Vegan Transitions

An ‘animal turn’ in the social sciences and humanities has progressively gathered pace since its inception around 50 years ago, from influential strands of ecofeminism and philosophy to the more recent flowering of multidisciplinary scholar/activist Critical Animal Studies and Vegan Studies. A core challenge of the animal turn has been to decentre disciplinary and societal anthropocentrism, asserting both that nonhuman animals (NHAs) are always already imbricated in multispecies communities alongside human animals, and that their victimisation by humans (such as in the animal-industrial complex) constitutes a pressing social justice issue, given the intrinsic moral value and rights that ought to be afforded to NHAs. Ending the oppression of NHAs is not only of urgent importance for their own sake, but also because of the intertwined harms that affect human animals too, such as: the climate crisis; the growing threat of zoonotic disease; public health crises linked to animal product consumption; the squandering of natural resources by the AIC; the diversion of plant foods to ‘livestock’ production in the context of enduring hunger and malnutrition; or the disproportionate exploitation of People of Colour as workers in the AIC. The alleviation of these crises shares a common root solution: a global transition towards vegan economies that eschew the entangled oppressions of NHAs and minoritised human populations. Mobilising that transition requires a coordinated effort across academic disciplines, policy makers, educators and activists, opening up the potential for a diverse range of research projects in many areas.