Rights, Action, Change: Organize for What?

ORGANIZE!: BUILDING FROM THE LOCAL FOR GLOBAL JUSTICE, p. 71, Aziz Choudry, Jill Hanley and Eric Shragge, eds., PM Press, May 2012

U. of Westminster School of Law Research Paper

8 Pages Posted: 18 Jun 2012

Multiple version iconThere are 2 versions of this paper

Date Written: 2012

Abstract

Going by the demands made by social movements it would seem that in the nineteenth century people demanded political fixes to problems, in the twentieth century they demanded economic fixes and the twenty-first century is the century for legal fixes. No matter what the problem, social justice movements demand a corresponding right as the solution. The demand for expansion of rights mirrors the core values of neo-liberalism and public choice theory. This essay examines the problems that activists face when they invoke rights to organise. The essay argues that there is a temporal tension in the use of rights for social change in that action mediates between past and future and therefore becomes the site where questions of ethics, higher principles, ideas, social relations and human purpose present themselves to social justice activists.

Keywords: activism, rights, ethics, temporality

Suggested Citation

D'Souza, Radha, Rights, Action, Change: Organize for What? (2012). ORGANIZE!: BUILDING FROM THE LOCAL FOR GLOBAL JUSTICE, p. 71, Aziz Choudry, Jill Hanley and Eric Shragge, eds., PM Press, May 2012, U. of Westminster School of Law Research Paper, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2086866

Radha D'Souza (Contact Author)

University of Westminster ( email )

School of Law, University of Westminster
4, Little Titchfield St
London, W1W 7UW
United Kingdom
02079115000 x 2706 (Phone)

HOME PAGE: http://www.wmin.ac.uk

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