"Two wrong ideas have been circulating for too long with very pernicious consequences. On one side, sociologists and social scientists in general have behaved as if human rights were none of their concern; on the other side, human rights activists and scholars have looked with suspicion at social scientific work for fear that the latter will ignore, trivialize or simply undervalue their work. This book puts a definitive end to these two wrong ideas, offering a massive, extremely rich, and convincing response to past prejudices. So much so that it opens a new paradigm of study in this area. From now on, research and teaching in either human rights or sociology cannot afford to miss this precious handbook."
--Boaventura de Sousa Santos, University of Coimbra (Portugal)