The Work of Global Justice
Human Rights as Practices

Fuyuki Kurasawa develops a new perspective from which to think about human rights and global justice.

Fuyuki Kurasawa (Author)

9780521857246, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 11 October 2007

258 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.6 cm, 0.52 kg

'Focusing on the 'work' by which global justice is 'produced', Fuyuki Kurasawa takes an entirely new approach to the subject. Analyzing the social practices of a wide range of transnational activists, he enriches our understanding of the ethical and political challenges of globalization. The result is a genuinely original and insightful book.' Nancy Fraser, Henry A. and Louise Loeb Professor of Philosophy and Politics, New School for Social Research

Human rights have been generally understood as juridical products, organizational outcomes or abstract principles that are realized through formal means such as passing laws, creating institutions or formulating ideals. In this book, Fuyuki Kurasawa argues that we must reverse this 'top-down' focus by examining how groups and persons struggling against global injustices construct and enact human rights through five transnational forms of ethico-political practice: bearing witness, forgiveness, foresight, aid and solidarity. From these, he develops a new perspective highlighting the difficult social labour that constitutes the substance of what global justice is and ought to be, thereby reframing the terms of debates about human rights and providing the outlines of a critical cosmopolitanism centred around emancipatory struggles for an alternative globalization.

Introduction. Theorizing the work of global justice
1. A message in a bottle: on bearing witness
2. The healing of wounds: on forgiveness
3. Cautionary tales: on foresight
4. The stranger's keeper: on aid
5. Cosmopolitanism from below: on solidarity
Conclusion. Enacting a critical cosmopolitanism.

Subject Areas: Social theory [JHBA]