Mark Goodale é um antropólogo e académico, com uma vasta obra publicada sobretudo no campo dos direitos humanos e dos estudos jurídicos. Presentemente, encontra-se a trabalhar num conjunto diverso de novos projetos, incluindo uma introdução crítica à antropologia e ao direito, assim como uma etnografia da revolução, entre vários outros.[PT]

[EN] Mark Goodale explains that he is an anthropologist who went to Bolivia in the 1990s to study conflict resolution, focusing particularly in the rural areas and in outside the boundaries of the State. During his fieldwork in Bolivia the country was in the midst of what he calls a human rights revolution in face of the transformations imposed by the spread of the neoliberal model. Mark Goodale claims that after the Cold War Human Rights has become the only legitimate program - the only secular framework - for political change in the international community. In that sense, Mark argues that Human Rights are not so much a vehicle for social change as the framework in which social change takes place. From there question arises: “Is it an effective framework for social change?” Trying to answer to this difficult question, Mark recalls several political historical processes that illuminate his reflections on the possibilities and limits of human rights in the contemporary world.