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Books > Social sciences > Politics & government > Political control & freedoms > Human rights
This book analyses large-scale land investments for agricultural purposes in Africa's least developed countries from a law and economics perspective. Focusing on the effects of foreign land investments on host countries' local populations and the apparent failure of international law to create incentives to offset them, it also examines the legal and economic mechanisms to hold investors accountable in cases where their investment leads to human rights violations. Applying principal agent and contract theory, it elucidates the sources of opportunism and develops control mechanisms to ameliorate the negative effects. It shows that although judicial mechanisms fail to deliver justice, international law offers alternatives to safeguard against arbitrary and abusive state and investor conduct, and also to effectuate human rights and, thus, tackle opportunistic behaviour.
Stories of women of peace, justice and rights, who have distinguished themselves in a world ruled by men. Women who have made a decisive contribution to the vindication of rights or the drafting of legal treaties, some of which are in force to this day. Sometimes promoters, at others formidable supporters, all have worked without reserve, with the courage of those who never stop believing. Opposed and hindered, they have nevertheless managed to impose themselves with the strength of their ideas, achieving, in the end, prizes and recognition. Their stories are usually little-known, but it is especially their humanity that makes them role models. The book reports their captivating personal, human and professional experiences, all lived in the advancement of human progress. To this day, our society is indebted to their battles and their victories.
Focusing on international social justice drama in its current local, national, and international manifestation, this interdisciplinary approach explores the relationship of contemporary dramatic forms to human rights issues. Over examines the artistic styles, goals, and thematic interests of dramatists and film directors of works of social commitment. He also considers the conditions and economics of wide audience appeal that prevent Hollywood and many independent filmmakers from effectively addressing these politically explosive issues. In contrast, differing cultures and economic concerns result in third world filmmakers and playwrights producing more comprehensive expositions of social issues. Considering a selected group of film and stage movements the author concludes with an optimistic prediction for political drama in the new century. This informed discussion will appeal to film, theatre, and cultural studies scholars.
At the height of the civil rights movement in Mississippi, as hundreds of volunteers prepared for the 1964 Freedom Summer Project, the Council of Federated Organizations (COFO) compiled hundreds of statements from activists and everyday citizens who endured police abuse and vigilante violence. Fifty-seven of those testimonies appear in Mississippi Black Paper. The statements recount how white officials and everyday citizens employed assassinations, beatings, harassment, and petty meanness to block any change in the state's segregated status quo. The testimonies in Mississippi Black Paper come from well-known civil rights heroes such as Fannie Lou Hamer, Aaron Henry, and Rita Schwerner, but the book also brings new voices and stories to the fore. Alongside these iconic names appear grassroots activists and everyday people who endured racial terror and harassment for challenging, sometimes in seemingly imperceptible ways, the state's white supremacy. This new edition includes the original foreword by Reinhold Neibuhr and the original introduction by Mississippi journalist Hodding Carter III, as well as Jason Morgan Ward's new introduction that places the book in its context as a vital source in the history of the civil rights movement.
View the Table of Contents. Read Chapter 1. aJackson is at his best when exposing the connections of leading
racialists with former Nazi party members and Holocaust-denial
groups.a aA well-researched and well-argued book....Jackson underscored
the nexus of asciencea and arace, a probes the ademarcation between
science and politics, a and questions the very meaning of
aobjectivea scientific inquiry.a aScience for Segregation adds considerably to our understanding
of racist ideologies and their persistance in the post-war era. The
author has done an admirable job of covering a forgotten chapter in
the struggle over segregation and shedding light on how scientific
research can become highly politicized.a "This book asks if science can be divorced from politics. . . .
Recommended." aA fascinating and comprehensive look at a largely neglected
aspect of American history--the role of science and scientists in
supporting and sustaining white racist thought and institutions
during the battle over de-segregation. And like most good social
history, it does not require much strain to draw the relevance to
today's debates about the salience of biological taxonomies of
race.a aA very important book that explores the fuzzy zone between
science and pseudo-science, exposing the political action of
right-wing scientists in the 1950s and 1960s who argued for school
segregation on ostensibly scientific grounds. The role of science
as an authority in society has never been more evident than in the
work and rhetoric of these zealouslyracist scholars. This
well-researched book is a must-read for anyone interested in modern
debates over the study of human diversity or the role of science in
contemporary society.a aA deeply-researched, fascinating, and judicious assessment of
the ascientifica arguments that were marshaled against the Supreme
Courtas landmark school desegregation decision. Jackson has made a
contribution that will endure.a aJacksonas thorough research and a nuanced understanding of the
complexities of race and law provide a disturbing cadence to the
ongoing debate on race in America.a In this fascinating examination of the intriguing but understudied period following the landmark "Brown v. Board of Education" decision, John Jackson examines the scientific case aimed at dismantling the legislation. Offering a trenchant assessment of the so-called scientific evidence, Jackson focuses on the 1959 formation of the International Society for the Advancement of Ethnology and Eugenics (IAAEE), whose expressed function was to objectively investigate racial differences and publicize their findings. Notable figures included Carleton Putnam, Wesley Critz George, and Carleton Coon. In an attempt to link race, eugenics and intelligence, they launched legal challenges to the Brown ruling, each chronicled here, that went to trial but ultimately failed. The history Jackson presents speaks volumes about the legacy of racism, as we can see similar arguments alive and well today in such books as "The Bell Curve" and in otherdebates on race, science, and intelligence. With meticulous research and a nuanced understanding of the complexities of race and law, Jackson tells a disturbing tale about race in America.
In "The Last Crusade, " Gerald McKnight examines the Poor People's Campaign, the last large-scale demonstration of civil rights-era America, and the systematic efforts of FBI director J. Edgar Hoover and his executive officers to subvert King's ambitious effort to force the federal government to live up to its promises of a Great Society. The book also looks at King's last days as he helped Memphis sanitation workers in their labor-cum-civil rights struggle with a recalcitrant and racist city government. Although there is no persuasive evidence that the FBI and the Memphis police conspired to assassinate King, McKnight marshals evidence to show that neither agency was blameless.The conventional view of the Poor People's Campaign is that it was a self-inflicted failure. The blame rested squarely on the shoulders of the second-raters of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference who failed to fill the leadership vacuum after King's assassination. But, as McKnight shows, there was a hidden, dark counterpoint to the accepted version--namely, the triumph of the 1960s American surveillance state and its repressive power and flagrant violation of protected freedoms. In fact, whatever the FBI wanted to do to disrupt the Campaign, it did, aided and abetted by local police agencies and elements of the federal government, including military intelligence.
This book adds impetus to the nexus between human rights, human rights education and material reality. The dissonance between these aspects is of growing concern for most human rights educators in various social contexts. The first part of the book opens up new discourses and presents new ontologies and epistemologies from scholars in human rights, human rights education and human rights literacies to critique and/or justify the understandings of human rights' complex applications. Today's rapidly changing social contexts and new languages attempting to understand ongoing dehumanization and violations, put enormous pressure on higher education, educators, individuals working in social sciences, policy makers and scholars engaged in curricula making.The second part demonstrates how global interactions between citizens from different countries with diverse understandings of human rights (from developed and developing democracies) question the link between human rights and it's in(ex)clusive Western philosophies. Continuing inhumane actions around the globe reflect the failure of human rights law and human rights education in schools, higher education and society at large. The book shows that human rights education is no longer a blueprint for understanding human rights and its universal or contextual values presented for multicomplexial societies. The final chapters argue for new ontologies and epistemologies of human rights, human rights education and human rights literacies to open-up difficult conversations and to give space to dissonant and disruptive discourses. The many opportunities for human rights education and literacies lies in these conversations.
In many respects, the United States remains a nation of immigrants. This is the first book length treatment of the impact of the 1996 welfare reform act on a wide range of immigrant groups in North America. Contributors to the book draw on ethnographic fieldwork, government data, and original survey research to show how welfare reform has reinforced socio-economic hardships for working poor immigrants. As the essays reveal, reform laws have increased the social isolation of poor immigrant households and discouraged large numbers of qualified immigrants from applying for health and welfare services. All of the articles highlight the importance of examining federal policy guidelines in conjunction with local enforcement policies, labor market dynamics, and immigrant attitudes toward government agencies.
While the supervision of the European Court of Human Rights constantly grows in importance, little is known about the people, especially the judges, inside the Court. To what extent are human rights sensitive to different traditions and is their work burdened through the plurality of legal, historical-political or vocational experiences among the judges? Looking at the first three years of permanent operation of the Court, this book suggests that it is the legal culture that brings the judges together. Based on interviews, field study observations and an analysis of case law, this book takes a novel approach on European human rights law and provides researchers and practitioners with an important basis for a full understanding of the Strasbourg case law.
Recent developments in the European integration process have raised, amongst many other things, the issue of linguistic diversity, for some a stumbling block to the creation of a European democratic polity and its legal and social institutions. The solution to the 'question of language', involves an understanding of the role played by natural languages and the consequent design of policies and institutional mechanisms to facilitate inter-linguistic and intercultural communication. This is not an exclusively European problem, and nor is it entirely new, for it is also the problem of linguistic majorities and minorities within unitary nation-states. However, the effects of globalization and the diffusion of multiculturalism within nation-states have given renewed emphasis to the question of language in diverse societies. Facing the question anew involves reconsidering traditional ideas about social communication and the public sphere, about opinion-formation and diffusion, about the protection of cultural and linguistic minorities, and about the role that language plays in the process of formation of political and legal cultures. This volume is intended as a multidisciplinary contribution towards studying and assessing the range of problems that form the 'language question' in Europe and diverse societies.
Garret deals with the issue of humanitarian intervention, of which the recent Kosovo conflict provides a prime example. Even though the writing of this book was completed before NATO began its intervention on behalf of the Kosovars, the book provides a valuable background for assessing the Kosovo issue--it lays out the history of previous humanitarian interventions and analyzes the controversies surrounding them. Garret provides a sophisticated framework by which such interventions can be evaluated both morally and pragmatically. His book offers some particularly relevant material on the American role in humanitarian interventions. This book is valuable for those who wish to make sense of the pros and cons of humanitarian efforts in international hot spots, like Kosovo. After an analysis of the legal and philosophical issues bearing on the idea of humanitarian intervention, defined as the use of force by one or more states to remedy severe human rights abuses in a particular country--this study focuses upon the moral duties that individual members of the international community have toward the welfare of others. Recent events have indicated that humanitarian intervention will likely play a larger role in international relations in the future. Examples in the contemporary period include Kosovo Somalia, Liberia, Haiti, the Kurds in Iraq, Uganda, and East Pakistan. This book emphasizes the role of the United States in humanitarian intervention and argues that increased American involvement is essential. Garrett suggests that the American people as a whole may be more prepared to see the United States take an active role in humanitarian intervention than are certain media and government elites. Strong national leadership that stresses the moral duty of the United States will be necessary to tap this latent altruism in order to contribute to higher standards of international human rights. Individual topics include assessment criteria for the moral legitimacy of intervention, unilateral versus multilateral efforts, and factors that appear to persuade or dissuade states from participating in such intervention. This volume focuses on certain themes and patterns in humanitarian intervention, which are then illustrated by using historical data taken from a variety of different examples.
"The Ambivalent Welcome" describes how leading magazines and the New York Times covered and interpreted U.S. immigration policy, and public attitudes about the impact of immigrants on the American economy and social fabric. Rita J. Simon and Susan H. Alexander examine print media coverage of immigration issues from 1880, the onset of the new immigration, to the present, and find that most magazines, like most Americans, have vehemently opposed new immigrants. Part One begins with a chapter providing statistics on the number of immigrants and refugees by country of origin from 1810 to 1990, and estimates of the number of illegals who have entered the United States. Chapter 2 discusses U.S. immigration acts and summarizes the major political party platforms on immigration from the mid-nineteenth century through the present. Results of all national poll data regarding immigrants and refugees since the availability of such data (1930s) are reported in Chapter 3. Part Two discusses in detail particular magazines, including "North American RevieW," "Saturday Evening Post," "Literary Digest, Harper'S," "Scribner's, Atlantic Monthly," "The Nation," "Christian Century," "Commentary," "Commonweal," "Reader's Digest," "Time," "Life," "Newsweek," "U.S. News and World Report," and the editorials of the "New York TimeS." Following a summary chapter, Appendix A provides a profile of each of the magazines, including the date of its founding, its editors and publishers, circulation, characteristics of its readers, and an assessment of its influence on immigration. Appendix B describes the major American anti-immigration movements.
The New Left was founded in 1962, and as a social and political protest movement, it captured the attention of the nation in the Sixties. By 1968, the New Left was marching in unison with hundreds of political action groups to achieve one goal—the end of the war in Vietnam. Under J. Edgar Hoover's direction, the FBI went from an intelligence collection agency during WWII, to an organization that tried to undermine protest movements like the New Left. Hoover viewed the New Left as a threat to the American way of life, so in an enormous effort of questionable legality, the FBI implemented some 285 counter-intelligence (COINTELPRO) actions against the New Left. The purpose of COINTELPRO was to infiltrate, disrupt, and otherwise neutralize the entire movement. In truth, the FBI intended to wage war on the antiwar movement. In this real-life spy story—J. Edgar Hoover and his G-Men, wiretaps, burglaries, misinformation campaigns, informants, and plants—Davis offers a glimpse into the endlessly fascinating world of the Sixties. Kent State, Columbia University, Vietnam Moratorium Day, the 1968 Democratic National Convention, the Cambodian invasion and March Against Death are all examined in this riveting account of the longest youth protest movement in American history. This is the only book devoted entirely to the New Left COINTELPRO, and the first one written after the declassification of more than 6,000 counterintelligence documents that reveal the true nature and extent of the FBI's Assault on the Left.
The complex history and politics of South Africa form the backdrop of this insightful study of the factors that contributed to both the end of apartheid and the movement from government by racial division toward government through national unity. This study and resource examines the history, people, and politics of South Africa in the age of apartheid. Topical essays examine the divisions within South African society that led to the historic apartheid legislation initiated in 1948; each group that was defined and separated by apartheid--whites, coloreds, Indians, and Africans; how this separation put increasing pressure on the system that gave rise to organized domestic resistance that eventually led to the collapse of apartheid; the economic sanctions imposed by other nations on South Africa in retaliation for apartheid; and the new government and the challenges of a new democracy. The analysis of how all these factors culminated in the collapse of apartheid is enhanced by lengthy biographical profiles of sixteen key personalities, including Stephen Biko, Willem deKlerk, Nelson Mandela, and Desmond Tutu. A selection of thirteen primary documents, including a letter from Nelson Mandela in exile and his speech after being released from prison, illustrates the rise and fall of apartheid and will be valuable for student research. A glossary of key terms and a timeline of important events add reference value.
Moody presents the thesis that post-Confucian' societies are influenced by the legacy of a strong state ruling over a weak social structure. Ruling and opposition elites thus tend towar factionalism based on personal ties, and also to moralistic' rather than interest-based criticism, which often leads to extreme and irresponsible' political behavior. Moody applies this thesis to all the post-Confucian states of East Asia in uneven chapters on Taiwan, South Korea, South Vietnam, China, North Korea, Vietnam as a whole, and Japan. . . . Moody's witty and cynical style . . . and an elegant thesis make this work suitable for advanced undergraduates and graduate students as well. No country in the Confucian cultural area has shown great tolerance for competitive politics. China, Taiwan, the two Koreas, and Vietnam are either authoritarian or totalitarian in political structure. Thus Peter R. Moody, Jr., begins his comparative study of the historical backgrounds and contemporary political situations in post-Confucian states. "Political Opposition in Post-Confucian Society" studies the obstacles to democratization in East Asia. Japan, writes Moody, of the only exception to the political structure of this region, has not yet proven itself a competitive democracy and the present democratic system was imposed by foreign occupation. This book demonstrates how a similar logic of politics pervades these societies despite differences in culture and political institutions. Moody provides an up-to-date analysis of politics in these countries and examines contemporary developments in a historical and cultural context.
The height of colonial rule on the African continent saw two prominent religious leaders step to the fore: Desmond Tutu in South Africa, and Abel Muzorewa in Zimbabwe. Both Tutu and Muzorewa believed that Africans could govern their own nations responsibly and effectively if only they were given the opportunity. In expressing their religious views about the need for social justice each man borrowed from national traditions that had shaped policy of earlier church leaders. Tutu and Muzorewa argued that the political development of Africans was essential to the security of the white settlers and that whites should seek the promotion of political development of Africans as a condition of that future security. Desmond Tutu and Abel Muzorewa were both motivated by strong religious principles. They disregarded the possible personal repercussions that they might suffer as a result of their efforts to alter the fundamental bases of their colonial governments. Each man hoped to create a new national climate in which blacks and whites could cooperate to build a new nation. Each played a part in eventual independence for Zimbabwe in 1980 and for South Africa in 1994. Mungazi's examination of their efforts reveals how individuals with strong convictions can make a difference in shaping the future of their nations.
What should be demanded -- in the name of the protection of liberty, equality, and stability -- of citizens? Since the seventeenth century, liberal thought has been interested in the rights of individuals and their capacity to engage as free equals in the political activity of their community. This volume presents new essays by writers including Jim Tully, Alan Patten, and Philippe van Parijs that offer a fresh perspective on citizenship. After two decades of strident individualism, the contributors argue that it is time to go beyond the standard concern of what can be ascribed to citizens.
Anthropologist and social critic Ghassan Hage explores one of the most complex and troubling of modern phenomena: the desire for a white nation.
The struggle for civil rights in America was fought at the lunch counter as well as in the streets. It ultimately found victory in the halls of government-but, as Richard Cortner reveals, only through a creative use of congressional power and critical judicial decisions. Title II of the 1964 Civil Rights Act prohibited discrimination in public accommodations, and shortly after its passage blacks were refused service at the Heart of Atlanta Motel and at Ollie's Barbecue in Birmingham, Alabama, as a test of the new law by business owners who claimed the right to choose their own customers. These challenges made their way to the Supreme Court, becoming landmark cases frequently cited in law. Until now, however, they have never benefited from book-length analysis. Cortner provides an inside account of the litigation in both decisions to tell how they spelled the end to segregation in the South. The fact that blacks could not travel in the South without assured access to food and lodging led Congress to enforce civil rights on the basis of its authority to regulate interstate commerce. The Supreme Court unanimously sustained Title II's constitutionality under the commerce clause in both test cases, joining the executive and legislative branches in defining the power of the federal government to desegregate society, even by circuitous means. Drawing on justice department files, Supreme Court justices' papers, and records of defense attorneys, Cortner provides the background for the cases, including previous legal battles over sit-ins. He describes the roles of key players in the litigation-particularly Solicitor General Archibald Cox and members of the Warren Court. In addition, he uses presidential files, oral histories, and other primary sources to give readers a clear picture of the forces at work in the creation, implementation, and validation of the Civil Rights Act. Cortner's thorough account illuminates the nature of
constitutional litigation and the judicial process, as well as the
role of the Constitution and law, in two decisions that marked the
crowning achievement of the civil rights movement and changed the
face of America forever.
After years of widely acknowledging race discrimination in higher education, American government leaders, college and university officials, and at-large citizens today question the need for civil rights laws and policies. Within an important sector of the public higher education community -- roughly nineteen states that used to operate laws separating students by race -- dispute focuses upon systemwide Title VI enforcement. Two interpretations of Title VI enforcement coexist. Among conservatives, absence of continuing discrimination and continuing good faith effort signal an end to the need for government enforcement. Among more liberal stakeholders, past enforcement has been weakly undertaken despite past and currently increasing evidence of continued discrimination. Closely reviewing evidence of past and current enforcement, Williams presents a reinterpretation: Considerable evidence of continued discrimination exists, but weak design and limited implementation provides an incomplete picture of past and current enforcement. Weak federal enforcement establishes a context for previously unrecognized unofficial state responses, and unofficial responses display important elements of a generic race relations ritual first chronicled in largely forgotten humanities and sociological literature from the 1960s. An important study for scholars, students, researchers, and policymakers of contemporary American education and race relations. |
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