Human Rights

Judith Blau is Professor Emerita at the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill, retiring in 2014 after a teaching career that spanned 45 years. In 2012 she was awarded the Distinguished Career Award by the American Sociological Association. She is past president of the Southern Sociological Society, and former editor of Social Forces and of Societies without Borders. Her books include the 1st edition of the Primer; Sociology and Human Rights (2011); The World and U.S. Social Forums (2009); The Leading Rogue State (2008); Freedoms and Solidarities (2007); Public Sociology Reader (2006); Human Rights: Beyond the Liberal Vision (2005); Blackwell Companion to Sociology (2004); and Race in the Schools (2003). She continues to teach at the Open University of Wellfleet while living on Cape Cod and serves on the Barnstable Human Rights Commission. Louis Edgar Esparza is Assistant Professor of Sociology and Latin American Studies at California State University at Los Angeles. His work focuses on grassroots social movements, their organizations and their strategies. Louis has been a Visiting Scholar at both Sophia University and Chuo University in Tokyo, an affiliated researcher at the Luis Angel Arango Library in Bogota, and Lecturer at the Josef Korbel School of International Studies. His research has appeared in Sociological Forum, Contemporary Justice Review, Environment & Society, Qualitative Sociology, and Societies Without Borders. His essays have appeared in The Progressive & In These Times.

• Chapter 1 – The Logic of Human RightsChapter 2 – The Human Rights FrameworkChapter 3 – In Defense of SocietyChapter 4 – Recognition: Culture and EthicsChapter 5 – Economic Myths, Realities, and PossibilitiesChapter 6 – The Equality ProjectChapter 7 – Humanitarian Crimes and Human Rights ViolationsChapter 8 – SolidaritiesChapter 9 – DemocracyChapter 10 – Sustainable Development, Global Climate Change & Human Rights

“Blau and Moncada have written a great book unlike any other in the human rights field. It combines a devastating critique of neoliberalism with sociologically grounded scholarly advocacy of a people-centered future for human rights on a global scale. As such, it both persuades and inspires.” —Richard Falk, University of California–Santa Barbara “Human Rights: A Primer provides a compelling and timely introduction to the subject of globalization’s nefarious impact on human rights. Drawing on an encompassing and indivisible human rights framework, Blau and Moncada passionately appeal for solidarity at the local, national, and international levels.” —Micheline Ishay, author of The History of Human Rights From Ancient Times to the Globalization Era (2004, 2008)