Human Rights in Our Own Backyard : : Injustice and Resistance in the United States / / ed. by William T. Armaline, Bandana Purkayastha, Davita Silfen Glasberg.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter DG and UP eBook Package 2000-2015
• MitwirkendeR: Acosta, Katie,; Adur, Shweta Majumdar,; Allen, Jennifer,; Armaline, William T.,; Beeman, Angie,; Blau, Judith,; Casey, Colleen,; DeLeon, Abraham P.,; Elkins, Julie,; Frelick, Bill,; Fullerton, Andrew S.,; Glasberg, Davita Silfen,; Gurr, Barbara,; Hammer, Zoe,; Hertel, Shareen,; Iwata, Miho,; Katuna, Barret,; Kil, Sang Hea,; Missari, Stacy A.,; Neubeck, Kenneth J.,; Pearce, Tola Olu,; Ploch, Amanda,; Purkayastha, Aheli,; Purkayastha, Bandana,; Ratcliff, Kathryn Strother,; Ray, Ranita,; Robertson, Dwanna L.,; Shannon, Deric,; Sok, Chivy,; Waring, Chandra,; Zozula, Christine,
• HerausgeberIn: Armaline, William T.,; Glasberg, Davita Silfen,; Purkayastha, Bandana,
• Place / Publishing House: Philadelphia : : University of Pennsylvania Press, , [2011]; ©2012
• Year of Publication: 2011
• Language: English
• Series: Pennsylvania Studies in Human Rights
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (344 p.)

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 these strategies 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.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Foreword -- Introduction: Human Rights in the United States -- Part I. Economic Rights -- Chapter 1. Sweatshirts and Sweatshops: Labor Rights, Student Activism, and the Challenges of Collegiate Apparel Manufacturing -- Chapter 2. Labor Rights After the Flexible Turn: The Rise of Contingent Employment and the Implications for Worker Rights in the United States -- Chapter 3. Preying on the American Dream: Predatory Lending, Institutionalized Racism, and Resistance to Economic Injustice -- Part II. Social Rights -- Chapter 4. Food Not Bombs: The Right to Eat -- Chapter 5. The Long Road to Economic and Social Justice -- Chapter 6. Hurricane Katrina and the Right to Food and Shelter -- Chapter 7. Education, Human Rights, and the State: Toward New Visions -- Chapter 8. Health and Human Rights -- Part III. Cultural Rights -- Chapter 9. We Are a People in the World: Native Americans and Human Rights -- Chapter 10. Reflections on Cultural Human Rights -- Part IV. Political and Civil Rights -- Chapter 11. Erosion of Political and Civil Rights: Looking Back to Changes Since 9/11/01: The Patriot Act -- Chapter 12. U.S. Asylum and Refugee Policy: The "Culture of No" -- Chapter 13. The Border Action Network and Human Rights: Community-Based Resistance Against the Militarization of the U.S.-Mexico Border -- Chapter 14. Sexual Citizenship: Marriage, Adoption, and Immigration in the United States -- Chapter 15. Do Human Rights Endure Across Nation-State Boundaries? Analyzing the Experiences of Guest Workers -- Part V. Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination -- Chapter 16. From International Platforms to Local Yards: Standing Up for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination in the United State -- Chapter 17. Caging Kids of Color: Juvenile Justice and Human Rights in the United States -- Part VI. Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women -- Chapter 18. "What Lies Beneath": Foundations of the U.S. Human Rights Perspective and the Significance for Women -- Chapter 19. Sex Trafficking: In Our Backyard? -- Chapter 20. The U.S. Culture of Violence -- Part VII. Human Rights and Resistance in the United States -- Chapter 21. Building U.S. Human Rights Culture from the Ground Up: International Human Rights Implementation at the Local Level -- Chapter 23. Human Rights in the United States: The "Gold Standard" and the Human Rights Enterprise -- Notes -- References -- List of Contributors -- Index -- Acknowledgments