My research in this area explores the cultural and institutional foundations of human rights since the Middle Ages and their ongoing expansion around the world through the 20th century. In addition to historical research conducted most extensively in my dissertation, I have compiled a data set of 779 human rights instruments (i.e., treaties, conventions, declarations) from 1863 to 2003 and systematically coded them to show, for example, who is the subject of human rights protections, what kind of violations have been most prominent, the number and type of rights that are specified over time, and the ultimate aspirations that are linked to the realization of human rights. Using these data, I develop a world-cultural account that stresses the rationalized construction of human rights as a key component of the long-term rise of “the individual” as the primary entity of social organization, value, and meaning in world society.
Replication Data:
The dataset, codebook, and collection methods for this study can be found at: http://www.prio.no/jpr/datasets
Relevant Publications:
- (2007) “Human Rights and the Triumph of the Individual in World Culture,” Cultural Sociology, 1(3): 343-363.
- (2008) “A Cult of the Individual for a Global Society: The Development and Worldwide Expansion of Human Rights Ideology,” Ph.D. Dissertation (Emory University).
- (2008) “Façade Diversity: The Individualization of Cultural Difference,” with John Boli. International Sociology, 23(4): 541-561.
- (2011) “The Institutional Expansion of Human Rights, 1863-2003: A Comprehensive Dataset of International Instruments,” Journal of Peace Research, 48(4): 537-546.
- (2012) “Universal Declaration of Human Rights.” In Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Globalization, George Ritzer (ed.), Wiley-Blackwell Publishing: 2121-2124.
- (2014) “The Institutionalization of Human Rights and its Discontents: A World Cultural Perspective,” Cultural Sociology 8(4): 407-425.
- (2019) “World Culture.” In The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology, George Ritzer and Chris Rojek (eds.), John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.: 1-8.