MACMILLAN Past Human Rights Violations and the Question of Indifference: The Case of Chile (St Antony's Series)

This book contributes to the fields of memory and human rights. It offers a novel and interdisciplinary theory on social indifference, and in particular on the indifference of people to human rights violations committed against certain sectors of society in turbulent times. These theoretical frameworks are explored empirically with respect to the Chilean case. Through a blend of mixed methods, the book explains the causes, characteristics and social consequences of the current indifference of Chileans with respect to the human rights violations committed during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet (1973-90). The different findings are an invitation to rethink new challenges of transitional justice processes in fragmented societies and to strengthen public policies on human rights. Review “Hugo Rojas have brilliantly accomplished two truly important goals in this excellent book as he provides the reader with a meticulous analysis of the concept of indifference and subsequently, he applies the concept to Chile’s human rights abuses during the Pinochet dictatorship. Analyzing the concept of indifference is essential to understand how dictators’ abuses are often ignored by entire societies and how this indifference contributes to supporting the regime and the impunity of those who commit the crimes. The author not only explains the theoretical underpinnings of the concept of indifference, but avlso provides the readers with both a qualitative and a quantitative analysis of social indifference and its consequences. This pathbreaking work should encourage others to do comparative studies connecting the fields of social indifference and human rights abuses.” ―Silvia Borzutzky, Professor of Political Science at Carnegie Mellon University From the Back Cover This book contributes to the fields of memory and human rights. It offers a novel and interdisciplinary theory on social indifference, and in particular on the indifference of people to human rights violations committed against certain sectors of society in turbulent times. These theoretical frameworks are explored empirically with respect to the Chilean case. Through a blend of mixed methods, the book explains the causes, characteristics and social consequences of the current indifference of Chileans with respect to the human rights violations committed during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet (1973-90). The different findings are an invitation to rethink new challenges of transitional justice processes in fragmented societies and to strengthen public policies on human rights. Hugo Rojas is Professor of Sociology of Law and Human Rights at Alberto Hurtado University and researcher at the Millenium Institute on Violence and Democracy. He holds degrees from Oxford, LSE and the Catholic University of Chile. About the Author Hugo Rojas is Professor of Sociology of Law and Human Rights at Alberto Hurtado University and researcher at the Millennium Institute on Violence and Democracy. He holds degrees from Oxford, LSE and the Catholic University of Chile.