Speaking Rights to Power: Constructing Political Will

by Alison Brysk

Overview

How can "Speaking Rights to Power" construct political will to respond to human rights abuse worldwide? Examining dozens of cases of human rights campaigns and using an innovative analysis of the politics of persuasion, this book shows how communication politics build recognition, solidarity, and social change. Building on twenty years of research on five continents, this comprehensive study ranges from Aung San Suu Kyi to Anna Hazare, from Congo to Colombia, and from the Arab Spring to Pussy Riot. Speaking Rights to Power addresses cutting edge debates on human rights and the ethic of care, cosmopolitanism, charismatic leadership, communicative action and political theater, and the role of social media. It draws on constructivist literature from social movement and international relations theory, and analyzes human rights as a form of global social imagination. Combining a normative contribution with judicious critique, this book shows how human rights rhetoric matters-and how to make it matter more.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780199982677
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	09/02/2013
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.20(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

ALISON BRYSK is the Mellichamp Professor of Global Governance in the Global and International Studies Program at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She has authored or edited 10 books on international human rights. Professor Brysk has been a scholar and lecturer in Argentina, Australia, Ecuador, France, Spain, Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands, South Africa, and Japan, and has held Fulbright Fellowships in India and Canada. In 2013-2014, Brysk will be a Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, D.C.

Table of Contents

PREFACE
INTRODUCTION: Rhetoric For Rights
1) SPEAKING RIGHTS
a. Why We Care: Constructing solidarity b. The message: Human rights as global social imagination c. Hearts and Minds: The politics of persuasion

2) HISTORICAL REPERTOIRES: ATTENTION MUST BE PAID
a. Solidarity: The Dreyfus Affair b. Internationalism: The Spanish Civil War c. Symbolism: The Holocaust d. Globalization: Revolution 2.0

3) VOICES: HEROES, MARTYRS, WITNESSES, AND EXPERTS
a. Heroes and martyrs i. Nelson Mandela ii. Aung San Suu Kyi iii. Mothers of the Disappeared b. Witnesses and experts i. Doctors Without Borders ii. Amartya Sen iii. Paul Farmer c. "The dog that didn't bark": Death penalty campaigns in the U.S.

4) THE MESSAGE MATTERS: FRAMING THE CLAIM
a. Poster children and sex slavery: framing human trafficking b. Reframing FGM: "Our bodies, our selves"
c. Human rights in Colombia: when frames fail d. The rhetoric of recognition: Darfur vs. Congo

5) PLOTTING RIGHTS: THE POWER OF PERFORMANCE
a. From tragedy to testimonial:
i. Voices of Witness ii. The Vagina Monologues b. Allegory as protest performance: Indian Summer c. The Power of Parody
1. From Putin's penis to Pussy Riot
2. Speaking "truthiness" to power: the Colbert challenge

6) MOBILIZING MEDIA: IS THERE AN APP FOR THAT?
a. Iran: The revolution will not be televised b. China: The Long March to human rights c. The Arab Spring: The Face book path to freedom d. Kony 2012: When buzz is not enough

7) AUDIENCES: CONSTRUCTING COSMOPOLITANS
a. Building communities of conscience: Scholars at Risk b. Inter-ethnic solidarity: "My brother's keeper"
i. The Japanese-American Citizens' League and Arab-Americans ii. African-Americans and the anti-apartheid movement iii. American Jews and Darfur iv. Armenian-Americans v. Dueling diasporas and burning bridges: Israel-Palestine c. Across the great divide: Men who care about violence against women i. Norm entrepreneurs: "a few good men"
ii. Role change through small talk iii. Global Good Samaritans and gender-based asylum

8) CONSTRUCTING POLITICAL WILL
a. Another world is possible b. The power of persuasion: The Liberian civil war c. Acting globally

REFERENCES

Editorial Reviews

"This remarkable book shows the power of communication in enforcing human rights and dignity in our troubled world. At the crossroads of international relations and communication theory, Alison Brysk's original contribution is convincing, forceful, and opens new perspectives in the political understanding of globalization."-Manuel Castells,
University Professor and Wallis Annenberg Chair in Communication Technology and Society, University of Southern California

"Speaking Rights to Power is a wonderful book that pulls together twenty years of Alison Brysk's insightful and influential research on human rights and extends it with fresh and provocative ideas. The book is an extraordinary combination of systematic research, practical wisdom (what has mostly worked and what has not), and personal commitment. I both learned a great deal and thoroughly enjoyed it."—Wayne Sandholtz, John A. McCone Chair in International Relations, School of International Relations and Gould School of Law, University of Southern California

"A wonderful book for teaching. My students loved the contemporary examples from all over the world. Using those examples and Brysk's key ideas, they were able to teach each other, and try to design a successful campaign for the Congo."—Rhoda E. Howard-Hassmann, Canada Research Chair in International Human Rights, Wilfrid Laurier University

"This book is valuable in the end as a spirited and levelheaded defense of cosmopolitan humanism. She wants pragmatic cosmopolitan mobilization to point to a more utopian goal of peace, love, and happiness."-Pamela Beth Harris, Humanity

From the Publisher