1 A Public Sociology for Human Rights

A public sociology that will tackle the public issues of today requires the transformation of sociology as we know it. This is the stirring message of this volume—at the heart of sociology must lie a concern for society as such, the protection of those social relations through which we recognize each other as humans. Thus, the chapters focus on those fundamental human rights that uphold human community, first and foremost, against the colonizing projects of states and markets. In this vision of sociology, as Judith Blau and Alberto Moncada (2005) underline in their book Human Rights: Beyond the Liberal Vision, society can no longer be taken for granted. The devastation of soci-ety—whether in civil war or in famine, in prison or in ghetto—cannot be consigned to some marginal specialty or to some other discipline. Rather it must be the principle focus of our discipline, casting into relief threats to society’s very existence. What could more exemplify the devastation of society at the hands of mar-ket and state than Hurricane Katrina? To be sure this was no tsunami. As I write, two months after the storm, the death toll is at 1,055 but still climbing as more bodies are continually being recovered. Yet in neighboring Cuba it is a national tragedy if a single person dies in a hurricane, even one so fierce as Katrina. And so it should be; hurricanes are predictable in their effects and give ample warning of their arrival. But warnings were ignored by a state bent on war abroad and repression at home, sacrificing levees for arms, and social relief for ‘‘homeland’ ’ security. When the water flooded out, markets flooded in—corporate America would gorge itself on the disaster, on lucrative con