[URBANTH-L]CFP: North/South Dialogue: Globalization and Human Rights, Contradictions and Opportunities

[Angela Jancius]

From: "LaDawn Haglund" <LaDawn.Haglund at asu.edu>

Call for Papers: Thematic panel for Global Division of the Society for
the Study of Social Problems (SSSP)


North/South Dialogue: Globalization and Human Rights, Contradictions and
Opportunities


Deadline: January 31, 2008


Co-organizer John Dale

Department of Sociology and Anthropology, George Mason University

Ph: 703-993-1444; jdale at gmu.edu


Co-organizer: LaDawn Haglund

School of Justice & Social Inquiry, Arizona State University

Ph: 480-965-7083; ladawn.haglund at asu.edu


The practice of human rights by its promoters in the North often
reflects ambivalence.  This is due in part to the relationship between
human rights and globalization. Globalization is a contested concept.
Yet, if not reduced to its economic dimensions, we can claim that, to
some extent, globalization has facilitated the spread of values,
discourse, practices, and institutions for promoting human rights.  The
transnational human rights regime investigates violations of human
rights around the world and legally tries states, state leaders,
corporations, and even citizens that some states refuse to indict.
Thus, we might think of human rights as both a product and facilitator
of globalization. At the same time, human rights often conflict with and
challenge many of the processes underlying globalization, such as market
liberalization, migration, dislocation, and innovations in surveillance
and repression.

Aside from its sometimes antagonistic relationship to globalization, the
use of the language of human rights itself also can be ambivalent.  We
see this clearly when state and non-state actors use human rights as a
disciplinary instrument to regulate the behavior of other nation-states.
Often, this pattern spreads governmental power trans-nationally in ways
that strengthen the hegemony of Northern states over Southern ones.

In short, we are finding that some human rights are under siege while
others are becoming increasingly possible - and sometimes the advance of
certain human rights, in practice at least, comes directly at the
expense of others.

This panel seeks to explore both the discursive ambivalence of human
rights practice and the contradictions between globalizing forces and
the institutionalization of human rights.  We are especially interested
in papers which identify new transnational strategies, campaigns, or
mechanisms that seek to protect or expand human rights norms, and that
link actors in the global North and South.

Papers or extended abstracts (2-3 page summary of the intended
presentation) MUST be sent electronically via the online submission
cover sheet to session organizers no later than midnight (EST) on
January 31, 2008.  You may review the online submission cover sheet by
clicking on the link below.


2008 Global Division Sessions: http://www.sssp1.org/index.cfm/pageid/604

2008 SSSP Call for Papers: http://www.sssp1.org/index.cfm/m/293

2008 SSSP Submission Cover Sheet:
http://www.sssp1.org/index.cfm/pageId/591