Rights Work and the Social Construction of Rights

This chapter takes the notion of ‘rights work’ from Ken Plummer’s writing on the history of the lesbian and gay movement and considers its contribution in the broader context of activist engagement with claims making on behalf of oppressed or disadvantaged groups. Although the language of rights carries implications of ethical certainty, in fact few rights are absolute, and all are open to a degree of interpretation and scope for expansion or contraction in their application. This chapter starts by seeing in Ken’s work a template for outlining the processes by which this expansion or contraction can occur, then goes on to shows how his approach both complements and is complemented by a number of other perspectives in the field of rights.