Political Animals and Animal Politics

Political Animals and Animal Politics

Political Animals and Animal Politics is a 2014 edited collection published by Palgrave Macmillan. It addresses the emergence of academic animal ethics informed by political philosophy as opposed to moral philosophy. It was the first edited collection to be published on the topic, and the first book-length attempt to explore the breadth and boundaries of the literature.

About Political Animals and Animal Politics in brief

Summary Political Animals and Animal PoliticsPolitical Animals and Animal Politics is a 2014 edited collection published by Palgrave Macmillan. The work addresses the emergence of academic animal ethics informed by political philosophy as opposed to moral philosophy. It was the first edited collection to be published on the topic, and the first book-length attempt to explore the breadth and boundaries of the literature. The book’s contributors were Wissenburg, Schlosberg, Manuel Arias-Maldonado, Chad Flanders, Christie Smith, Clemens Driessen, Simon Otjes, Kurtis Boyer, Per-Anders Svärd, and Mihnea Tanasescu. The focus of their individual chapters varies, but recurring features include discussions of human exceptionalism, exploration of ways that animal issues are or could be present in political discourse, and reflections on the relationship between theory and practice in politics. Footage of the workshop appeared in De Haas in de Marathon, a 2012 documentary about the Dutch Party for the Animals. The film was created by Joost de Haas, who was commissioned by Nicolaas G. Pierson Foundation. It focuses on the party’s first ten years, including interviews with people associated with the party and explorations of the public reception. Originally intended to have been presented at that time, it has since been made available in numerous languages. The editors had intended the discussion of political theory to have taken place at the reception, but have now made the editors’ version available in many languages as well as the original Dutch.

The volume is published as part of the PalgraveMacmillan Animal Ethics Series, edited by Andrew Linzey and Priscilla Cohn. It features ten sole-authored chapters split over three parts, respectively concerning institutional change for animals, the relationshipBetween animal ethics and ecologism, and real-world laws made for the benefit of animals. It also includes a substantial introduction by the editors, and a selection of essays by leading political theorists such as Robert Garner, Sue Donaldson and Will Kymlicka, Alasdair Cochrane, Kimberly Smith, or Siobhan O’Sullivan. In part, the book arose from a workshop that Wissenberg and Schlosburg organised at the 2012 European Consortium for Political Research Joint Sessions conference, though not all attendees contributed to the volume. The workshop aimed to fill a gap in the political literature on the status of nonhuman animals, something, they claimed, previously considered only at the margins of work otherwise about the environmentresource management, or else by those more primarily interested in moral issues. For Schlosberger, the wide range of papers presented, illustrated the “coming-of-age of animal politics as a subfield of political Theory”. The workshop featured a lecture by Michel Vandenbosch, of the Belgian organisation Global Action in the Interest of Animals. On the second day, those involved were joined by Niko Koffeman of the Dutch party for the animals and Karen Soeters of that party’s think tank.