Synopses & Reviews
"In recent years, global movements fighting illsand#151;from hunger to inequality to pollutionand#151;have taken up the language of human rights. Haglund and Stryker assemble a dynamic interdisciplinary team to build rubrics for assessing movement effects and a rich theoretical toolkit for understanding how human rights claims are translated into positive policy changes. This book will set the standard for global studies of human rights for years to come."and#151;Frank Dobbin, Professor of Sociology, Harvard University
"Few volumes can claim to accomplish so much. This book not only theorizes what is likely to be general about rights realization in civil/political domains and across economic, social, and cultural domains, but also highlights what is likely to be specific within these domains. This volume marks a major advance in the social science of human rights."and#151;John Hagan, John D. MacArthur Professor, Northwestern University
"Haglund and Stryker have assembled a powerful set of chapters that analyze diverse aspects of the challenges of and possibilities for transforming the aspirational promises of human rights principles into meaningful social change for immiserated and marginalized people around the globe. The diversity of contributorsand#8217; perspectives underscores the point that human rights scholarship has moved beyond the legal domain and is deeply enriched by multidisciplinary engagement and initiatives."and#151;Alicia Ely Yamin, Lecturer on Global Health, Policy Director, FXB Center for Health and Human Rights, Harvard University
"This volume helps us understand in very concrete ways how rights are adopted in practice. By focusing on a range of mechanisms and a variety of actors, it offers a compelling analysis of the pathways through which the progressive realization of social and economic rights can take place."and#151;Ariel Fiszbein, Policy Director, Inter-American Dialogue
"Goes beyond critique to identify the key contextual factors, actors, and strategic pathways that account for how and when human rights advocacy does or does not contribute to transformative economic and social justice. This ambitious volume is a very welcome and important contribution."and#151;Michael McCann, Gordon Hirabayashi Professor for Advancement of Citizenship, University of Washington
Review
and#8220;A landmark in womenand#8217;s history and the history of China.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;Remarkable. . . . Hershatter has a complicated story to tell about womenand#8217;s experiences in mid-twentieth-century China.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;If you want to be reminded of how moving history can be, then read this book.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;The Gender of Memory is not only a story of Chinaand#8217;s past but a gift of restless questions for the present.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;Hershatter offers a breathtaking interrogation of her sources and methods, rendering elegantly transparent the thought processes behind her bookand#8217;s production.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;Arresting and engaging. . . . The Gender of Memory is a work of outstanding scholarship and significance.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;This book should be on the reading list of global historians interested in China.and#8221;
Synopsis
Do and#147;human rightsand#8221;and#151;as embodied in constitutions, national laws, and international agreementsand#151;foster improvements in the lives of the poor or otherwise marginalized populations? When, where, how, and under what conditions? Closing the Rights Gap: From Human Rights to Social Transformation systematically compares a range of case studies from around the world in order to clarify the conditions under whichand#151;and institutions through whichand#151;economic, social, and cultural rights are progressively realized in practice. It concludes with testable hypotheses regarding how significant transformative change might occur, as well as an agenda for future research to facilitate rights realization worldwide.
Synopsis
What can we learn about the Chinese revolution by placing a doubly marginalized groupand#151;rural womenand#151;at the center of the inquiry? In this book, Gail Hershatter explores changes in the lives of seventy-two elderly women in rural Shaanxi province during the revolutionary decades of the 1950s and 1960s. Interweaving these womenand#8217;s life histories with insightful analysis, Hershatter shows how Party-state policy became local and personal, and how it affected womenand#8217;s agricultural work, domestic routines, activism, marriage, childbirth, and parentingand#151;even their notions of virtue and respectability. The women narrate their pasts from the vantage point of the present and highlight their enduring virtues, important achievements, and most deeply harbored grievances. In showing what memories can tell us about gender as an axis of power, difference, and collectivity in 1950s rural China and the present, Hershatter powerfully examines the nature of socialism and how gender figured in its creation.
Synopsis
"I was swept into the world of Hershatter's
Gender of Memory. Each of these oral histories is riveting and astonishing, giving a human -- and often, heartbreaking -- dimension to history. As this book shows, history is not simply recorded facts, but what is remembered by those who were once silent." and#151;Amy Tan
and#147;Gail Hershatterand#8217;s book transforms our understanding of Chinaand#8217;s Communist revolution. Organizing women and raising their status was a central goal of Communist leaders from the start. But what difference did that commitment make to the course of modern Chinese history? Hershatterand#8217;s answers and#150; framed in the language of her rural informants -- are stunning. In her moving and often wrenching interviews with rural women, she comes to understand that womenand#8217;s active support, sacrifice, and engagement ultimately gave the Communist leadership its authority at the household level.and#8221; and#151;Susan Mann, author of The Talented Women of the Zhang Family
"One of the most important works on Chinaand#8217;s much-neglected 1950s, and a very significant contribution to the literature on historical memory and methodology. There really is something for everybody here." and#151;Kenneth Pomeranz, author of The Great Divergence
and#147;This book is in a league of its own: a meticulous, thoughtful and sensitive interrogation of sources about an understudied aspect of China's revolutionary history, a critical exploration of how gender mediates personal recollections of the past, and a beautifully written narrative about women's experiences of China's land reform and collectivisation in the 1950s.and#8221; and#151;Harriet Evans, author of The Subject of Gender: Daughters and Mothers in Urban China
"Hershatter's ethnographically rich and original analysis of time and gendered periodization is revelatory and her powerful account of the early basis for genuine utopianism is utterly convincing." and#151;James C. Scott, author of The Art of Not Being Governed
"This book is an event." and#151;Andrew Barshay, author of The Social Sciences in Modern Japan: The Marxian and Modernist Traditions
About the Author
LaDawn Haglund is Associate Professor of Justice and Social Inquiry at Arizona State University and author of
Limiting Resources: Market-Led Reform and the Transformation of Public Goods.
Robin Stryker is Professor of Sociology, Affiliated Professor of Law, Affiliated Professor of Government and Public Policy, and Research Director, National Institute for Civil Discourse, at the University of Arizona. She publishes regularly in journals including American Journal of Sociology, American Sociological Review, Law and Social Inquiry, Sociological Methods and Research, Socio-Economic Review, Research in the Sociology of Organizations, and Social Politics.
Table of Contents
List of Figures
List of Maps
List of Tables and Boxes
List of Contributors
Preface
Introduction: Making Sense of the Multiple and Complex Pathways by which Human Rights Are Realized (LaDawn Haglund and Robin Stryker)
PART ONE: PROMISES AND CHALLENGES OF ECONOMIC, SOCIAL, AND CULTURAL RIGHTS (ESCR) REALIZATION AT THE INTERNATIONAL LEVEL
1. Do Nonand#150;Human Rights Regimes Undermine the Achievement of Economic and Social Rights? (M. Rodwan Abouharb, David L. Cingranelli, and Mikhail Filippov)
2. Linking Law and Economics: Translating Economic and Social Human Rights Norms into Public Policy (William F. Felice)
3. Advances and Ongoing Challenges in the Protection of Indigenous Peoplesand#8217; Rights within the Inter-American System and the United Nations Special Procedures System (Leonardo J. Alvarado)
PART TWO: THE ROLE OF DOMESTIC LAW AND COURTS IN ESCR REALIZATION
4. The Impact of Legal Strategies for Claiming Economic and Social Rights (Varun Gauri and Daniel Brinks)
5. The Role of Human Rights Law in Protecting Environmental Rights in South Asia (Sumudu Atapattu)
6. The Morality of Law: The Case against Deportation of Settled Immigrants (Doris Marie Provine)
PART THREE: BEYOND JUDICIAL MECHANISMS AS MEANS TO ESCR REALIZATION
7. Social Movements and the Expansion of Economic and Social Human Rights Advocacy among International NGOs (Paul J. Nelson)
8. The Challenge of Ensuring Food Security: Global Perspectives and Evidence from India (Shareen Hertel and Susan Randolph)
9. Achieving Rights to Land, Water, and Health in Post-Apartheid South Africa (Heinz Klug)
10. Social Accountability in the World Bank: How Does It Overlap with Human Rights? (Hans-Otto Sano)
PART FOUR: MEASURING ESCR REALIZATION
11. Making the Principle of Progressive Realization Operational: Economic and Social Rights Obligations (Sakiko Fukuda-Parr, Terra Lawson-Remer, and Susan Randolph)
12. Deepening Our Understanding of Rights Realization through Disaggregation and Mapping: Integrating Census Data and Participatory GIS (Rimjhim Aggarwal and LaDawn Haglund)
13. Studying Courts in Context: The Role of Nonjudicial Institutional and Socio-Political Realities (Siri Gloppen)
Conclusion: Emerging Possibilities for Social Transformation (Robin Stryker and LaDawn Haglund)
Index