Being Social: The Philosophy of Social Human Rights

Description

Human rights capture what people need to live minimally decent lives. Recognised dimensions of this minimum include physical security, due process, political participation, and freedom of movement, speech, and belief, as well as - more controversially for some - subsistence, shelter, health, education, culture, and community. Far less attention has been paid to the interpersonal, social dimensions of a minimally decent life, including our basic needs for decent human contact and acknowledgement, for interaction and adequate social inclusion, and for relationship, intimacy, and shared ways of living, as well as our competing interests in solitude and associative freedom. This pioneering collection of original essays aims to remedy the neglect of social needs and rights in human rights theory and practice by exploring the social dimensions of the human-rights minimum. The essays subject enumerated social human rights and proposed social human rights to philosophical scrutiny, and probe the conceptual, normative, and practical implications of taking social human rights seriously. The contributors to this volume demonstrate powerfully how important this undertaking is, despite the thorny theoretical and practical challenges that social rights present. Contents Acknowledgements List of Contributors Introduction • Kimberley Brownlee, David Jenkins, and Adam Neal 1. Interlocking Rights, Layered Protections: Varieties of Justifications for Social Rights • Henry Shue 2. A Human Right to Relationships? • Stephanie Collins 3. A Right to Opportunities for Meaningful Relationships • Alexandra Couto 4. The Right to Participate in the Life of the Society • Kimberley Brownlee 5. What Becomes of the Right to Marry? Disestablishment and the Value of Marriage • Jenny Brown 6. Do Older People Have a Right to Be Loved? • S. Matthew Liao 7. Social Rights at Work • Jesse Tomalty 8. Fair Equality of Opportunity, Social Relationships, and Epistemic Advantage • Chiara Cordelli 9. Communication and Rights • Rowan Cruft 10. The (Social) Right to the City • David Jenkins 11. Rights to Belong and Rights to be Left Alone? Claims to Caring Relationships and their Limits • Elizabeth Brake 12. The Role of Solitude in the Politics of Sociability • Anca Gheaus 13. Normative Disorientation and a Limitation of Human Rights • Simon James Hope 14. Four Types of Anti-Loneliness Policies • Bouke de Vries Epilogue: Achieving Adequate Social Access • James Nickel and Kimberley Brownlee Index