Marian Alexander Spencer was born in 1920 in the Ohio River town of Gallipolis, Ohio, one year after the "Red Summer" of 1919 that saw an upsurge in race riots and lynchings. Following the example of her grandfather, an ex-slave and community leader, Marian joined the NAACP at thirteen and grew up to achieve not only a number of civic leadership firsts in her adopted home city of Cincinnati, but a legacy of lasting civil rights victories. Of these, the best known is the desegregation of Cincinnati's Coney Island amusement park. She also fought to desegregate Cincinnati schools and to stop the introduction of observers in black voting precincts in Ohio. Her campaign to raise awareness of industrial toxic-waste practices in minority neighborhoods was later adapted into national Superfund legislation. In 2012, Marian's friend and colleague Dot Christenson sat down with her to record her memories. The resulting biography not only gives us the life story of remarkable leader but encapsulates many of the twentieth century's greatest struggles and advances. Spencer's story will prove inspirational and instructive to citizens and students alike.

Governments are increasingly turning to the Internet to provide public services. The move towards e-governance not only impacts the efficiency and effectiveness of public service, but also has the potential to transform the nature of government interactions with citizens. E-Governance and Civic Engagement: Factors and Determinants of E-Democracy examines how e-government facilitates online public reporting, two-way communication and debate, online citizen participation in decision-making, and citizen satisfaction with e-governance. The book explores the impacts from governments that have engaged their citizens online, discusses issues and challenges in adopting and implementing online civic engagement initiatives globally, and helps guide practitioners in their transition to e-governance.

Using interviews with leaders and participants, as well as historical archives, the author documents three interracial sites where white Americans put themselves into unprecedented relationships with African Americans, Mexican Americans, and Asian Americans. In teen summer camps in the New York City and Los Angeles areas, students from largely segregated schools worked and played together; in Washington, DC, families fought blockbusting and white flight to build an integrated neighborhood; and in San Antonio, white community activists joined in coalition with Mexican American groups to advocate for power in a city government monopolized by Anglos. Women often took the lead in organizations that were upsetting patterns of men's protective authority at the same time as white people's racial dominance.

This book is a unique, single-volume treatment offering original source material on the life, accomplishments, disappointments, and lasting legacy of one of American history's most celebrated social reformers-Cesar Chavez. Two decades after Cesar Chavez's death, this timely book chronicles the drive for a union of one of American society's most exploited groups-farm workers. Encyclopedia of Cesar Chavez is a valuable one-volume source based on the most recent research and available documentation. Historian Roger Bruns documents how Chavez and his United Farm Workers (UFW), against formidable odds, organized farm laborers into a force that for the first time successfully took on the might of California's agribusiness interests to achieve greater wages and better working conditions. Set against the backdrop of the 1960s, a time of assassinations, war protests, civil rights battles, and reform efforts for poor and minority citizens, the approximately 100 entries in this encyclopedia provide a glimpse into the events, organizations, men and women, and recurring themes that impacted the life of Cesar Chavez. It also contains a section of primary documentation-useful not only to enhance the understanding of this social and political movement, but also as source material for students. Presents a unique narrative of the events in the life of Chavez and the Farm Workers Movement, as well as original documents and entries on people and events Provides a valuable source of information for tracing attitudes, legislation, and progressive reform efforts in the last half-century, especially in light of the current heated debate over immigration Demonstrates how a determined organizer applied various methods and tactics to accomplish what seemed at the onset of the movement to be a quixotic venture-a relevant lesson for those strategizing to achieve social justice today

Re-understanding the Child's Right to Identity - On belonging, Responsiveness and Hope, by Ya'ir Ronen offers an innovative understanding of the right to identity aiming to transform its meaning and thus its protection. Drawing on sources from different disciplines, including law, theology, philosophy, psychology and social work, the author offers a vision of social and legal change in which law is a healing force. In it, policies and practice protect children's sense of belonging recognizing human interdependence. They dignify children's disempowered narratives through their responsiveness, protect children's need to be authentic beings and nourish the hope for change and growth in children at risk and their families

Using interviews with leaders and participants, as well as historical archives, the author documents three interracial sites where white Americans put themselves into unprecedented relationships with African Americans, Mexican Americans, and Asian Americans. In teen summer camps in the New York City and Los Angeles areas, students from largely segregated schools worked and played together; in Washington, DC, families fought blockbusting and white flight to build an integrated neighborhood; and in San Antonio, white community activists joined in coalition with Mexican American groups to advocate for power in a city government monopolized by Anglos. Women often took the lead in organizations that were upsetting patterns of men's protective authority at the same time as white people's racial dominance.

When, in Obergefell v. Hodges, the US Supreme Court held that bans on same-sex marriage violate the Constitution, Christian conservative legal organizations (CCLOs) decried the ruling. Foreseeing an “assault against Christians,” Liberty Counsel president Mat Staver declared, “We are entering a cultural civil war.” Many would argue that a cultural war was already well underway; and yet, as this timely book makes clear, the stakes, the forces engaged, and the strategies employed have undergone profound changes in recent years. In Defending Faith, Daniel Bennett shows how the Christian legal movement (CLM) and its affiliated organizations arrived at this moment in time. He explains how CCLOs advocate for issues central to Christian conservatives, highlights the influence of religious liberty on the CLM’s broader agenda, and reveals how the Christian Right has become accustomed to the courts as a field of battle in today’s culture wars. On one level a book about how the Christian Right mobilized and organized an effective presence on an unavoidable front in battles over social policy, the courtroom, Defending Faith is also a case study of interest groups pursuing common goals while maintaining unique identities. As different as these proliferating groups might be, they are alike in increasingly construing their efforts as a defense of religious freedom against hostile forces throughout American society—and thus as benefitting society as a whole rather than limiting the rights of certain groups. The first holistic, wide-angle picture of the Christian legal movement in the United States, Bennett’s work tells the story of the growth of a powerful legal community and of the development of legal advocacy as a tool of social and political engagement.

This book is an account of the concept of equality from the perspective of both theory and practice, and presents methods of quantifying values. It considers both arguments and evidence, and tackles equality in its different forms, including economic equality, education, equality before the law, equality of opportunity, and gender equality. The book shows that inequality is a profoundly moral question, noting that there are good practical reasons for its adoption. It presents a consideration of classical theories from Aristotle to Hume, as well as contemporary approaches such as those offered by Rawls, Haidt, Temkin, and Parfit. It also contemplates issues such as the naturalistic fallacy, and considers what is different about the Goleman view of moral sensitivity and the ethical personality. The array of evidence includes the impact of climate and various plants such as sugar and cotton on the slave trade, the concept of Gaia, Darwinism, sex inequality, personality, culture, psychological issues, and the quantification of ethics. The book concludes with some practical suggestions for improving equality. It aims to raise awareness of the ways in which equality can be understood, and achieved. It will be relevant to students and scholars in philosophy, human rights, and law.

This book deals with one of the most important issues of philosophy of law and constitutional thought: how to understand clashes of fundamental rights, such as the conflict between free speech and privacy. The main argument of this book is that much can be learned about the nature of fundamental legal rights by examining them through the lens of conflicts among such rights, and criticizing the views of scholars and jurists who have discussed both fundamental legal rights and the nature of conflicts among them.
Theories of rights are necessarily abstract, aiming at providing the best possible answers to pressing social problems. Yet such theories must also respond to the real and changing dilemmas of the day. Taking up the problem of conflicting rights, Zucca seeks a theory of rights that can guide us to a richer, more responsive approach to rights discourse.
The idea of constitutional rights is one of the most powerful tools to advance justice in the Western tradition. But as this book demonstrates, even the most ambitious theory of rights cannot satisfactorily address questions of conflicting rights. How, for instance, can we fully secure privacy when it clashes with free speech? To what extent can our societies assist people in dying without compromising the protection of life? Exploring the limitations of the rights discourse in these areas, Zucca questions the role of law in settling ethical dilemmas helping to clarify thinking about the limitations of rights discourse.

Cruelty has long been a feature of states' domestic and foreign policies but is seldom acknowledged. Governments mouth respect for human rights yet promote discrimination, violence and suppression of critics. Documenting case studies from around the world, distinguished academic and human rights activist Stuart Rees exposes politicians' cruel motives and the resulting outcomes. Using his first-hand observations and insights from international poets, he argues for courageous action to support non-violence in every aspect of public and private life for the survival of people, animals and the planet.

Since 2015, Poland's populist Law and Justice Party (PiS) has been dismantling the major checks and balances of the Polish state and subordinating the courts, the civil service, and the media to the will of the executive. Political rights have been radically restricted, and the Party has captured the entire state apparatus. The speed and depth of these antidemocratic movements took many observers by surprise: until now, Poland was widely regarded as an example of a successful transitional democracy. Poland's anti-constitutional breakdown poses three questions that this book sets out to answer: What, exactly, has happened since 2015? Why did it happen? And what are the prospects for a return to liberal democracy? These answers are formulated against a backdrop of current worldwide trends towards populism, authoritarianism, and what is sometimes called 'illiberal democracy'. As this book argues, the Polish variant of 'illiberal democracy' is an oxymoron. By undermining the separation of powers, the PiS concentrates all power in its own hands, rendering any democratic accountability illusory. There is, however, no inevitability in these anti-democratic trends: this book considers a number of possible remedies and sources of hope, including intervention by the European Union.

Human history has been marked by the great number of people born into conditions of war, violence, oppression and social exclusion. But at the same time, this history has been shaped by the long struggle for human rights and the people who have committed themselves to the practices of solidarity and nonviolence. The Power of Hope: Thoughts on Peace and Human Rights in the Third Millennium is a dialogue between two high-profile activists and thinkers who discuss the concrete ways we can shift to a world that prioritises justice and human dignity. Adolfo Perez Esquivel - Argentinian human rights activist and winner of the 1980 Nobel Peace Prize - played a vital role in resisting military dictatorship and was arrested and tortured under the Argentine militarist government. Daisaku Ikeda is a peacebuilder, Buddhist philosopher, educator, author and poet as well as being the founding president of Soka Gakkai International (SGI), the world's largest Buddhist lay organisation. Their dialogue intertwines their rich personal experiences in the struggle for human rights with wider reflections on how to make the Third Millennium the millennium of peace. The book combines rich accounts of Latin America under the brutality of the 1970s military regimes; insights from the Buddhist faith on the role of meditation for human rights activists; recognition of the crucial role of women in the practice of nonviolence; thoughts on international geopolitics and the legacies of Hiroshima; and discussion of the perilous role of globalisation in the loss of identities and ethical values.

Human Rights and the Arts: Perspectives on Global Asia approaches human rights issues from the perspective of artists and writers in global Asia. By focusing on the interventions of writers, artists, filmmakers, and dramatists, the book moves toward a new understanding of human rights that shifts the discussion of contexts and subjects away from the binaries of cultural relativism and political sovereignty. From Ai Wei Wei and Michael Ondaatje, to Umar Kayam, Saryang Kim, Lia Zixin, and Noor Zaheer, among others, this volume takes its lead from global Asian artists, powerfully re-orienting thinking about human rights subjects and contexts to include the physical, spiritual, social, ecological, cultural, and the transnational. Looking at a range of work from Tibet, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, China, Bangladesh, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, and Macau as well as Asian diasporic communities, this book puts forward an understanding of global Asia that underscores "Asia" as a global site. It also highlights the continuing importance of nation-states and specific geographical entities, while stressing the ways that the human rights subject breaks out of these boundaries. Many of these works are included in the companion volume Human Rights and the Arts in Global Asia: An Anthology, also published by Lexington Books.

Media power is a crucial, although often taken for granted, concept. We assume, for example, that the media are 'powerful'; if they were not, why would there be so many controversies over the regulation, control and impact of communicative institutions and processes? Further, we assume that this 'power' is somehow problematic; audiences are often treated as highly susceptible to media influence and too much 'power' in the hands of one organization or individual is seen as risky and potentially dangerous. These concerns have been at the heart of recent controversies involving the relationships between media moguls and political elites, the consequences of phone hacking in the UK, and the emerging influence of social media as vital gatekeepers. Yet it is still not clear what we mean by media power or how effective it is. This book evaluates contrasting definitions of media power and looks at the key sites in which power is negotiated, concentrated and resisted - politically, technologically and economically. Combining an evaluation of both previous literature and new research, the book seeks to establish an understanding of media power which does justice to the complexities and contradictions of the contemporary social world. It will be important reading for undergraduates, postgraduates, researchers and activists alike.

In modern times, political and social reform often starts at the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder; common people with ordinary lives enact change through community organization and the desire to improve their own lives and the lives of those around them. Governments that support such movements can experience great advances and achievements in the long term. Cases on Grassroots Campaigns for Community Empowerment and Social Change presents a series of real-world studies on political and social activism in the information age, focusing on how empowerment of minority or underserved populations can serve to enact sweeping reforms regionally, nationally, or globally. This book is a critical resource for political and private actors, including government agencies, community organizers, political parties, and researchers in the social sciences. This reference work features research on timely topics such as women's empowerment, poverty, social activism and social change, community building, and empowerment of individuals in a variety of socioeconomic settings and roles.

That Indonesia's ongoing occupation of West Papua continues to be largely ignored by world governments is one of the great moral and political failures of our time. West Papuans have struggled for more than fifty years to find a way through the long night of Indonesian colonization. However, united in their pursuit of merdeka (freedom) in its many forms, what holds West Papuans together is greater than what divides them. Today, the Morning Star glimmers on the horizon, the supreme symbol of merdeka and a cherished sign of hope for the imminent arrival of peace and justice to West Papua. Morning Star Rising: The Politics of Decolonization in West Papua is an ethnographically framed account of the long, bitter fight for freedom that challenges the dominant international narrative that West Papuans' quest for political independence is fractured and futile. Camellia Webb-Gannon's extensive interviews with the decolonization movements' original architects and its more recent champions shed light on complex diasporic and inter-generational politics as well as social and cultural resurgence. In foregrounding West Papuans' perspectives, the author shows that it is the body politic's unflagging determination and hope, rather than military might or influential allies, that form the movement's most unifying and powerful force for independence. This book examines the many intertwining strands of decolonization in Melanesia. Differences in cultural performance and political diversity throughout the region are generating new, fruitful trajectories. Simultaneously, Black and Indigenous solidarity and a shared Melanesian identity have forged a transnational grassroots power-base from which the movement is gaining momentum. Relevant beyond its West Papua focus, this book is essential reading for those interested in Pacific studies, Native and Indigenous studies, development studies, activism, and decolonization.

This collection of essays interrogates how human rights law and practice acquire meaning in relation to legal pluralism, ie, the co-existence of more than one regulatory order in a same social field. As a social phenomenon, legal pluralism exists in all societies. As a legal construction, it is characteristic of particular regions, such as post-colonial contexts. Drawing on experiences from Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa and Europe, the contributions in this volume analyse how different configurations of legal pluralism interplay with the legal and the social life of human rights. At the same time, they enquire into how human rights law and practice influence interactions that are subject to regulation by more than one normative regime. Aware of numerous misunderstandings and of the mutual suspicion that tends to exist between human rights scholars and anthropologists, the volume includes contributions from experts in both disciplines and intends to build bridges between normative and empirical theory.

Renowned social and political theorist Bob Jessop explores the idea of civil society as a mode of governance in this bold challenge to current thinking. Developing theories of governance failure and metagovernance, the book analyses the limits and failures of economic and social policy in various styles of governance. Reviewing the principles of self-emancipation and self-responsibilisation it considers the struggle to integrate civil society into governance, and the power of social networks and solidarity within civil society. With case studies of mobilisations to tackle economic and social problems, this is a comprehensive review of the factors that influence their success and identifies lessons for future social innovation.