Eleventh Global Studies Conference

Abstract

Human rights have become increasingly the focus of research and debate in sociology, and more generally in the social sciences. The great expansion of human rights legislation and culture in recent decades have occurred in the context of, and in response to, economic globalization, which has accelerated poverty in many countries, has fueled migration, has destabilized communities, and has led to the rapid deterioration of the environment. They have occurred also at a time of new democratization movements that increasingly engage citizens in civil society and governance. Building on Burawoy’s, Blau’s, and Turner’s work on human rights and the role of public sociology, this paper argues in favor of a critical social science that recognizes the global character of public issues and takes as its first principle the investigation of the institutional context of human rights.