Description
Book SynopsisDrawing on fifteen years of work in the antislavery movement, Austin Choi-Fitzpatrick examines the systematic oppression of men, women, and children in rural India. Through frank and unprecedented conversations with slaveholders, Choi-Fitzpatrick reveals the condescending and paternalistic thought processes that blind them.
Trade ReviewA much-needed and unique work. Our understanding of modern slavery holds virtually nothing on slaveholders. Such a study has always been seen as the Holy Grail, truly critical knowledge if we are to move forward, but always outside our ability to grasp. Austin Choi-Fitzpatrick also goes somewhere that few scholars in this area have gone—raising important, challenging questions about how slaveholders might be understood and rehabilitated. -- Kevin Bales, cofounder of Free the Slaves
The exponential growth of social movement studies has yielded a rich and varied portrait of movements and movement groups. By contrast, we know little about movement targets. In this important book, Choi-Fitzpatrick not only reverses this emphasis, but offers the beginnings of a theory of how targets respond to movement pressure. And what is the data on which his theory is based? Nothing less than in-depth interviews with slaveholders targeted by contemporary anti-slavery groups. It would be hard to imagine a more original or significant contribution to the field than
What Slaveholders Think. -- Doug McAdam, Stanford University
Choi-Fitzpatrick reinvigorates the theory and practice of representing slavery and related systems of domination, in particular our understandings of the binaries between slavery and freedom, victims and perpetrators. Incisive and stimulating, this is a stellar work of scholarship that demands of the academy—and human rights campaigners—a marked shift in direction. -- Zoe Trodd, University of Nottingham
The book offers a detailed account and analysis of how and to what extent perpetrators adapt, accommodate, and profit from this social phenomenon. Moreover,
What Slaveholders Think makes a great contribution to the literature on social movements, human rights, political sociology, labor movements, and other fields of study. * American Journal of Sociology *
Provides readers with many truly unique and largely overlooked insights into the world of contemporary slavery. . . . Path-breaking. * International Sociology *
A rich treatment of a compelling (albeit troubling) topic, one that makes an important contribution to social movement theory. * Mobilization *
A rich, theoretically interesting work that should be taken seriously by scholars of social movement activity. . . . Well-written, engaging, and theoretically insightful. * Contemporary Sociology *
Choi-Fitzpatrick’s work is an essential contribution to the literature on slavery and bonded labor. * Journal of Human Trafficking *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments
1. In All Its Forms: Slavery and Abolition, Movements and Targets
2. Best-Laid Plans: A Partial Theory of Social-Movement Targets
3. Just Like Family: Slaveholders on Slavery
4. As If We Are Equal: Slaveholders on Emancipation
5. The Farmer in the Middle: Target Response to Threats
6. Private Wrongs: Slavery and Antislavery in Contemporary India
7. Long Goodbye: The Contemporary Antislavery Movement
8. Between Good and Evil: The Everyday Ethics of Resources and Reappraisal
Notes
References
Index
