Closing the Rights Gap

"In recent years, global movements fighting ills—from hunger to inequality to pollution—have taken up the language of human rights. Haglund and Stryker assemble a dynamic interdisciplinary team to build rubrics for assessing movement effects and a rich theoretical toolkit for understanding how human rights claims are translated into positive policy changes. This book will set the standard for global studies of human rights for years to come."—Frank Dobbin, Professor of Sociology, Harvard University

"Few volumes can claim to accomplish so much. This book not only theorizes what is likely to be general about rights realization in civil/political domains and across economic, social, and cultural domains, but also highlights what is likely to be specific within these domains. This volume marks a major advance in the social science of human rights."—John Hagan, John D. MacArthur Professor, Northwestern University

"Haglund and Stryker have assembled a powerful set of chapters that analyze diverse aspects of the challenges of and possibilities for transforming the aspirational promises of human rights principles into meaningful social change for immiserated and marginalized people around the globe. The diversity of contributors’ perspectives underscores the point that human rights scholarship has moved beyond the legal domain and is deeply enriched by multidisciplinary engagement and initiatives."—Alicia Ely Yamin, Lecturer on Global Health, Policy Director, FXB Center for Health and Human Rights, Harvard University

"This volume helps us understand in very concrete ways how rights are adopted in practice. By focusing on a range of mechanisms and a variety of actors, it offers a compelling analysis of the pathways through which the progressive realization of social and economic rights can take place."—Ariel Fiszbein, Policy Director, Inter-American Dialogue

"Goes beyond critique to identify the key contextual factors, actors, and strategic pathways that account for how and when human rights advocacy does or does not contribute to transformative economic and social justice. This ambitious volume is a very welcome and important contribution."—Michael McCann, Gordon Hirabayashi Professor for Advancement of Citizenship, University of Washington