A New Book: Extrastatecraft: The Power of Infrastructure Space

by Keller Easterling

VERSO - 2014

Extrastatecraft controls everyday life in the city: it’s the key to power – and resistance – in the twenty-first century.
Infrastructure is not only the underground pipes and cables controlling our cities. It also determines the hidden rules that structure the spaces all around us – free trade zones, smart cities, suburbs, and shopping malls. Extrastatecraft charts the emergent new powers controlling this space and shows how they extend beyond the reach of government.
Keller Easterling explores areas of infrastructure with the greatest impact on our world – examining everything from standards for the thinness of credit cards to the urbanism of mobile telephony, the world’s largest shared platform, to the “free zone,” the most virulent new world city paradigm. In conclusion, she proposes some unexpected techniques for resisting power in the modern world.
Extrastatecraft will change the way we think about urban spaces – and how we live in them.

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A New Issue: SOCIETIES WITHOUT BORDERS: Current Issue: Volume 10, Issue 1 (2015)

SOCIETIES WITHOUT BORDERS
Current Issue: Volume 10, Issue 1 (2015)
http://scholarlycommons.law.case.edu/swb/

Articles
A New Societies Without BordersBrian K. Gran

Stories from the Margins: Refugees with Disabilities Rebuilding LivesBrent C. Elder

Mobilization, Strategy, and Global Apparel Production Networks: Systemic Advantages for Student Antisweatshop ActivismDale W. Wimberley, Meredith A. Katz, and John Paul Mason

Book ReviewsReview of Obama Power by Jeffrey C. Alexander and Bernadette N. Jaworsky (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2014).Kubilay Y. Arin

Review of Global Coloniality and Power in GuatemalaAndrew Crookston

Review of Torture: A Sociology of Violence and Human RightsJared Del Rosso

Review of Edges of Global Justice: The World Social Forum and its OthersManisha Desai

Review of The Anti-Slavery Project: From Slave Trade to Human TraffickingAnnie Fukushima

Review of Fair Trade from the Ground Up: New Markets for Social JusticeSilvia Giagnoni

Review of Jennifer Curtis, Human Rights as War by Other Means (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press 2014)Kubilay Y. Arin Mr

Film Reviews
Review of "Young and Gay: Jamaica’s Gully Queens” Produced and Directed by Christo Geoghegan of VICE NewsShaneda Destine

Review of "My Name is Khan"Farrukh Hakeem

Review of “Rape in the Fields. The Hidden Story of Rape on the Job in America”Suchitra Samanta

The Year of International Human Rights - Webster University October 7-8th 2015

Dear friends,

I am helping to plan our annual human rights conference which will take place October 7-8th 2015 at Webster University.  This is our 6th annual conference and sociologist Judith Blau will be our keynote speaker!  I am writing to you for help with finding an academic or activist (or both) who works on hunger, food and poverty.  This theme of the conference is the Millennium Development Goals so one of our sessions will need to focus on this goal.  We pay for travel, hotel, incidentals and a modest honorarium. If you think this is something you would be interested in OR if you can put me in contact with an organization or another academic working on this issue please let me know.  Here is the website for our conference. 

http://www.webster.edu/arts-and-sciences/affiliates-events/yihr.html

Please respond to me privately at andreamiller31 (at) webster.edu  Please share widely!

Andrea Miller, Ph.D.
Lecturer, Department of Anthropology and Sociology
Fellow, Institute for Human Rights & Humanitarian Studies
Webster University
470 E. Lockwood Ave
St. Louis, MO 63119
314-246-8698

“I have a little tip. If you don’t want to be killed by ISIS, don’t go to Syria. If you don’t want to be killed by a Mexican, there’s nothing I can tell you.” - Ann Coulter to Jorge Ramos

Explain to me: Why is the government closing remote Aboriginal communities?

By Rebecca Mitchell 

Mamamia - 24 March 2015

If you haven’t been part of them, you’ve most likely at least heard of the recent protests against the closure of remote Aboriginal communities in Western Australia.  You may have seen #SOSBlakAustralia trending on Facebook last week. Or maybe you follow Hugh Jackman on Instagram.  Maybe you heard Tony Abbott say the government couldn’t subsidise “lifestyle choices” and the collective horrified gasp that followed.  But chances are you’re asking — what the hell is going on? 
Today, we’re here to explain. 
Last year, the Federal government announced it would stop funding essential services in remote Australian communities — essentially transferring this responsibility to the states.  Last week, WA Premier Colin Barnett said his state would have to “close” between 100 to 150 Indigenous communities, as a result.

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What is the Human Rights Act and why does Michael Gove want to scrap it?

JON STONE

THE INDEPENDENT - Monday 11 May 2015  

The Conservatives' manifesto says the party wants to scrap the Human Rights Act. David Cameron has appointed Michael Gove, the former education secretary, to be Justice Secretary; this means he'll be responsible for the policy. The Human Rights Act is a piece of law, introduced in 1998, that guarantees human rights in Britain. It was introduced as one of the first major reforms of the last Labour government. In practice, the Act has two main effects. Firstly, it incorporates the rights of the European Convention on Human Rights into domestic British law. What this means is that if someone has a complaint under human rights law they do not have to go to European courts but can get justice from British courts. Secondly, it requires all public bodies – not just the central government, but institutions like the police, NHS, and local councils – to abide by these human rights.

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New Boston University professor's tweets spark racial furor

By: Jack Encarnacao, Antonio Planas 

BOSTON HERALD - Monday, May 11, 2015

A Boston University spokesman said the administration is “offended” by an incoming African American Studies professor’s disparaging tweets about white people, which have gone viral and now have students at odds.
Saida Grundy, who starts in July as an assistant professor of sociology and African American Studies, has sent out several racially charged tweets in recent months, including calling “white college males” a “problem population,” declaring “white masculinity is THE problem for America’s colleges.” Other tweets stated “Deal with your white (expletive), white people. slavery is a *YALL* thing,” and “Every MLK week I commit myself to not spending a dime in white-owned businesses. And every year I find it nearly impossible.”
The tweets were compiled by the web site SoCawlege.com last week before Grundy — described on BU’s website as a “feminist sociologist of race & ethnicity” — made her account private. They were also published by Fox News.

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