SOC20340

The course offers an overview of sociological approaches to human rights as a set of social practices and ideologies in current societies and on the international arena. It gives a taste of theoretical and methodological questions in the Sociology of Human Rights as a sub-discipline, as well as discusses the most urgent issues in this research field of sociology. The broader themes within the course are those of inequality and justice, citizenship and the state, identity and social movements. These themes are scrutinized in connection to human rights and through the Sociology of Human Rights lens.

Drawing on classical approaches in sociology, the course offers to answer the question of what human rights are, sociologically speaking. In law and politics, human rights are regarded as a rigid doctrine, whereas the sociology looks at human rights as a matter of changing practices under power relations. The ability to look at human rights as actually occurring practices helps to understand their benefits and limitations.

During the course, students will see how the definition of human rights changed over time, what actors contributed to the various definitions of human rights, what conditions led to formation of human rights in specific forms.