Taking Root

Taking Root should be required reading for every human rights scholar and activist. In response to so many conflicting claims about what people in the global South think about human rights, Ron, Golden, Crow and Pandya present answers based on hundreds of qualitative interviews and thousands of randomized survey responses by ordinary people in Mexico, India, Morocco, and Nigeria. The findings about how these individuals actually perceive human rights ideas and institutions are eye-opening, challenging much of the received wisdom in the field. --Kathryn Sikkink, Carol K. Pforzheimer Professor, Harvard University This is a rigorous, relevant, and exemplary study of popular attitudes toward local human rights organizations. Ron and his collaborators brilliantly analyze the chances of forging common cause with religious minorities, believers distrustful of their own religious institutions, and even establishment religious circles, where the surveys show that increased contact pays off. They provide nothing less than the strategic road map for rights advocacy in the coming decades. --Jack Snyder, Columbia University Little is known of why people support human rights, particularly in the developing world. Taking Root begins to fill that gap. It offers the most complete study yet of popular views on human rights and the steps that human rights groups can take to build popular support. It is essential reading for those seeking to reinforce human rights values in the face of the populist threat. --Kenneth Roth, Executive Director, Human Rights Watch Taking Root is the most comprehensive account available of public perceptions of human rights across several regions of the world, yielding insights and hypotheses that will have a dramatic impact on the work of advocates and scholars. A unique treasure trove of myth-busting data and analysis, no-one who works on human rights can afford to be without it. --Stephen Hopgood, Professor of International Relations, SOAS, University of London