Human Rights as Social Construction

Häftad, Engelska, 2013

Av Benjamin Gregg, Austin) Gregg, Benjamin (University of Texas

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Most conceptions of human rights rely on metaphysical or theological assumptions that construe them as possible only as something imposed from outside existing communities. Most people, in other words, presume that human rights come from nature, God, or the United Nations. This book argues that reliance on such putative sources actually undermines human rights. Benjamin Gregg envisions an alternative; he sees human rights as locally developed, freely embraced, and indigenously valid. Human rights, he posits, can be created by the average, ordinary people to whom they are addressed, and that they are valid only if embraced by those to whom they would apply. To view human rights in this manner is to increase the chances and opportunities that more people across the globe will come to embrace them.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum2013-08-01
Mått152 x 229 x 14 mm
Vikt370 g
FormatHäftad
SpråkEngelska
Antal sidor272
FörlagCambridge University Press
ISBN9781107612945

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Benjamin Gregg teaches social and political theory at the University of Texas, Austin. He is the author of Thick Moralities, Thin Politics: Social Integration across Communities of Belief (2003) and Coping in Politics with Indeterminate Norms: A Theory of Enlightened Localism (2003). His articles have appeared in Political Theory, the Review of Politics, Theory and Society, Polity, Ratio Juris, Comparative Sociology and the International Review of Sociology.

Part I. This-Worldly Norms, Local Not Universal: 1. Human rights: political not theological; 2. Human rights: political not metaphysical; 3. Generating universal human rights out of local norms; Part II. This-Worldly Resources for Human Rights as Social Construction: 4. Cultural resources: individuals as authors of human rights; 5. Neurobiological resources: emotions and natural altruism in support of human rights; Part III. This-Worldly Means of Advancing the Human-Rights Idea: 6. Translating human rights into local cultural vernaculars; 7. Advancing human rights through cognitive re-framing; Part IV. Human Rights, Future Tense: Human Nature and Political Community Reconceived: 8. Human rights via human nature as cultural choice; 9. The human-rights state; Part V. Coda: 10. What is lost, and what gained, by human rights as social construction.

'Benjamin Gregg's book advances an idea of the local and particular that, while normatively rich, invites an openness to universal norms as well. While denying any easy answers to the moral universalist, the argument is well placed to fend off many of the familiar skeptical objections to the idea of human rights. Professor Gregg writes with urgency and clarity, and his book should be read by both cosmopolitans and their critics.' Richard Vernon, Distinguished University Professor, University of Western Ontario