Towards a sociology of the human rights city: focusing on practice.
In B. Oomen, M. Davis and M. Grigolo (eds.) Global Urban Justice: The Rise of Human Rights Cities, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016, pp.276-293.
This chapter concludes the Global Urban Justice book by providing a sociological reading of its main content, viewing the human rights city as a social practice emerging at different contact points between human rights and the city. The practice is about realising a city organised around norms and principles of human rights. But what are the human rights of the city? Who makes the human rights city? Who benefits from human rights in the city? What role does the local government play in the human rights city? How are the human rights city and the right to the city connected? The chapter begins to answer these and other questions looking at how different social actors engage with human rights, especially civil society and local government actors. The main argument supporting this analysis is that in the context of their application to the city, the city changes human rights as much as human rights aim to change the city.
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