Americans often associate “human rights” with Western NGOs that attempt to impose legal norms abroad. But, since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, intellectuals and activists in the United States have begun applying a human rights framework to domestic struggles over bread-and-butter issues. These campaigns have received little mainstream media attention, but they … Continue reading "Grace Davie: “Contemporary Campaigns for Social and Economic Rights in the United States: A Research Prospectus”"

This article analyzes the “translation” of social scientific concepts into language relevant to UN debates and drafting processes. The focus is on the Human Rights Council’s new Intergovernmental Working Group charged with negotiating a UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants. The first article of many international human rights instruments includes a specification of the … Continue reading "Marc Edelman: “Defining ‘peasant’ at the United Nations Human Rights Council”"

Nancy Foner, Distinguished Professor of Sociology at Hunter College and the Graduate Center, City University of New York, received her B.A. from Brandeis University and Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. Her main area of interest is immigration. She has studied Jamaicans in their home society as well as in New York and London, done … Continue reading "Nancy Foner: “Comparative Immigration and America’s Racial Legacy”"

Economic debates seem, at best, to become more sophisticated, without being resolved. Economics as a discipline has been unable to fulfill adequately the roles which society expects of it, and the reasons for this failure lie in the social and political contexts and consequences of economic ideas. When we discuss economic ideas, or teach and … Continue reading "Sanjay Reddy: “What’s Wrong with Economics”"

Chad Alan Goldberg is an ARC Distinguished Visiting Professor at the Graduate Center, CUNY and Professor of Sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is also affiliated with European Studies, Jewish Studies, and the Mosse Program in History. His primary research interest is the historical sociology of citizenship, broadly understood to include the development of … Continue reading "Chad Alan Goldberg: “Between Imaginaries of Domination and Supersession: Portrayals of the Relation between Jews and Capitalism in the German Sociological Tradition.”"

America, the Jew is the title of my next research project. I have been fascinated by the association, maintained by many Europeans, of both the political left and the political right, of the United States with Jews and Judaism. This connection, like a chameleon, constantly changes its shape and colors. At time it is the … Continue reading "Moshe Sluhovsky: “America, the Jew”"

Building on the highly influential book by Richard Alba and Victor Nee Remaking the American Mainstream, Duyvendak asks himself in this presentation, in what ways 'the mainstream' is changed by (the incorporation of) minorities. He looks therefore at the strategies of various disadvantaged groups -- not just ethnic ones, but also groups discriminated against based … Continue reading "Jan Willem Duyvendak: “What Does Remaking the Mainstream Exactly Mean?”"

Maurice Crul is a Professor of Sociology at the Free University of Amsterdam and at the Erasmus University in Rotterdam. His most recent books in English include The Changing Face of World Cities (2012), co-authored with John Mollenkopf; and The Second Generation Compared: Does the Integration Context Matter? (2011), co-edited with Jens Schneider and Frans … Continue reading "Maurice Crul: “Pathways to Success. Successful Second Generation Turks in Sweden, Germany, France and the Netherlands”"