a wonderful contribution to the legal, ethical and political debates about torture because it highlights the radical immorality and unscientific basis of the myths created about the benefits of torture in 'keeping us safe'."Juan Mendez, Professor of Human Rights Law at the American University and former UN Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment or Punishment"Donatella Di Cesare is one of the most important voices in contemporary European philosophy. Her book is a darkly knowing, lucid and relentless philosophical primer on torture in the age of terrorism. If human dignity is to survive these bleak times, the fierce lessons of Di Cesare�s study will need to be absorbed."Jay Bernstein, New School for Social Research "An important study of barbarism calls for citizens to be vigilant and to resist." Times Higher EducationTable of Contents Prologue Chapter One. The politics of torture 1. Without end? Torture in the twenty-first century 2. Torture and Power 3. The dark backdrop of sacrifice. Torture in the mechanisms of terror 4. Torture after the abolition of torture 5. The Black Phoenix 6. Torture and democracy 7. After 9/11. State of exception, pre-emptive torture 8. The debate over torture 9. The dilemma of ‘getting our hands dirty’. Thomas Nagel and Michael Walzer 10. Alan Dershowitz and the ‘torture warrant’ 11. The lesser evil is still an evil 12. 24. The gentleman torturer 13. A political theology of torture 14. Why not torture the terrorist? The ticking time bomb 15. Dangerous, pseudo-philosophical tales 16. Illegitimacy. The torturer-state 17. A shipwreck of human rights? 18. Human dignity in torture Chapter Two. Phenomenology of Torture 1. Defining torture. Etymological notes 2. ‘Whoever has succumbed to torture can no longer feel at home in the world’ - Améry 3. Torture, genocide, Holocaust 4. Killing and torturing 5. Between biopower and sovereign power 6. Anatomy of the butcher 7. Sade, the negation of the other, and the language of violence 8. From Torquemada to Scilingo. Four portraits 9. Born torturers? 10. Pedro and the Captain 11. The victim’s secret 12. Saying the word ‘torture’ 13. On pain and suffering 14. Surviving one’s own death Chapter Three. The Administration of Torture 1. Giulio Regeni. The body of the tortured 2. Benjamin; or, on an ignominious institution 3. The G8 in Genoa 4. ‘No touch’ torture. On Stammheim prison 5. Desaparecidos, disappeared. When death is denied 6. The CIA’s global gulag 7. Guantánamo. A camp for the new millennium 8. Abu Ghraib. The photographs of shame 9. Women and sexual violence 10. In the hands of the stronger 11. Torments and torture marked ‘made in Italy’ Epilogue References

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Book SynopsisTorture is not as universally condemned as it once was. From Guantánamo and Abu Ghraib prisons to the death of Giulio Regeni, countless recent cases have shocked public opinion. But if we want to defend the human dignity that torture violates, simple indignation is not enough. In this important book, Donatella Di Cesare provides a critical perspective on torture in all its dimensions. She seeks to capture the peculiarity of an extreme and methodical violence where the tormentor calculates and measures out pain so that he can hold off the victim’s death, allowing him to continue to exercise his sovereign power. For the victim, being tortured is like experiencing his own death while he is still alive. Torture is a threat wherever the defenceless find themselves in the hands of the strong: in prisons, in migrant camps, in nursing homes, in centres for the disabled and in institutions for minors. This impassioned book will appeal to students and scholars of philosophy and political theory as well as to anyone committed to defending human rights as universal and inviolable.Trade Review"After 9/11, popular culture and some pseudo-intellectual arguments have undermined the universal moral condemnation of torture we could once count on. Donatella di Cesare dissects these false positions one by one. Her book makes a wonderful contribution to the legal, ethical and political debates about torture because it highlights the radical immorality and unscientific basis of the myths they create about the benefits of torture in 'keeping us safe.'"Juan Mendez, Professor of Human Rights Law at the American University and former UN Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment or Punishment"Donatella Di Cesare is one of the most important voices in contemporary European philosophy. Her book is a darkly knowing, lucid, and relentless philosophical primer on torture in the age of terrorism. If human dignity is to survive these bleak times the fierce lessons of Di Cesare's study will need to be absorbed and furthered."Jay Bernstein, New School for Social Research "An important study of barbarism calls for citizens to be vigilant and to resist." Times Higher EducationTable of ContentsPrologue vii 1 The Politics of torture 1 1 Without end? Torture in the twenty-first century 1 2 Torture and power 4 3 The dark backdrop of sacrifice: torture in the mechanisms of terror 9 4 Torture after the abolition of torture 13 5 The black phoenix 16 6 Torture and democracy 19 7 After 9/11: state of exception, pre-emptive torture 21 8 The debate over torture 25 9 The dilemma of ‘getting our hands dirty’: Thomas Nagel and Michael Walzer 28 10 Alan Dershowitz and the ‘torture warrant’ 33 11 The lesser evil is still an evil 38 12 24: the gentleman torturer 40 13 A political theology of torture 41 14 Why not torture the terrorist? The ticking time bomb 44 15 Dangerous, pseudo-philosophical tales 51 16 Illegitimacy: the torturer state 52 17 A shipwreck of human rights? 56 18 Human dignity in torture 59 2 Phenomenology of Torture 63 1 Defining torture: etymological notes 63 2 ‘Whoever has succumbed to torture can no longer feel at home in the world’ (Améry) 66 3 Torture, genocide, Holocaust 70 4 Killing and torturing 72 5 Between biopower and sovereign power 75 6 Anatomy of the butcher 77 7 Sade, the negation of the other, and the language of violence 78 8 From Torquemada to Scilingo: four portraits 81 9 Born torturers? 88 10 Pedro and the Captain 93 11 The victim’s secret 95 12 Saying the word ‘torture’ 97 13 On pain and suffering 98 14 Surviving one’s own death 101 3 The Administration of Torture 104 1 Giulio Regeni: the body of the tortured 104 2 Benjamin; or, on an ignominious institution 107 3 The G8 in Genoa 110 4 ‘No touch’ torture: on Stammheim prison 114 5 Desaparecidos: when death is denied 117 6 The CIA’s global Gulag 122 7 Guantánamo: a camp for the new millennium 126 8 Abu Ghraib: the photographs of shame 129 9 Women and sexual violence 131 10 In the hands of the stronger 134 11 Torments and torture marked ‘made in Italy’ 137 Epilogue 143 References 146 Index 156

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Book SynopsisDigitization has transformed the way we interact with our social, political and economic environments. While it has enhanced the potential for citizen agency, it has also enabled the collection and analysis of unprecedented amounts of personal data. This requires us to fundamentally rethink our understanding of digital citizenship, based on an awareness of the ways in which citizens are increasingly monitored, categorized, sorted and profiled. Drawing on extensive empirical research, Digital Citizenship in a Datafied Society offers a new understanding of citizenship in an age defined by data collection and processing. The book traces the social forces that shape digital citizenship by investigating regulatory frameworks, mediated public debate, citizens' knowledge and understanding, and possibilities for dissent and resistance.Trade Review"Every day people become more conscious of the ways that our dealings with the digital both offer new opportunities and shut them off. This refreshing book shrewdly indicates ways forward, by showing that while ubiquitous surveillance often limits our options, critical approaches to data feed into emerging modes of digital citizenship that offer real potential for intervention. Insightful, stimulating and realistic, it is also a model of seamless co-authorship."—David Lyon, Queen's University, Canada "The authors bring surveillance and critical data studies together to make an important contribution to the understanding of citizenship within datafied societies. Critically, their approach considers ubiquitous datafication not only in relation to the expansion of state power and control but also the emergence of new practices of citizen dissent and resistance."—Evelyn Ruppert, Goldsmiths, University of London "An important and timely contribution to current debates in media and communications, and further afield... a crucial read for researchers in the field of media and communications but also for a broader audience."—Justine Gangneux, The University of GlasgowTable of ContentsAcknowledgements vi Introduction: Citizens, Data and Surveillance 1 1 Citizenship in a Digital Age 20 2 Datafication and Surveillance 42 3 Regulating Datafication 63 4 Mediating Digital Citizenship 83 5 Understanding and Negotiating Digital Environments 103 6 Challenging Datafication 123 Conclusion: Enabling Digital Citizenship in a Datafied Society 144 Notes 155 References 158 Index 183

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Book SynopsisDigitization has transformed the way we interact with our social, political and economic environments. While it has enhanced the potential for citizen agency, it has also enabled the collection and analysis of unprecedented amounts of personal data. This requires us to fundamentally rethink our understanding of digital citizenship, based on an awareness of the ways in which citizens are increasingly monitored, categorized, sorted and profiled. Drawing on extensive empirical research, Digital Citizenship in a Datafied Society offers a new understanding of citizenship in an age defined by data collection and processing. The book traces the social forces that shape digital citizenship by investigating regulatory frameworks, mediated public debate, citizens' knowledge and understanding, and possibilities for dissent and resistance.Trade Review"Every day people become more conscious of the ways that our dealings with the digital both offer new opportunities and shut them off. This refreshing book shrewdly indicates ways forward, by showing that while ubiquitous surveillance often limits our options, critical approaches to data feed into emerging modes of digital citizenship that offer real potential for intervention. Insightful, stimulating and realistic, it is also a model of seamless co-authorship."—David Lyon, Queen's University, Canada "The authors bring surveillance and critical data studies together to make an important contribution to the understanding of citizenship within datafied societies. Critically, their approach considers ubiquitous datafication not only in relation to the expansion of state power and control but also the emergence of new practices of citizen dissent and resistance."—Evelyn Ruppert, Goldsmiths, University of London "An important and timely contribution to current debates in media and communications, and further afield... a crucial read for researchers in the field of media and communications but also for a broader audience."—Justine Gangneux, The University of GlasgowTable of ContentsAcknowledgements vi Introduction: Citizens, Data and Surveillance 1 1 Citizenship in a Digital Age 20 2 Datafication and Surveillance 42 3 Regulating Datafication 63 4 Mediating Digital Citizenship 83 5 Understanding and Negotiating Digital Environments 103 6 Challenging Datafication 123 Conclusion: Enabling Digital Citizenship in a Datafied Society 144 Notes 155 References 158 Index 183

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Book SynopsisFor nearly as long as there have been electoral districts in America, politicians have gerrymandered those districts. Though the practice has changed over time, the public reaction to it has remained the same: gerrymandering is reviled. There is, of course, good reason for that sentiment. Gerrymandering is intended to maximize the number of legislative seats for one party. As such, it is an attempt to gain what appears to be an unfair advantage in elections. Nevertheless, gerrymandering is not well understood by most people and this lack of understanding leads to a false sense that there are easy solutions to this complex problem. Gerrymandering: The Politics of Redistricting in the United States unpacks the complicated process of gerrymandering, reflecting upon the normative issues to which it gives rise. Tracing the history of partisan gerrymandering from its nineteenth-century roots to the present day, the book explains its legal status and implementation, its consequences, and possible options for reform. The result is a balanced analysis of gerrymandering that acknowledges its troubling aspects while recognizing that, as long as district boundaries have to be drawn, there is no perfect way to do so.Trade Review“Stephen Medvic’s nuanced analysis unpacks the complex dynamics of gerrymandering. It is a must-read for anyone interested in the topic.”David Dulio, Oakland University“This thoughtful and timely book on gerrymandering pulls apart many of the flimsy assumptions underlying debates over it. Reviewing the history, process, jurisprudence, political impacts, and normative claims about gerrymandering, Stephen Medvic draws the reader to some essential truths: there is no empirically correct, truly fair, or apolitical way to draw district lines, yet reform is possible depending on the democratic values we choose to prioritize.”Seth Masket, University of DenverTable of ContentsLists of Figures and Tables Chapter 1. What’s the Problem? Chapter 2. A Brief History of Gerrymandering Chapter 3. The Legal Status of Gerrymandering Chapter 4. How Gerrymandering Works Chapter 5. The Consequences of Gerrymandering Chapter 6. Reform Proposals Further Reading Notes Bibliography

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Book SynopsisFor nearly as long as there have been electoral districts in America, politicians have gerrymandered those districts. Though the practice has changed over time, the public reaction to it has remained the same: gerrymandering is reviled. There is, of course, good reason for that sentiment. Gerrymandering is intended to maximize the number of legislative seats for one party. As such, it is an attempt to gain what appears to be an unfair advantage in elections. Nevertheless, gerrymandering is not well understood by most people and this lack of understanding leads to a false sense that there are easy solutions to this complex problem. Gerrymandering: The Politics of Redistricting in the United States unpacks the complicated process of gerrymandering, reflecting upon the normative issues to which it gives rise. Tracing the history of partisan gerrymandering from its nineteenth-century roots to the present day, the book explains its legal status and implementation, its consequences, and possible options for reform. The result is a balanced analysis of gerrymandering that acknowledges its troubling aspects while recognizing that, as long as district boundaries have to be drawn, there is no perfect way to do so.Trade Review“Stephen Medvic’s nuanced analysis unpacks the complex dynamics of gerrymandering. It is a must-read for anyone interested in the topic.”David Dulio, Oakland University“This thoughtful and timely book on gerrymandering pulls apart many of the flimsy assumptions underlying debates over it. Reviewing the history, process, jurisprudence, political impacts, and normative claims about gerrymandering, Stephen Medvic draws the reader to some essential truths: there is no empirically correct, truly fair, or apolitical way to draw district lines, yet reform is possible depending on the democratic values we choose to prioritize.”Seth Masket, University of DenverTable of ContentsLists of Figures and TablesChapter 1. What’s the Problem?Chapter 2. A Brief History of GerrymanderingChapter 3. The Legal Status of GerrymanderingChapter 4. How Gerrymandering WorksChapter 5. The Consequences of GerrymanderingChapter 6. Reform ProposalsFurther ReadingNotesBibliography

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Book SynopsisHuman Rights, now in its fourth edition, is an introductory text that is both innovative and challenging. Its unique interdisciplinary approach invites students to think imaginatively and rigorously about one of the most important and influential political concepts of our time. Tracing the history of the concept, the book shows that there are fundamental tensions between legal, philosophical and social-scientific approaches to human rights. This analysis throws light on some of the most controversial issues in the field: What are the causes of human-rights violations? Is the idea of universal human rights consistent with respect for cultural difference? Are we living in a ‘post-human rights’ world? Thoroughly revised and updated, the new edition engages with recent developments, including the Trump and Biden presidencies, colonial legacies, neoliberalism, conflict in Syria, Yemen and Myanmar, the Covid-19 pandemic, new technologies and the supposed crisis of liberal democracy. Widely admired and assigned for its clarity and comprehensiveness, this book remains a ‘go-to’ text for students in the social sciences, as well as students of human-rights law who want an introduction to the non-legal aspects of their subject.Trade Review“Freeman’s discussion of human rights spans a remarkable range of eras, concepts, and disciplines. Tying it all together are his consistent commitment to showcase multiple sides of debates and the clarity of his writing. Complex yet accessible – a rare combination.”Shareen Hertel, Professor of Political Science & Human Rights, University of Connecticut “Michael Freeman is one of the leading and most reliable theorists of human rights. In this latest edition of Human Rights, he offers a detailed and objective perspective upon contemporary human-rights challenges, whilst also proposing ways in which we might more effectively engage with these challenges in the years ahead. His book should be essential reading for students and established academics alike.”Andrew Fagan, Director, Human Rights Centre, University of Essex “Michael Freeman is a long-time and careful observer of internationally recognized human rights. Students and faculty alike always benefit from his insights into that subject covering both theory and practice. There are sound reasons for his being a well-known scholar on that important topic.”David Forsythe, University of Nebraska “As we strain to make human rights 'real' in a range of sectors, such as education, health and housing, we need educationalists, health professionals, housing experts, and those working in other disciplines. The watchword is interdisciplinarity. Freeman provides a top-notch interdisciplinary introduction to the foundations of human rights for everyone wanting to make human rights relevant in the everyday lives of everybody.”Paul Hunt, Chief Human Rights Commissioner, New Zealand Human Rights CommissionTable of ContentsPreface to the Fourth Edition 1 Introduction: Thinking about Human Rights 2 Origins: The Rise and Fall of Natural Rights 3 After 1945: The New Age of Rights 4 Theories of Human Rights 5 Human Rights and Social Science 6 The Politics of Human Rights 7 Globalization, Development and Poverty: Economics and Human Rights 8 Universality, Diversity and Difference: Culture and Human Rights 9 Conclusion: Utopians, Endtimers, Slow Borers References

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Book SynopsisFor decades, Latin America has been plagued by civil wars, dictatorships, torture, legacies of colonialism, racism, and inequality. The region has also experienced dramatic—if uneven—human rights improvements, shedding light on the politics of transformation. The accounts of how Latin America’s people have dealt with the persistent threats to their fundamental rights offer lessons for people around the world. Human Rights in Latin America provides a comprehensive introduction to the human rights issues facing an area that constitutes more than half of the Western Hemisphere. This second edition brings together regional case studies and thematic chapters to explore cutting-edge issues and developments in the field. From historical accounts of abuse to successful transnational campaigns and legal battles, Human Rights in Latin America explores the dynamics underlying a vast range of human rights initiatives. In addition to surveying the roles of the United States, relatives of the disappeared, and truth commissions, Sonia Cardenas and Rebecca Root cover newer ground in addressing the colonial and ideological underpinnings of human rights abuses, emerging campaigns for gender and sexuality rights, and regional dynamics relating to the International Criminal Court. Engagingly written and fully illustrated, Human Rights in Latin America fills an important niche among human rights and Latin American textbooks. Ample supplementary resources—including discussion questions, interdisciplinary reading lists, filmographies, online resources, internship opportunities, and instructor assignments—make this an especially valuable text for use in human rights courses.Trade Review"Through this book [Cardenas's] voice emerges as that of a determined but clear-eyed optimist, willing to confront the dark realities of politics and power but inclining toward what another Latin Americanist, Albert Hirschman, adopted as 'a bias for hope.' . . . In all, it is a remarkable compact synthesis on this sprawling subject." * Journal of Latin American Studies *"Like the experience of human rights in Latin America which it details, Cardenas' text is rich and complex. Human Rights in Latin America: A Politics of Terror and Hope is a unique and engaging approach to the study of human rights in Latin America. It is a text that demands serious attention." * Human Rights Quarterly *"Sonia Cardenas emphasizes [the themes of terror and hope] in her informative and lucid text . . . . This well-researched and readable book will be useful to anyone wanting to learn more about this important topic." * Human Rights Review *"This is a book that can satisfy even the most demanding instructors . . . .Cardenas's analysis is always balanced, but at the same time she makes her points convincingly and forcefully." -- Cesar Seveso * H-Net *"Solidly researched and gracefully written, Sonia Cardenas's Human Rights in Latin America fills a significant gap. It is a deceptively easy read, with plenty of substance but packaged in an accessible and fluent prose-a combination we see all too infrequently. It will be warmly welcomed by both students and their professors in courses on Latin American politics and inter-American relations." * Lars Schoultz. William Rand Kenan, Jr., Professor of Political Science, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill *Table of ContentsContents Preface Introduction: A Politics of Transformation Part I. Legacies of Abuse Chapter 1. Why Human Rights Abuses Occur Chapter 2. Grappling with the Past Part II. Human Rights Cases Chapter 3. The Southern Cone Chapter 4. Central America and Mexico Chapter 5. The Andean Region Chapter 6. Brazil and the Caribbean Part III. Politics, Rights, and Inequality Chapter 7. Social Movements, Identity, and Human Rights Chapter 8. Economic and Social Rights Part IV. Agents of Reform Chapter 9. Human Rights Defenders Chapter 10. Regional and Global Governance Chapter 11. Human Rights Change Conclusion. ¡Sí Se Puede! Appendix 1. Internship Opportunities Appendix 2. Suggested Assignments for Instructors Notes Index

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Book SynopsisFor decades, Latin America has been plagued by civil wars, dictatorships, torture, legacies of colonialism, racism, and inequality. The region has also experienced dramatic—if uneven—human rights improvements, shedding light on the politics of transformation. The accounts of how Latin America’s people have dealt with the persistent threats to their fundamental rights offer lessons for people around the world. Human Rights in Latin America provides a comprehensive introduction to the human rights issues facing an area that constitutes more than half of the Western Hemisphere. This second edition brings together regional case studies and thematic chapters to explore cutting-edge issues and developments in the field. From historical accounts of abuse to successful transnational campaigns and legal battles, Human Rights in Latin America explores the dynamics underlying a vast range of human rights initiatives. In addition to surveying the roles of the United States, relatives of the disappeared, and truth commissions, Sonia Cardenas and Rebecca Root cover newer ground in addressing the colonial and ideological underpinnings of human rights abuses, emerging campaigns for gender and sexuality rights, and regional dynamics relating to the International Criminal Court. Engagingly written and fully illustrated, Human Rights in Latin America fills an important niche among human rights and Latin American textbooks. Ample supplementary resources—including discussion questions, interdisciplinary reading lists, filmographies, online resources, internship opportunities, and instructor assignments—make this an especially valuable text for use in human rights courses.Trade Review"Through this book [Cardenas's] voice emerges as that of a determined but clear-eyed optimist, willing to confront the dark realities of politics and power but inclining toward what another Latin Americanist, Albert Hirschman, adopted as 'a bias for hope.' . . . In all, it is a remarkable compact synthesis on this sprawling subject." * Journal of Latin American Studies *"Like the experience of human rights in Latin America which it details, Cardenas' text is rich and complex. Human Rights in Latin America: A Politics of Terror and Hope is a unique and engaging approach to the study of human rights in Latin America. It is a text that demands serious attention." * Human Rights Quarterly *"Sonia Cardenas emphasizes [the themes of terror and hope] in her informative and lucid text . . . . This well-researched and readable book will be useful to anyone wanting to learn more about this important topic." * Human Rights Review *"This is a book that can satisfy even the most demanding instructors . . . .Cardenas's analysis is always balanced, but at the same time she makes her points convincingly and forcefully." -- Cesar Seveso * H-Net *"Solidly researched and gracefully written, Sonia Cardenas's Human Rights in Latin America fills a significant gap. It is a deceptively easy read, with plenty of substance but packaged in an accessible and fluent prose-a combination we see all too infrequently. It will be warmly welcomed by both students and their professors in courses on Latin American politics and inter-American relations." * Lars Schoultz. William Rand Kenan, Jr., Professor of Political Science, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill *Table of ContentsContents Preface Introduction: A Politics of Transformation Part I. Legacies of Abuse Chapter 1. Why Human Rights Abuses Occur Chapter 2. Grappling with the Past Part II. Human Rights Cases Chapter 3. The Southern Cone Chapter 4. Central America and Mexico Chapter 5. The Andean Region Chapter 6. Brazil and the Caribbean Part III. Politics, Rights, and Inequality Chapter 7. Social Movements, Identity, and Human Rights Chapter 8. Economic and Social Rights Part IV. Agents of Reform Chapter 9. Human Rights Defenders Chapter 10. Regional and Global Governance Chapter 11. Human Rights Change Conclusion. ¡Sí Se Puede! Appendix 1. Internship Opportunities Appendix 2. Suggested Assignments for Instructors Notes Index

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Book SynopsisWomen’s rights activists around the world have commonly understood gendered violence as the product of so-called traditional family structures, from which women must be liberated. Counseling Women contends that this perspective overlooks the social and cultural contexts in which women understand and navigate their relationships with kin. This book follows frontline workers in India, called family counselors, as they support women who have experienced violence at home in the context of complex shifting legal and familial systems. Drawing on ethnographic research at counseling centers in Jaipur, Rajasthan, Julia Kowalski shows how an individualistic notion of women’s rights places already vulnerable women into even more precarious positions by ignoring the reality of the social relations that shape lives within and beyond the family. Thus, rather than focusing on attaining independence from kin, family counselors in India instead strive to help women cultivate relationships of interdependence in order to reimagine family life in the wake of violence. Counselors mobilize the beliefs, concepts, and frameworks of kinship to offer women interactive strategies to gain agency within the family, including multigenerational kin networks encompassing parents, in-laws, and other extended family. Through this work, kinship becomes a resource through which people imagine and act on new familial futures. In viewing this reliance on kinship as part of, rather than a deviation from, global women’s rights projects, Counseling Women reassesses Western liberal feminism’s notions of what it means to have agency and what constitutes violence, and retheorizes the role of interdependence in gendered violence and inequality as not only a site of vulnerability but a potential source of strength.Trade Review"Counseling Women is an effective, enlightening, and unique book that is delicately written, and persuasively argued." * Sameena Mulla, Emory University *

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Book SynopsisWomen’s rights activists around the world have commonly understood gendered violence as the product of so-called traditional family structures, from which women must be liberated. Counseling Women contends that this perspective overlooks the social and cultural contexts in which women understand and navigate their relationships with kin. This book follows frontline workers in India, called family counselors, as they support women who have experienced violence at home in the context of complex shifting legal and familial systems. Drawing on ethnographic research at counseling centers in Jaipur, Rajasthan, Julia Kowalski shows how an individualistic notion of women’s rights places already vulnerable women into even more precarious positions by ignoring the reality of the social relations that shape lives within and beyond the family. Thus, rather than focusing on attaining independence from kin, family counselors in India instead strive to help women cultivate relationships of interdependence in order to reimagine family life in the wake of violence. Counselors mobilize the beliefs, concepts, and frameworks of kinship to offer women interactive strategies to gain agency within the family, including multigenerational kin networks encompassing parents, in-laws, and other extended family. Through this work, kinship becomes a resource through which people imagine and act on new familial futures. In viewing this reliance on kinship as part of, rather than a deviation from, global women’s rights projects, Counseling Women reassesses Western liberal feminism’s notions of what it means to have agency and what constitutes violence, and retheorizes the role of interdependence in gendered violence and inequality as not only a site of vulnerability but a potential source of strength.Trade Review"Counseling Women is an effective, enlightening, and unique book that is delicately written, and persuasively argued." * Sameena Mulla, Emory University *

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Book SynopsisThe human right to science, outlined in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights and repeated in the 1966 International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, recognizes everyone’s right to “share in scientific advancement and its benefits” and to “enjoy the benefits of scientific progress and its applications.” This right also requires state parties to develop and disseminate science, to respect the freedom of scientific research, and to recognize the benefits of international contacts and co-operation in the scientific field. The right to science has never been more important. Even before the COVID-19 health crisis, it was evident that people around the world increasingly rely on science and technology in almost every sphere of their lives from the development of medicines and the treatment of diseases, to transport, agriculture, and the facilitation of global communication. At the same time, however, the value of science has been under attack, with some raising alarm at the emergence of “post-truth” societies. “Dual use” and unintended, because often unforeseen, consequences of emerging technologies are also perceived to be a serious risk. The important role played by science and technology and the potential for dual use makes it imperative to evaluate scientific research and its products not only on their scientific but also on their human rights merits. In Science as a Cultural Human Right, Helle Porsdam argues robustly for the role of the right to science now and in the future. The book analyzes the legal stature of this right, the potential consequences of not establishing it as fundamental, and its connection to global cultural rights. It offers the basis for defending the free and responsible practice of science and ensuring that its benefits are spread globally.Table of ContentsList of Abbreviations Introduction Chapter 1. Setting the Scene Chapter 2. The Right to Science as a Cultural Human Right Chapter 3. The Dissemination of Science Chapter 4. Scientific Freedom Chapter 5. The Right to Science and International Cooperation and Solidarity Chapter 6. Of Human Rights, Human Duties, and Science Diplomacy Conclusion Notes Index

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Book SynopsisDefensive Relativism describes how governments around the world use cultural relativism in legal argument to oppose international human rights law. Defensive relativist arguments appear in international courts, at the committees established by human rights treaties, and at the United Nations Human Rights Council. The aim of defensive relativist arguments is to exempt a state from having to apply international human rights law, or to stop international human rights law evolving, because it would interfere with cultural traditions the state deems important. It is an everyday occurrence in international human rights law and defensive relativist arguments can be used by various types of states. The end goal of defensive relativism is to allow a state to appear human rights compliant while at the same time not implementing international human rights law. Drawing on a range of materials, such as state reports on the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and cases from the European Court of Human Rights involving freedom of religion, this book provides a definitive survey of defensive relativism. Crucially, Frederick Cowell argues, defensive relativism is not about alternative practices of human rights law, or debates about the origins or legitimacy of human rights as a concept. Defensive relativism is instead a variety of tactical argument used by states to justify ignoring international human rights law. Yet, as Cowell concludes, defensive relativism can’t be removed from the law, as it is a reflection of unresolved tensions about the nature of what it means for rights to be universal.

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Book SynopsisIn Frontiers of Gender Equality, editor Rebecca Cook enlarges the chorus of voices to introduce new and different discourses about the wrongs of gender discrimination and to explain the multiple dimensions of gender equality. This volume demonstrates that the wrongs of discrimination can best be understood from the perspective of the discriminated, and that gender discrimination persists and grows in new and different contexts, widening the gap between the principle of gender equality and its realization, particularly for subgroups of women and LGBTQ+ peoples. Frontiers of Gender Equality provides retrospective views of the struggles to eliminate gender discrimination in national courts and international human rights treaties. Focusing on gender equality enables comparisons and contrasts among these regimes to better understand how they reinforce gender equality norms. Different regional and international treaties are examined, those in the forefront of advancing gender equality, those that are promising but little known, and those whose focus includes economic, social, and cultural rights, to explore why some struggles were successful and others less so. The book illustrates how gender discrimination continues to be normalized and camouflaged, and how it intersects with other axes of subordination, such as indigeneity, religion, and poverty, to create new forms of intersectional discrimination. With the benefit of hindsight, the book’s contributors reconstruct gender equalities in concrete situations. Given the increasingly porous exchanges between domestic and international law, various national, regional, and international decisions and texts are examined to determine how better to breathe life into equality from the perspectives, for instance, of Indigenous and Muslim women, those who were violated sexually and physically, and those needing access to necessary health care, including abortion. The conclusion suggests areas of future research, including how to translate the concept of intersectionality into normative and institutional settings, which will assist in promoting the goals of gender equality.Trade Review"This book is a valuable addition to the field of women’s rights, as it provides substantive insights into a range of transnational legal developments in the quest for transformative gender equality and non-discrimination rights...[H]ighly recommended. The contributions provide insight into the importance of feminist theories concerning gendered harms, intersectionality, substantive and transformative gender equality and non-discrimination, international and regional laws and their functioning, and the importance of reimagining existing jurisprudence through a feminist lens. " * The South African Law Journal *"This is a substantive publication, whose primary task is to analyze international and regional human rights treaty legislation designed to eliminate gender discrimination and to secure gender equality. Divided into three parts, the publication presents a series of very thoughtful essays from a number of renowned legal experts on (a) what is gender equality; (b) how human rights treaty systems can advance the case of gender equality better; and (c) how can the concept of gender equality evolve continually to meet new social realities?..." * New York Journal of Books *"[A] solid account and does well to touch upon developments in recent years. Authors illustrate their theories on inequality and discrimination with the experiences of, for example, transgender women athletes, indigenous women and water access, the under-representation of women in clinical research and the spike in domestic violence during the COVID-19 lockdown. The book therefore offers newcomers a foundational text while for others, it is a thought-provoking addition to the scholarship, with reconfigured theories on how to strengthen the institutional structures, both internationally and domestically, that have been designed to protect rights and particularly for those individuals currently left behind. " * Asian Journal of Internaitonal Law *"Frontiers of Gender Equality is required reading for those wanting to learn about the evolution of gender equality law and where additional analysis is warranted to secure the democratic ideals of gender equality." * from the Foreword by Cecilia Medina Quiroga, Former Judge, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, and former member and Chair, the UN Human Rights Committee *

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