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Summary:

"Most Americans assume that the United States provides a gold standard for human rights--a 2007 survey found that 80 percent of U.S. adults believed that 'the U.S. does a better job than most countries when it comes to protecting human rights.' As well, discussions among scholars and public officials in the United States frame human rights issues as concerning people, policies, or practices 'over there.' By contrast, the contributors to this volume argue that many of the greatest immediate and structural threats to human rights, and some of the most significant efforts to realize human rights in practice, can be found in our own backyard. Human Rights in Our Own Backyard examines the state of human rights and responses to human rights issues, drawing on sociological literature and perspectives to interrogate assumptions of American exceptionalism. How do people in the U.S. address human rights issues? What strategies have they adopted, and how successful have they been? Essays are organized around key conventions of human rights, focusing on the relationships between human rights and justice, the state and the individual, civil rights and human rights, and group rights versus individual rights. The contributors are united by a common conception of the human rights enterprise as a process involving not only state-defined and implemented rights but also human rights from below as promoted by activists"--Provided by publisher.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction. Human rights in the United States
• Sweatshirts and sweatshops : labor rights, student activism, and the challenges of collegiate apparel manufacturing / Julie Elkins, and Shareen Hertel
• Labor rights after the flexible turn : the rise of contingent employment and the implications for worker rights in the United States / Andrew S. Fullerton and Dwanna L. Robertson
• Preying on the American dream : predatory lending, institutionalized racism, and resistance to economic injustice / Davita Silfen Glasberg, Angie Beeman, and Colleen Casey
• Food not bombs : the right to eat / Deric Shannon
• The long road to economic and social justice / Amada Ploch
• Hurricane Katrina and the right to food and shelter / Barret Katuna
• Education, human rights, and the state : toward new visions / Abraham P. DeLeon
• Heath and human rights / Kathryn Strother Ratcliff
• We are a people in the world: Native Americans and human rights / Barbara Gurr
• Reflections on cultural human rights / Miho Iwata and Bandana Purkayastha
• Erosion of political and civil rights : looking back to changes since 9/11/01 : the Patriot Act / Christine Zozula
• U.S. asylum and refugee policy : the "culture of no" / Bill Frelick
• The Border Action Network and human rights : community-based resistance against militarization of the U.S.-Mexico border / Sang Hea Kil, Jennifer Allen, and Zoe Hammer
• Sexual citizenship : marriage, adoption, and immigration in the United States / Katie Acosta
• Do human rights endure across nation-state boundaries? : Analyzing the experiences of guest workers / Shweta Majumdar Adur
• From international platforms to local yards : standing up for the elimination of racial discrimination in the United States / Bandana Purkayastha, Aheli Purkayastha and Chandra Waring
• Caging kids of color : juvenile justice and human rights in the United States / William T. Armaline
• "What lies beneath" : foundations of the U.S. human rights perspective and the significance for women / Tola Olu Pearce
• Sex trafficking : in our backyard? / Ranita Ray

• The U.S. culture of violence / Stacy A. Missari
• Building U.S. human rights culture from the ground up : international human rights implementation at the local level / Chivy Sok and Kenneth J. Neubeck
• Critical resistance and the prison abolitionist movement / Zoe Hammer
• Human rights in the United States : the "gold standard" and the human rights enterprise / William T. Armaline, Davita Silfen Glasberg, and Bandana Purkayastha.

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Contributors:

Armaline, William T.

Glasberg, Davita Silfen

Purkayastha, Bandana, 1956-

Languages:

English

Language Notes:

Item content: English

Related Series:

Pennsylvania studies in human rights

Subjects:

Human rights — United States

Human rights — Government policy — United States

Human rights

Human rights — Government policy

United States

General Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Physical Description:

xiv, 325 pages ; 22 cm.

Call Numbers:

JC599.U6 H85 2011

ISBNs:

9780812243604 (hardcover, alk. paper)
0812243609 (hardcover, alk. paper)

Library of Congress Control Numbers:

2011024455

OCLC Numbers:

724643550