Artikkelipyyntö

Multispecies Knowledges and the Industrialization of Animal Exploitation

The online conference will be arranged on 2 and 3 June 2021 by the research project Culture of Unsustainability. Animal Industries and the Exploitation of Animals in Finland since the Late Nineteenth Century (UnSus), University of Turku (https://sites.utu.fi/unsus/en/).

Keynote lectures:

Prof. Sandra Swart (Stellenbosch University, South Africa): Bloodlines and Bloodlies: Inventing Equine Breeds

Prof. Nik Taylor (Univ. of Canterbury, New Zealand): Animal Rescuers: Challenging Institutionalised Animal Violence and Abuse through Everyday Practice

The seeming growth of human wealth has been built upon the exploitation of non-human animals and animal lives have been viewed largely as a commodified matter. Consequently, industrial production has caused the death of billions of sentient beings and has had a devastating impact on the environment. In this online conference, we focus on various kinds of knowledges and knowledge production practices, which have either enabled and justified or questioned and opposed industrial exploitation of animals. Papers can focus on any kind of knowledge from science to commercial displays, from philosophical and political definitions to everyday practical knowledge of entrepreneurs, fishers, factory workers, farmers, journalists, and consumers.

We encourage a broad understanding of the theme and welcome proposals for presentations from different disciplines and fields of study, such as history, ethnology, cultural studies, sociology, and human–animal studies. Presentations may address, for example, but are not limited to, the following questions:

  • How has animal exploitation been justified by knowledge in different arenas in history and in the present day?
  • How animals have been represented in the materials that describe animal use or industrial animal production?
  • How scientific knowledge of animals has been constructed and entangled with other forms of knowledge, such as practical knowledge of breeding and feeding in farming-units?
  • What kind of knowledge has been or is constructed in the everyday relationships between humans and animals in the context of animal production?
  • What kind of knowledge has been offered to consumers and what has been concealed in different historical and cultural contexts?
  • In what ways are animals involved in the practices of knowledge production concerning industrial animal exploitation?
  • How those knowledge practices that question the exploitation of animals have been or are perceived in different historical, cultural, or societal areas?

Please submit your paper proposal (max 300 words), preferably as a word document, by 8 March 2021 to . Notification of acceptance will be sent by 12 April 2021.