Understanding Social Action, Promoting Human Rights [Paperback]

In Understanding Social Action, Promoting Human Rights, editors Ryan Goodman, Derek Jinks, and Andrew K. Woods bring together a stellar group of contributors from across the social sciences to apply a broad yet conceptually unified array of advanced social science research concepts to the study of human rights and human rights law. The book focuses on three key methodological and substantive areas: actors and their biases; groups and group dynamics, via political economy and social network analysis; and communication, covering health communications, media studies, and social norms research. Their goal is to provide a richer and more integrated approach to the study and practice of human rights, which necessarily requires a more comprehensive and practical theory of social action.

1. Introduction: Social Science and Human Rights
Ryan Goodman, Derek Jinks, and Andrew K. Woods

2. The Psychology of Social Norms and the Promotion of Human Rights
Deborah A. Prentice

3. Why Can't We Sell Human Rights Like We Sell Soap?
Robert C. Hornik

4. The Reasons for Compliance with Law
Margaret Levi, Tom Tyler, and Audrey Sacks

5. Can International Law Stop Genocide When Our Moral Intuitions Fail Us?
Paul Slovic and David Zionts

6. Human Rights: An Evolutionary and Behavioral Perspective
Herbert Gintis

7. Moral Grammar and Human Rights: Some Reflections on Cognitive Science and Enlightenment Rationalism
John Mikhail

8. Parochialism as a Result of Cognitive Biases
Jonathan Baron

9. Networks and Politics: The Case of Human Rights
David Lazer

10. Barriers to Dispute Resolution: Reflections on Peacemaking and Relationships between Adversaries
Byron Bland, Brenna Powell and Lee Ross

11. The Difference It Makes
William F. Schulz

Bibliography
Index

Ryan Goodmanis the Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Professor of Law and Co-Chair of the Center for Human RilSz