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Rights: Sociological Perspectives
by (Editor: Lydia Morris)
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Routledge (2006-03-09)
ISBN: 0415355222
EAN: 9780415355223
Dewy Decimal #: 340.115
Paperback: 288 pages
Edition: 1
SKU: B264-1298
Condition: New
Comments: New & Shrinkwrapped. In stock - Immediate despatch from an efficient and professional leading British bookselling firm.
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Customer Reviews
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Book Review: Rights: Sociological Perspectives
Rating  (4)
Date: 2006-11-15
This book covers a broad spectrum of rights issues, both practical and theoretical. Divided into four parts, each part consists of three chapters which examine the topic of rights from a sociological perspective. Lydia Morris, editor of Rights, questions whether there can be a foundation for a theory of rights or the social processes involved. In the conclusion to the book, Morris again expresses the appeal of acquiring some form of universal human rights, a basis for cohesion, she suggests.
In the twelve chapters, authored by researchers in different fields, a variety of approaches, practical rights issues, and case studies are introduced. The four main areas are: Part I, Political economy and rights; Part II, Status, norms and institutions; Part III, Meaning, interpretation and rights; and Part IV, The clash of rights. The book covers the main areas that we recognise as issues of EU human and/or social rights, and some too that might not be so familiar: the environment, pensions and class, social care, work and welfare, women's rights, ethnicity and race, moral and socio-economic-political approaches, gay and lesbian rights, indigenous rights, prisoners' rights, rights of the mentally disordered, and freedom of expression.
There is a scarcity of some subject areas in this book - although on the whole it has a lot to offer - which I mention because as society changes the numbers of single, divorced and widowed men and women are all increasing, particularly the numbers of older women without partners. For this reason, I would have liked to see the topic of heterosexuality - rights and obligations - included, as well as the related subject of ageing. Lastly, I question the editor's belief that a universal framework of rights could be the best route. A reified model that cannot accommodate other approaches or concerns seems to me to be a step backwards.
Chapter authors are Ted Benton, Robin Blackburn, Joan Busfield, Eamonn Carrabine, Diane Elson, Miriam Glucksmann, Paul Iganski, Lydia Morris, Ken Plummer, Carlo Ruzza, Colin Samson, Damien Short, and Rob Stones. The editor and all contributors are, or have been, members of the faculty in the Department of Sociology, University of Essex, UK.
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