Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Us-Un Relationship And The Promotion Of Democratic Nation-Building, Pubantz

Societies Without Borders

Since 1990, both the United Nations and the United States have promoted democratic nation-building in conflict areas. However, despite the common goal of creating stable democracies, the two entities have often worked at cross purposes. Following the 1993 debacle in Somalia, the United States largely deserted UN nation-building efforts and moved toward unilateral democracy promotion. Over the next decade US efforts were directed at establishing Lockean procedural democracies, defined largely in terms of civil and political institutions. In UN parlance, however, democracy has taken on a holistic meaning that provides for the inclusion of social, economic, and cultural factors. This …

"If That Is Heaven, We Would Rather Go To Hell": Contextualizing Us-Cuba Relations, Rumbaut, Rubén G. Rumbaut

Societies Without Borders

The history of Cuba is one of conquest and rebellion. Since the arrival of Columbus, it has had two colonial masters: Spain and the United States. Spain, after the collapse of its empire, ceased to be a threat to the peoples of America. Now, the Spanish are among the principal investors in Cuba, and make up a high percentage of tourists to the island. The United States, engaged in empire-building as sole superpower and continuing to pursue a half-century-old policy of regime change in Cuba, is still seen by the Cubans as the greatest threat to their independence and sovereignty. …

Knowledge As A Global Public Good: The Role And Importance Of Open Access, Verschraegen, Michael Schiltz

Societies Without Borders

This paper argues that knowledge should be considered as a global public good first and as a private right second. The argument is underpinned by the claim that the growing movements for source-, data-, and knowledge-sharing (Open Access, Open Source, Open Courseware, etc.) have enhanced our ability to facilitate the global production and dissemination of 'knowledge', so that more people in the world can enjoy its benefits. In contrast with the existing intellectual property regime - which does not succeed in balancing the public and private gains of knowledge - these movements and their corollary technologies have improved peoples' access …

Globalization And Politics Of Transformation In Africa: Nepad And Pitfalls Of Transnational Elite Developmental Projects, Sahle

Societies Without Borders

This article examines the New Partnership for Africa's Development initiative launched in 2001. The article discusses the political and economic conjuncture that resulted in the adoption of this initiative. In the main, the analysis demonstrates the ways in which the initiative dovetails well with the global neo-liberal project and, consequently, contests the claims by African ruling elites and their counter-parts in the global North that it represents a transformative framework for economic and political change for national social formations in Africa.

"Buying Sex Is Not A Sport" - A Campaign Against Trafficking In Women, Danna

Societies Without Borders

In this article I present the use of the broad concept of trafficking in the "Buying Sex Is Not a Sport" campaign, launched by the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women (CATW) against German regulation of prostitution configuring prostitution as sex work. I trace the development of this 2006 campaign in which conservative and social-democratic parties, churches and anti-globalization organizations joined together at the international level. Finally, I trace the ideological and political reasons for the convergence of left-wing and right-wing forces, along with the analysis of some leftist theoretical texts on prostitution.

If We Build It They Will Come: Human Rights Violations And The Prison Industrial Complex, Smith, Angela Hattery

Societies Without Borders

This paper utilizes the concept of the Prison Industrial Complex (PIC) in order to examine the complex configuration comprised of the US prison system, multi-national corporations, small private businesses and the inmate population in the social and political economy of the 21st century US. Utilizing data on the PIC we pose the question: What is the purpose of prison, the rehabilitation of the inmates or the exploitation of prison labor? Specifically we argue, using Wright's neo-Marxist theory, that the current system of incarceration in the US mimics the exploitation characteristic of the slave plantation economy of the southern US, ripe …

Book Review Of The Witnesses: War Crimes And The Promise Of Justice In The Hague, Aspel

Societies Without Borders

The article reviews the book "The Witnesses: War Crimes and the Promise of Justice in The Hague," by Eric Stover .

Book Review Of Challenging Authority, Klayman

Societies Without Borders

The article reviews the book "Challenging Authority," by Frances Fox Piven.

Book Review Of Public Sociologies Reader, Klayman

Societies Without Borders

The article reviews the book "Public Sociologies Reader," edited by Judith R. Blau and Keri E. Iyall Smith.

Who Is Afraid Of T. H. Marshall? Or, What Are The Limits Of The Liberal Vision Of Rights?, Murray

Societies Without Borders

The liberal construction of the citizen is a man (sic) empowered with reciprocal rights to the nation state, which will maintain his dignity by providing work and welfare if he can prove need. The challenge for the new century is to find out whether we still can live in a finely balanced world of citizen/civil society state and capital from which these rights will flow. We need to understand why many of the rights died and subsequently to be able to redefine what it means to be a citizen; by taking into account the unequally weighted power relations that favor …

Viewing The Wreckage: Eco-Disaster Tourism In The Wake Of Katrina, Gould, Tammy L. Lewis

Societies Without Borders

Before hurricane Katrina, "cultural tourism" was Louisiana's second largest industry. Tourism agencies are now imploring potential tourists to visit New Orleans for "An eyewitness account of the events surrounding the worst natural disaster on American soil!" Economic need is driving tour agencies to construct 'eco-disaster tourism,' and the construction includes explicit causes of blame. Who is defining the new tourism? How is the controversy surrounding causation being negotiated in eco-disaster tour narratives? e main finding is that the big players in the tourism industry, namely Gray Line Tours, have maneuvered into a powerful position to rewrite the tourism narrative by …

Principles For Organic Public Sociology: Reflections On Publicly Engaged Research In The San Francisco Homeless Policy Field, Noy

Societies Without Borders

Interest in "public sociology" in the United States is a positive sign for researchers who seek to span the borders between academia and social change. However, it is important not to assume that just because sociological research is publicly oriented it will automatically advance human rights, justice, and ecological sustainability. Sociologists must critically consider principles for conducting public sociology if their work is to have a libratory outcome. This is particularly crucial when academic researchers attempt to directly work with marginalized social groups. In this article, I draw upon my experiences conducting a project of public sociology on local homeless …

Without Borders: Just One Border For Human Rights, Tayefi

Societies Without Borders

The author talks about the role of sociologists in defending human rights and promoting social security around the world. He said that those transnational forces such as lawyers, artists, librarians and writers are reflective movements to crash or break the monopolistic invasion of the masters of globalization. He claims that sociologists are hand in hand with other social activists to defend academic freedom and freedom of all people.

Book Review Of Vulnerability And Human Rights, Gran

Societies Without Borders

The article reviews the book "Vulnerability and Human Rights," by Bryan S. Turner.

Human Rights And The War On Terror Second Edition: Introduction, Jack Donnelly

Human Rights & Human Welfare

“9/11 changed everything.” Not really. In fact, there has been far more continuity than change over the past six years in both international and domestic politics. Nonetheless, human rights often have been harmed—although not by terrorism but by “the war on terror.”

Freeing All God’S Children, Clifford Bob

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

Freeing God’s Children: The Unlikely Alliance for Global Human Rights by Allen D. Hertzke. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2004. 419pp.

Noble Human Rights Defender Or International Band-Aid? On Contemporary Humanitarianism, Kurt Mills

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

The Humanitarians: The International Committee of the Red Cross by David P. Forsythe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005.

The Ethics Of Torture, Rebecca Evans

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

Torture: Does It Make Us Safer? Is It Ever OK? A Human Rights Perspective. Edited by Kenneth Roth and Mindy Worden. New York: The New Press, 2005. 201 pp.

Exploring Universal Rights: A Symposium, Jamie Mayerfeld, Brooke Ackerly, Henry Shue, Jack Donnelly, Kok-Chor Tan, Charles Beitz

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

Which Rights Should Be Universal? by William J. Talbott. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2005. 232pp.

The Universality Of Human Rights: A Response, William J. Talbott

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A response to:

Mayerfeld, J., Ackerly, B., Shue, H., Donnelly, J., Tan, K., & Beitz, C. (2007). Exploring universal rights: A symposium. Human Rights, Human Welfare, 7. https://digitalcommons.du.edu/hrhw/vol7/iss1/24/

United States Foreign Policy: Liberty And Security?, Jessi Schimmel

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Prior to September 11, 2001, the United States had the reputation of being a leader in the field of human rights. As information of torture and abuse in Abu Ghraib, Guantánamo Bay, and secret CIA detention centers has surfaced, however, the image of America has changed from human rights champion to that of violator. In large part, the international community of scholars and activists has come to deride the foreign policy of the United States as misguided and out of balance with the threats the country faces. However, there are also plenty of outspoken defenders who believe that the tactics …

“I’M Just Talking About The Law”: Guantánamo And The Lawyers, Marten Zwanenburg

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

Guantánamo: The War on Human Rights by David Rose. New York: The New Press, 2004.

Making Sense Of A Senseless War, J. Peter Pham

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

A Dirty War in West Africa: The RUF and the Destruction of Sierra Leone by Lansana Gberie. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2005.

and

Young Soldiers: Why They Choose to Fight by Rachel Brett and Irma Specht. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2005.

Human Rights And The War On Terror: Complete 2005 - 2007 Topical Research Digest, Jack Donnelly, Simon Amajuru, Susannah Compton, Robin Davey, Syd Dillard, Amanda Donahoe, Charles Hess, Sydney Fisher, Kelley Laird, Victoria Lowdon, Chris Maggard, Alexandra Nichols, Travis Ning, Toni Panetta, Greg Sanders, James Smithwick, Angela Woolliams, Chris Saeger, Sarah Bania-Dobyns, Eric Dibbern, David Gillespie, Latife Bulur, Katie Friesen, Arika Long, Arianna Nowakowski, Joel R. Pruce

Human Rights & Human Welfare

“9/11 changed everything.” Not really. In fact, there has been far more continuity than change over the past six years in both international and domestic politics. Nonetheless, human rights often have been harmed—although not by terrorism but by “the war on terror.”