Asylum, Welfare and the Cosmopolitan Ideal

Asylum, Welfare and the Cosmopolitan Ideal: A Sociology of Rights puts forward the argument that rights must be understood as part of a social process: a terrain for strategies of inclusion and exclusion but also of contestation and negotiation. Engaging debate about how 'cosmopolitan' principles and practices may be transforming national sovereignty, Lydia Morris explores this premise through a case study of legal activism, civil society mobilisation, and judicial decision-making. The book documents government attempts to use destitution as a deterrent to control asylum numbers, and examines a series of legal challenges to this policy, spanning a period both before and after the Human Rights Act. Lydia Morris shows how human rights can be used as a tool for radical change, and in so doing proposes a multi-layered 'model' for understanding rights. This incorporates political strategy, public policy, civil society mobilisation, judicial decision-making, and their public impact, and advances a dynamic understanding of rights as part of the recurrent encounter between principles and politics. Rights are therefore seen as both a social product and a social force.

ISBN 0415497736   DEWEY edition DC22 ISBN13 9780415497732 (What's this?)   Pages 184 Publisher Taylor & Francis Ltd   Weight (grammes) 408 Imprint Routledge Cavendish   Published in London Format Hardback   Height (mm) 234 Publication date 23 Mar 2010   Width (mm) 156 DEWEY 342.083   Academic level Postgraduate

1		The right to have rights: fond illusion or credo for our times?		1
2		Asylum immigration and the art of government		23
3		Welfare asylum and the politics of judgement		45
4		Civil society and civil repair		68
5		An emergent cosmopolitan paradigm?		89
6		Civic stratification and the cosmopolitan ideal		107
7		Cosmopolitanism, human rights and judgement		125
8		Conclusion: a sociology of rights		145
		Bibliography		158
		Index		166

'Lydia Morris is that rarity in academe, a first class sociologist with a strong grasp of law and no fear of legal jargon.a All her skills are on display in this excellent and important work.' Conor Gearty, Professor of Law, London School of Economics 'In this major contribution to debates on the implementation of universal human rights, Professor Morris provides a thoroughgoing analysis of the way in which the status of asylum seekers in Britain has been shaped by the interplay between government policies, the judgements of the courts, and civic activism. The work not only deals with a topic of widespread public interest, but also provides an important new perspective on the dynamics of civic stratification.' David Lockwood, Emeritus Professor of Sociology, University of Essex

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