Republic of the Philippines

College of Social Sciences and Development

Department of Sociology and Anthropology SOCIOLOGY OF HUMAN RIGHTS (SOCIO 3043) Instructor: John N. Abletis Contact No: 09214632761 Email Add.: johnabletis@gmail.com Rm.: S612 (CA Extension Office), Main Bldg. Consultation Hours is by appointment. 2nd Semester, AY: 2012-2013 10:30am-1:30pm, Sat., Rm. S617

Polytechnic University of the Philippines

This course aims to give you a comprehensive overview of the issues, debates, constructions and contentions on human rights in the social sciences and philosophy, law, policy and governance, civil society and interest groups and society in general. Sociologizing human rights is new in the international academic scene, although themes and perspectives from the classical and contemporary traditions of social theory, philosophy and art have been touching some of its domains and issues. This newness in part is due to the hegemony of structural functionalism in the 1940s, too much focus on the demonizing of it in the 1960s and the alternative enthusiasm for creative sociology (i.e. symbolic interactionism, phenomenology, ethnomethodology and constructivism) and a conflict theory that was not too critical, as well as the then hegemonic idea of confining sociology within the domain of the social, as different from the political and the economic. In addition, the long tradition of giving attention only to society in general as sociological and social interaction as microsociological/social psychological is contributory to this neglect of the particular in the individual yet universal to the humanthe bodythis is specifically the case of the now thriving field of the sociology of the body with a new materialist twist. Yet, sociology as a discipline cannot develop if it is to be detached from the changes in the real world. With different intellectual bombardments inspired by these changes, sociology as a discipline diversified into specializations of different facets of human and societal life. It has now opened itself to interdisciplinarity, mixed methodologies and theoretical contingencies. One of these thriving specialties is the sociology of human rights. Human rights as a concept and a topic of concern arose in the 1900s especially after the Second World War when people and states were desperate in seeking for long-term peace, equality, liberty, and change. With the rise of different social movements in the 1960s onwards, changing sensibilities of the people as manifested in various topics that arose in the period such as race, ethnicity, identity, gender and environmental concerns, continuing relevance of economic and nationalistic struggles, the downfall and rise of different regimes of power and types of governmentalities, and the intellectual critique of poststructuralism and postmodernism against grand narratives in an era of globalization, rising inequality, cosmopolitanism and multiculturalism, international wars and tensions, human rights as a modern project becomes a hot sociological topic of our time. Thus, we need to look into it. Reading List PART 1. POLITICAL SOCIOLOGY Nov Theoretical foundations in Political Sociology 17 Kate Nash Chapters 1 and 2 State and Society Relationship [makeup class, optional readings] Theda Skocpol, Bringing the State Back In: Strategies of Analysis in Current Research, pp. 3-28 Joel Migdal, The State in Society: An Approach to Struggles of Domination, pp. 7-30 1

Nov 24 Dec 01 Dec 08

Dec 15

Dec 18 Jan 05

Jan 12 Jan 19, 26 Feb 02 Feb 09, 16, 23 Mar Human Rights as Social Construction (2 weeks) 02, Benjamin Gregg, Human Rights as Social Construction, (Whole book) 09 Review Break on March 16

Civil Society 1 Muthiah Alagapa, Civil Society and Political Change: An Analytical Framework, pp. 26-57 Civil Society 2 Joseph Buttigieg, Gramsci on Civil Society, pp. 1-32 Chad Alan Goldberg, Social Citizenship and a Reconstructed Tocqueville, pp. 289-315 Civil Society 3 Nancy Fraser, Rethinking the Public Sphere: A Contribution to the Critique of Actually Existing Democracy, pp. 56-80 Iris Marion Young, Inclusion and Democracy, pp. 155-195 Civil Society 4 [makeup class, optional readings] Margaret Keck and Kathryn Sikkink, Activists Beyond Borders: Advocacy Networks in International Politics, pp. 1-38 Donatella della Port, Massimiliano Andretta, Lorenzo Mosca and Herbert Reiter, Globalization from Below: Transnational Activists and Protests Networks, pp. 1-26, 61-97, & 232-247 Social Movements 1 Sidney Tarrow, Power in Movement: Social Movements, Collective Action and Politics, pp 1-27, 8199 Charles Kurzman, Structural Opportunity and Perceived Opportunity in Social Movement Theory: The Iranian Revolution of 1979, pp. 153-170 Social Movements 2 J. Craig Jenkins, Resource Mobilization Theory and the Study of Social Movements, pp. 527-553 John McCarthy, Constraints and Opportunities in Adopting, Adapting and Inventing, pp. 141-151 Social Movements 3 William Gamson, The Social Psychology of Collective Action, pp. 53-76 David Snow and Robert Benford, Ideology, Frame Resonance and Participant Mobilization, pp. 197217 Doug McAdam and Ronnelle Paulsen, Specifying the Relationship between Social Ties and Activism, pp. 640-667 Kate Nash Chapter 3 PART 2. CITIZENSHIP AND HUMAN RIGHTS Theoretical Foundations 1 (2 weeks) [makeup class, optional readings] Bryan Turner and Chris Rojek Chapters 1-2, 4, 6-7, 10-11 Theoretical Foundations 2 Kate Nash Chapter 4 Theoretical Foundations 3 (2 weeks) Margaret Somers, Genealogies of Citizenship: Markets, Statelessness and the Right to Have Rights, (Whole book) Theoretical Foundations 4 Kate Nash Chapter 5 Human Rights and Social Movements (3 weeks) Neil Stammers, Human Rights and Social Movements (Whole book)

Theoretical Foundations 5 [makeup class, optional readings] Michel Foucault, The Will to Knowledge, History of Sexuality Vol. 1, (Whole book) Michel Foucault, Two Lectures Human Rights and the Legal System (2 weeks) [makeup class, optional readings] Saladin Meckled-Garcia and Basak Cali, The legalization of human rights : multidisciplinary perspectives on human rights and human rights law, (Whole book) Comprehensive Examination on March 23 Computation of grades will be as follows: Attendance: Class Participation: Individual Term Paper: Comprehensive Exam: Total: 20% 30% 20% 30% 100%

Primary References/Required Books to be Read: Nash, K. (2010). Contemporary Political Sociology, 2nd ed., West Sussex, UK: Wiley-Blackwell Somers, M. R. (2008). Genealogies of Citizenship: Markets, Statelessness, and the Right to Have Rights, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press Stammers, N. (2009). Human Rights and Social Movements, London: Pluto Press Gregg, B. (2012). Human Rights as Social Construction, NY: Cambridge University Press

Highly Recommended Additional Readings: Foucault, M. (1980). Two Lectures. In C. Gordon (ed.). Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and other Writings 1972-1977, NY: Pantheon, pp. 78-108 Foucault, M. (1978/1976). History of Sexuality: Volume 1, The Will to Knowledge. Translated by R. Hurley, London: Penguin Books Garcia, S. M. & B. Cali (2006). Legalization of Human Rights: Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Human Rights and Human Rights Law, London: Routledge Turner, B. & C. Rojek (2001). Society and Culture: Principles of Scarcity and Solidarity, London: Sage Publications