At an earlier time, sociologists C. Wright Mills, W. E. Du Bois, and Jane Addams loudly protested injustices and inequities in American society, provided critiques and analyses of systems of oppression, and challenged sociologists to be responsible critics and constructive commentators. These giants of American sociology would have applauded the 2004 meetings of the American Sociological Association. The theme of the meetings, Public Sociology, presided over by President Michael Burawoy, sparked lively debate and continues to be a spur for research and theory, and a focal point of ongoing discussions about what sociology is and should be. This volume advances these discussions and debates, and proposes how they can be further sharpened and developed. Some authors in this volume clarify the distinctive roles that Public Sociologists can play in the discipline, in the classroom, and in larger society. Others provide critical analyses, focusing, for example, on aspects of American society and institutions, global corporate actors, sweatshop practices, international neoliberal organizations, migration policies, and U.S. environmental policies. Others advance new ways of thinking about global interdependencies that include indigenous groups, peasants, as well as societies in industrialized and developing states, and international organizations. Still others propose visions of transformative processes and practices that are progressively affirmative, even activist - in the spirit of 'A Better World is Possible!!' This volume provides an overview of some of the major debates in sociology today and places emphasis on the importance of human rights in the 'One (globalized) World' we live in today. Authors engage these debates with spirited enthusiasm and write exceptionally clearly about those topics that may be new to American readers.

Judith Blau is professor of sociology at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. She is author of Architects and Firms, The Shape of Culture, Social Contracts and Economic Markets, Race in the Schools, and is coauthor, with Alberto Moncada of Human Rights: Beyond the Liberal Vision and Justice in the United States: Human Rights and the U.S. Constitution. She is past-president of the Southern Sociological Society and president of the U.S. chapter of Sociologists without Borders. Keri E. Iyall Smith is assistant professor of sociology at Stonehill College in Easton, MA. She teaches on the subjects of globalization, race and ethnicity, indigenous peoples, social problems, and introductory sociology. She has published articles in the fields of human rights and teaching sociology.

Chapter 1 Introduction: A Public Sociology for Human RightsChapter 2 The Local and the Global: Critical Globalization StudiesChapter 3 The Local and the Global: Cosmopolitan CitizenshipChapter 4 The Struggle for Global Society in a World SystemChapter 5 A Movement Rising: Vision and Strategy from the Bottom UpChapter 6 Neoliberal Globalization and the Question of Sweatshop Labor in Developing Countries or RightsChapter 7 Framing Social Security RightsChapter 8 Latin America: Capital Accumulation and the Role of International OrganizationsChapter 9 Indigenous in Itself to Indigenous for ItselfChapter 10 Migrants, Rights, and StatesChapter 11 Understanding Disasters: Vulnerability, Sustainable Development, and ResiliencyChapter 12 Promoting SustainabilityChapter 13 Promoting Peace through Global GovernanceChapter 14 Ejidos: Local and Global PublicsChapter 15 Teaching Public SociologiesChapter 16 What Does Feminism Have to Say about Public SociologyChapter 17 The Challenge to Public Sociology: Neo-Liberalism's Illusion of Inclusion