Handbook of sociology and human rights /

This edited collection consists of 44 original essays, each discussing human rights from the perspective of a different sociological subfield. The book is subdivided into four sections of 10 to 12 brief articles each. "Groups in Society" covers such topics as sex and gender, mental health, racial and ethnic minorities, disabilities, and animals in society. "Institutions in Society" explores medical sociology, education, family, sociology of law, religion, and economic sociology, among others. "Living Together Locally and Globally" includes essays on community and urban sociology; peace, war, and social conflict; alcohol, drugs, and tobacco; rationality and society; and labor and labor movements. The final section, "Methodology, Practice, and Theory," explores mathematical sociology, political economy of the world-system, teaching and learning, social psychology, and Marxist sociology. Averaging only 10 pages in length, the essays, although generally creative and stimulating, often leave the reader wishing for more development and elaboration. The book needs more than its nine-page introduction and its two-page foreword (neither of which directly mentions any of the articles) to tie the essays together, especially because some authors appear to have substantially different implicit definitions of human rights. Summing Up: Optional. Graduate students/faculty. T. H. Koenig Northeastern University