A new home for Societies Without Borders
Friends and Colleagues,
We are thrilled to announce that Societies Without Borders has a new home.
Soon you will find our forthcoming issue available, along with back issues of the journal at this site. We hope this will enhance your reading experience and invite you to follow us to the new address.
Brian Gran, editor of Societies Without Borders
Volume 9, Issue 3
Societies Without Borders
Human Rights and the Social Sciences
Edited by David L. Brunsma, Keri E. Iyall Smith, and Mark Frezzo
Book Review Editor, Tugrul Keskin
Film Review Editor, LaDawn Haglund
Editorial Assistant Erin Cournoyer
DAVID BRUNSMA, VIRGINIA TECH; KERI E. IYALL SMITH, SUFFOLK UNIVERSITY; MARK FREZZO, UNIVERSITY OF MISSISSIPPI
BRUCE FRIESEN, THE UNIVERSITY OF TAMPA AND BRIAN GRAN, CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY
Articles
MICHELLE M. JACOB, HERITAGE UNIVERSITY AND UNIVERSITY OF SAN DIEGO, SARAH AUGUSTINE, HERITAGE UNIVERSITY, COREY HODGE, HERITAGE UNIVERSITY, AND MARY JAMES, HERITAGE UNIVERSITY
JESSE P. VAN GERVEN, UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI
LINDSEY N. KINGSTON, WEBSTER UNIVERSITY
The Rise of Human Rights Education: Opportunities, Challenges, and Future Possibilities
Notes From the Field
XI CHEN, QUINNIPIAC UNIVERSITY
Book Reviews
MOHAMMED SALEHIN, THE UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY
Review of A Quiet Revolution: The Veil’s Resurgence, from the Middle East to America by Leila Ahmed
JARED DEL ROSSO, UNIVERSITY OF DENVER
Review of Torture: A Sociology of Violence and Human Rights by Lisa Hajjar
ANDREW CROOKSTON, WASHINGTON STATE UNIVERSITY
Review of Global Coloniality and Power in Guatemala by Egla Martínez-Salazar
Volume 9, Issue 1
Societies Without Borders
Human Rights and the Social Sciences
Special Issue on Gender and Human Rights
Edited by David L. Brunsma, Keri E. Iyall Smith, and Mark Frezzo
Book Review Editor, Tugrul Keskin
Film Review Editor, LaDawn Haglund
Editorial Assistant Erin Cournoyer
Articles
MONICA L. MELTON, SPELMAN COLLEGE
African American Women, HIV/AIDS, and Human Rights in the US
BARRET KATUNA & DAVITA SILFEN GLASBERG, UNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT
Rules vs. Rights? Social Control, Dignity, and the Right to Housing in the Shelter System
ROSEANNE NJIRU, UNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT
DANIELA JAUK, UNIVERSITY OF GRAZ
Notes From the Field
EMMI BEVENSEE, THE SCHOOL FOR INTERNATIONAL TRAINING
Transwomen, the Prison-Industrial Complex, and Human Rights: Neoliberalism and Trans-Resistance
SUSAN C. PEARCE, EAST CAROLINA UNIVERSITY
Book Reviews
MANISHA DESAI, UNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT
Review of Edges of Global Justice: The World Social Forum and Its “Others” by Janet M. Conway
ANNIE ISABEL FUKUSHIMA, RUTGERS UNIVERSITY
Review of The Anti-Slavery Project: From the Slave Trade to Human Trafficking by Joel Quirk
NICOLE FOX, BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY
Review of Forgotten Genocides: Oblivion, Denial, and Memory by Rene Lemarchand (Editor)
Film Review
BETH WILLIFORD, MANHATTANVILLE COLLEGE
Review of Heart of Sky, Heart of Earth Directed by Frauke Sandig and Eric Black
Provocation #2 Political Self-Determination
By Judith R. Blau
The focus of this provocation is political self-determination, recognizing that in the real world, political self-determinations is confounded with other expressions of self-determination (social, cultural, economic). It is helpful to note that assertions and claims to self-determination – regardless of the expressive form they take – are met with resistance – ergo, the American Revolution and Palestinian Statehood. I suggested in the 1st provocation that equality is the objective. As we move along, we might consider that sometimes a main objective is being different.
American accounts of the origin of the UN stress that it was an international response to the Holocaust. There is no question that this was the case, but that is only half the story. It is worth quoting from a current UN website to show the important role decolonization played in the founding of the UN, and – note too – continues to play
In a vast political reshaping of the world, more than 80 former colonies comprising some 750 million people have gained independence since the creation of the United Nations. At present, 17 Non-Self-Governing Territories (NSGTs) across the globe remain to be decolonized, home to nearly 2 million people. Thus, the process of decolonization is not complete (emphasis added).
Article 1 of the 1945 UN Charter is clear that what drives and legitimates self-determination is the principle of equality. It is a given for universal peace.
To develop friendly relations among nations based on respect for the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples, and to take other appropriate measures to strengthen universal peace (emphases added).
In even stronger terms, self-determination is cast as a right, in identical language in Article 1 of both the Civil and Political Covenant and the Economic, Social and Cultural Covenant:
All peoples have the right of self-determination. By virtue of that right they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development.
Thus, the Charter and Article 1 of both Covenants justify movements (if not revolutions) for self-determination –both retrospectively (say, the United States) and contemporaneously (say, Palestine and Scotland).
According to the UN Charter and the two Covenants, political self-determination is indistinguishable from economic, social or cultural self-determination, as suggested by the fact that Article 1 is identical in both Covenants. Seems straightforward, doesn’t it? Far from it. Take Scotland. Is it politics, oil and economics, or possibly culture that is driving the independence movement? Maybe all of the above.
Varied Forums for Political Self-Determination
The Security Council
Under the scrutiny of its Practices and Charter Research Branch, the Security Council must not, in principle, table any matter involving self-determination. It happens, but there are consequences. In 2011 Obama signaled that the U.S. would veto a resolution for Palestinian Statehood, with the result that it was tabled.
The AU and UNESO
Perhaps in response – or acting in solidarity – in 2013 the African Union granted non-observer status to Palestine, and earlier, in 2011, on the international stage, UNESCO granted full membership to the Palestinians. Like spoiled children, Israel joined the US in refusing to pay dues to UNESCO, with the consequence that neither are currently members. All this in spite of the fact that more than half – 120 – of the world’s countries support Palestinian Statehood.
The General Assembly
On 29 November 2012, the General Assembly (GA) voted to accord Palestine non-member Observer- State status in the United Nations. The vote was 138 in favor to 9 against (Canada, Czech Republic, Israel, Marshall Islands, Micronesia (Federated States of), Nauru, Panama, Palau, United States), with 41 abstentions. Although Palestine’s delegation has had observer status since 1974, the GA vote means that Palestine is recognized by the UN as an independent country, though still not a UN member.
The Puzzle
Decolonization remains an objective for the United Nations since peoples who are not self-determining cannot participate as equals on the global stage and cannot protect themselves from neighborhood or international bullies.
Nevertheless, for a peoples to announce to the world –“wow, look at us! …..we are self-determining!” — obscures the rationale, the grievances, and the existential grounding of the claim. Try these on for size:
Palestine: far-reaching claims: historical, political, economic, cultural
Puerto Rico: Language, cultural, economic (is poorer than stateside)
Scotland: Economic (is richer than England)
Catalonia: Economic (is better-off than the rest of Spain), language
Crimea: Language, ethnicity
EQUALITY and SELF-DETERMINATION: A PROVOCATION
By Judith R. Blau
The assumption in this provocation is that we sociologists have not thought through the significance of self-determination in the context of the current crisis in Ukraine and Crimea. I do not propose answers but instead try to provoke them. I break the provocations up into several parts, inviting others to respond or to argue with each of several provocations. The first provocation has to do with EQUALITY, the second POLITICAL SELF-DETERMINATION, and then we consider other forms of self-determination (e.g. cultural and economic).
Human rights are universal. So was it proclaimed by 56 members of the United Nations, on December 10, 1948, as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and then more resoundingly so, on June 25, 1993 at the World Conference on Human Rights when representatives of 171 States affirmed their commitment to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by consensually adopting the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action.
As human rights advocates and activists in the U.S., we have unequivocally championed universal rights and equality, grounding our arguments in the principles laid out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Very specifically, each and every Article of the UDHR and the Preamble emphasizes the equality and inclusivity of both rights and rights-holders. Consistent with the principles stated in the UDHR, the emphasis of most American social movements advocating human rights has also been on equality and inclusivity. These include movements for racial equality (CORE); gender equality (NOW), and various movements for immigrants’ rights (La Raza; Dreamers; FLOC, NDLON, UFW), and the GLBT movement (Human Rights Campaign). Virtually all American movements (with the possible exception of separatist Black Panthers) have been committed to what we might call the “equality paradigm.” In other words the objective has been on fairness and equality, what American sociologist, Stanley Lieberson, referred to as having “a piece of the pie.”
Make no mistake about it: in the U.S and worldwide, human rights advocates and activists expound equality in a variety of forms, all of which relate to human rights and all of which can be derived from the principles laid out in the UDHR. In fact, to a great extent the United Nations System is organized in terms of equality, as laid out in detail in Article 25 (1). For example, Article 25 (1) encompasses the universal right to food, housing, health, and security. In turn, the right to food is mandated by Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO); the universal right to housing by U.N. Habitat; the universal right to health by the World Health Organization (WHO); universal social and economic security by the ILO. Article 26 (1) states that education is a universal human right and that is the mandate of both UNICEF and UNESO. There are similar correspondences for other UN bodies: gender equality (UN Women), the coupling of development with human rights (UNDP), and the coupling of a healthy environment and human rights (UNEP).
I speculate that American human rights advocates and activists agree with their counterparts elsewhere that human rights are universal and they are so in the abstract sense laid out in the UDHR, and in specific ways elaborated in Articles 25 (1) and 26 (1), and pursued by various UN agencies or programs, as I have briefly described. However, in one other major respect human rights advocates and activists in the U.S. are different from their counterparts elsewhere, namely, we have shied away from the theoretical and practical implications of the right to self-determination. At least since 1776. That is, is it only the underdog — not yet an equal –that stakes out a claim for self-determination? Can you think of any bullies (on the contemporary world stage) that were former underdogs? (Sorry – that was a loaded question.)
Volume 8, Issue 3
Societies Without Borders
Human Rights and the Social Sciences
Edited by David L. Brunsma, Keri E. Iyall Smith, and Mark Frezzo
Book Review Editor, Tugrul Keskin
Editorial Assistants Jennifer Sturman, Alessandra Tarantola,
and Heather Zellers
Articles
STEPHANIE K. DECKER & JOHN PAUL, WASHBURN UNIVERSITY
CARLA DE YCAZA, NEW YORK UNIVERSITY & NICOLE FOX, BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY
Notes from the Field
MEGHAN E. CONLEY, UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE
“I Now Pronounce You PoliMigra”: Narrative Resistance to Police-ICE Interoperability
KEITH KERR, QUINNIPIAC UNIVERSITY
Freedom with Chinese Characteristics
Book Reviews
David G. Embrick, Loyola University-Chicago
Review of White Party, White Government: Race, Class, and U.S. Politics by Joe R. Feagin
Silvia Giagnoni, AUBURN UNIVERSITY-MONTGOMERY
Review of Fair Trade from the Ground Up. New Markets for Social Justice by April Linton
Volume 8, Issue 2
Societies Without Borders
Human Rights and the Social Sciences
Edited by David L. Brunsma, Keri E. Iyall Smith, and Mark Frezzo Book Review Editor, Tugrul Keskin
Editorial Assistant, Brian Gresham
Articles
MAHMOUD “MAX” KASHEFI, EASTERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY
SEAN CHABOT & MAJID SHARIFI, EASTERN WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY
The Violence of Nonviolence: Problematizing Nonviolent Resistance in Iran and Egypt
STEVEN L. ARXER, UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS— DALLAS
Constructing Gendered NGO Selves: Utilizing Identity Work to Assess NGO Gender Advocacy and Politics
Notes From the Field
DEEB PAUL KITCHEN II, FLORIDA GULF COAST UNIVERSITY
A Critical View of Graduate Unions
PABLO LAPEGNA, UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA
The Expansion of Transgenic Soybeans and the Killing of Indigenous Peasants in Argentina
Book Reviews
JOELLEN PEDERSON, FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY
Review of Immigration, Labor, and the Politics of Belonging in France by Elaine Thomas
Call for Papers
Special Issue on “Gender and Human Rights”
The editors of Societies Without Borders: Human Rights and the Social Sciences (SWB)—a double-blind, peer-reviewed, open-source electronic journal devoted to cutting-edge research on human rights and public goods— together with the Center for Women’s Health and Human Rights at Suffolk University invite authors to submit manuscripts for a special issue on “Gender and Human Rights.”
The study of “Gender and Human Rights” dovetails with many key issues in the field of human rights, yet it is also distinctive and thus deserves particular attention. With this special issue we invite submissions that examine both major and emerging issues in “Gender and Human Rights.” This topic will also allow Societies Without Borders to utilize its strengths as a space for research from within the academy or by practitioners in the field.
The special issue seeks papers, commentaries, notes from the field, as well as poetic, visual, and other expressions devoted to examining gender and human rights. This special issue will be released in March 2014 to celebrate the 58th Session of UN Commission on the Status of Women.
Any and all inquiries into gender and human rights in the social sciences are welcome. Some questions for consideration include:
- Millennium Development Goals for women and girls
- Access and participation of women and girls to education
- Access and participation of women and girls to science and technology
- Women’s equal access to full employment and decent work
- Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW)
- The Beijing Declaration
- Women and the Environment
- Women, Peace, and Security
- Men’s and boys’ roles in promoting the human rights of women and girls
- Women’s health and human rights
- Theorizing human rights from women’s point of view
- Teaching in gender and human rights
- Advocacy in gender and human rights
- Feminists and human rights
- Gender, vulnerability and human rights
- Gender and dignity
- War crimes, gender, and human rights
- Gender, protest, and human rights
The deadline for submissions is November 1, 2013.
Inquiries may be sent to Keri E. Iyall Smith.
For SWB submission guidelines read more.
Please submit manuscripts as e-mail attachments to the co-editors.
Submissions will be subject to the regular review process of SWB.
Volume 8, Issue 1
Societies Without Borders
Human Rights and the Social Sciences
Edited by David L. Brunsma, Keri E. Iyall Smith, and Mark Frezzo Book Review Editor, Tugrul Keskin
Editorial Assistant, Brian Gresham
Articles
ANGELA ELENA FILLINGIM, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA—BERKELEY
LYUSYENA KIRAKOSYAN, VIRGINIA POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE AND STATE UNIVERSITY
Linking Disability Rights and Democracy: Insights From Brazil
ERIN RIDER, JACKSONVILLE STATE UNIVERSITY
Negotiating Uncertainty in the Right to Asylee Status
Notes From the Field
LUIS F. NUÑO, WILLIAM PATTERSON UNIVERSITY
NICHOLAS GIBSON, UNIVERSITY OF HAWAI”I—MĀNOA
Stress Theory, Health, and Health Care: Self-care Technology and Self-Identity Reinvigoration
KATHRYN STROTHER RATCLIFF & TRISHA TIAMZON, UNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT
FOOD: A Human Rights Issue Ignored in Sociology
ERIC BONDS, UNIVERSITY OF MARY WASHINGTON
Book Reviews
DANA M. OLWAN, SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY
Review of Between Feminism and Islam: Human Rights and Sharia Law in Morocco by Zakia Salime
ALLIE SHIER, MCGILL UNIVERSITY
Review of Women Suicide Bombers: Narratives of Violence by Julie V.G. Rajan
ARIA NAKISSA, CROWN CENTER FOR MIDDLE EASTERN STUDIES—BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY
Review of Islam and Human Rights Tradition and Politics by Ann Elizabeth Mayer
Erratum
Volume 7, Issue 4
Societies Without Borders
Human Rights and the Social Sciences
Edited by David L. Brunsma, Keri E. Iyall Smith, and Mark Frezzo
Book Review Editor, Tugrul Keskin
Editorial Assistant, Brian Gresham
A Special Issue of Societies Without Borders: Human rights and the Social Sciences
DAVID L. BRUNSMA, VIRGINIA TECH; KERI E. IYALL SMITH, SUFFOLK UNIVERSITY; MARK FREZZO, UNIVERSITY OF MISSISSIPPI
“Social Science without Borders: Looking Back, Looking Forward”
Articles
DAVITA SILFEN GLASBERG, UNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT
TANYA GOLASH-BOZA, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA— MERCED
What Does A Sociology Without Borders Look Like?
DAVE OVERFELT, ROCHESTER INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
Accomplishments Behind, Barriers Ahead: Doing Sociology Without Borders
KENNETH A. GOULD, CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK— BROOKLYN COLLEGE
The Collaborative Dialogue Panel: Changing The Model of The Professional Sociology Conference
LOUIS EDGAR ESPARZA, CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY—LOS ANGELES; JUDITH BLAU, UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA—CHAPEL HILL
Wired Nation: How The Tea Party Drove an Anti-Immigrant Campaign
BRUCE K. FRIESEN, UNIVERSITY OF TAMPA; MARK FREZZO, UNIVERSITY OF MISSISSIPPI; BRIAN K. GRAN, CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY
Of Tools and Houses: Sociologists Without Borders and the AAAS Science and Human Rights Coalition
MICHAEL BRIGUGLIO, UNIVERSITY OF MALTA
Nature, Society and Social Change
Expressions
RODNEY D. COATES, MIAMI UNIVERSITY
SSF, And It’s Identity
Interview
JUDITH BLAU, UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA— CHAPEL HILL & KERI E. IYALL SMITH, SUFFOLK UNIVERITY
To Be a Sociologist Without Borders
Photography
KENNETH A. GOULD, CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK— BROOKLYN COLLEGE; JEREMY “GERM” DEHART
Societies Without Borders 