The Journal for Critical Animal Studies

Now in its sixth year, the Journal for Critical Animal Studies was established for the purpose of fostering academic study of critical animal issues in contemporary society. While animal studies are increasingly becoming a field of importance in the academy, much work being done under this moniker take a reformist or depoliticized approach that fails to mount more serious critique of underlying issues of political economy and speciesist philosophy.

The Journal for Critical Animal Studies is an interdisciplinary journal with an emphasis on animal liberation philosophy and policy issues. This journal was designed to build up the common activist’s knowledge of animal liberation while at the same time appealing to academic specialists to address the important topic of animal liberation. We encourage and actively pursue a diversity of viewpoints of contributors from the frontlines of activism to academics. We have created the journal for the purpose of facilitating communication between the many diverse perspectives of the animal rights movement. Thus, we especially encourage submissions that seek to create new syntheses between differing disputing parties and to explore paradigms not currently examined.

The Journal for Critical Animal Studies is open to all scholars and activists. While the research and perspectives will differ, the editing of the pieces will be peer-reviewed for quality and originality. We encourage and actively pursue a diversity of viewpoints and topics.  The journal was established for the purpose of fostering academic study of critical animal issues in contemporary society. While animal studies are increasingly becoming a field of importance in the academy, much work being done under this moniker take a reformist or depoliticized approach that fails to mount more serious critique of underlying issues of political economy and speciesist philosophy.

As the current Editor-in-Chief I would welcome any feedback on the Journal generally (articles, topics, themes, format etc.) and would also openly welcome submissions to the Journal to be considered for peer-review.

The latest issue, which is free to access and download, can be found *here*. The links in the left-hand margin will provide more detail on JCAS, Archived issues, the Editorial Board, Guidelines for Authors, Suggested Topics, and other relevant publications.

Please also take a moment to have a look at the incredible Institute for Critical Animal Studies and the key departments, programs, and centers it devlops in order to  focus on critical animal studies and to eliminate from higher education all aspects of animal oppression.

We’re at the fag-end of debt-based finance capitalism

Capitalism in crisis

John Gray is Emeritus Professor at the London School of Economics

The Guardian’s Capitalism in crisis events series took place at Kings Place earlier in the year. There are many interesting speakers and arguments that were heard a the event. I want to single one out in particular – Professor John Gray - whose ideas are worth the time it takes to get to grips with more properly: Click here to see his contribution to the event.

The image is taken by the excellent photographer Sijmen  Hendriks. For portraits of other philosophers see Here.

Ted Talks: Ideas Worth Spreading

These presentations, given as part of the TED CommunityTalks, are superb!

1. Schools kill creativity

Sir Ken Robinson makes an entertaining and profoundly moving case for creating an education system that nurtures (rather than undermines) creativity.

2. Chris Jordan pictures some shocking stats

Artist Chris Jordan shows us an arresting view of what Western culture looks like. His supersized images picture some almost unimaginable statistics — like the astonishing number of paper cups we use every single day.

3. James Nachtwey’s searing photos of war

Accepting his 2007 TED Prize, war photographer shows his life’s work and asks TED to help him continue telling the story with innovative, exciting uses of news photography in the digital era.

4. Hans Rosling’s new insights on poverty

Researcher Hans Rosling uses his cool data tools to show how countries are pulling themselves out of poverty. He demos Dollar Street, comparing households of varying income levels worldwide. Then he does something really amazing.

5. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala on aid versus trade

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the former finance minister of Nigeria, sums up four days of intense discussion on aid versus trade on the closing day of TEDGlobal 2007, and shares a personal story explaining her own commitment to this cause.

1959 – The Year That Changed Jazz Forever/ Fables of Faubus

I recentlyenjoyed the wonderful BBC4 Documentary, “1959- The Year That Changed Jazz Forever“. The producers of the documentary write: ”1959 was a watershed moment for America – socially, politically and economically. In that same year four, now iconic, jazz artists each made albums that would change the music forever. Miles Davis recorded Kind Of Blue – an album that defined cool and has gone on to be the best selling and best know Jazz LP of all time. Ornette Coleman, a man Miles derided, made the prophetically titled “The Shape Of Jazz To Come” – a record that musically mirrored the USS’s forays in to space. Dave Brubeck returned from a CIA sponsored tour and recorded Time Out featuring the huge hit Take Five. And the politically active Charles Mingus produced Ah Um containing direct attacks on the racist leaders of the age. Together these records re-wrote the jazz rulebooks – both in terms of the music they contained and the way they were marketed.”

For my money, Fables of Faubus, written by Charles Mingus, is one of the standout protest songs of that era, and of all time. This is an excellent video:

Responding to the Global Economic Crisis

What is it?

What caused it?

What should we do about it?

 

Sessions on

* Causes of the credit crunch – poor regulation or deeper problems?

* The Third World: crisis on top of crisis

* Radical responses: Keynesian, radical ecologist, socialist and more

* Action in the city: jobs, housing, transport, building, environment.

 

Thursday 7 May,

6 – 9 pm

 in Fusion

Sheffield University Students’ Union

Western Bank, S10

 

Fully licensed bar

 

Organised by Sheffield University Students’ Union and academics from the two Sheffield universities

PROGRAMME

 

70 mins	Understanding the crisis	The origins of the crisis	Old and new crises in the Third World
		Jonathan Perraton (Sheffield U, Economics)The finance system: from deregulation to crunch  Jamie Gough (Sheffield U, town and Regional Planning) A crisis of capitalism as a whole	Paul Mosley (Economics)Present crisis in the Third World   Graham Harrison (Sheffield U, Politics) The crisis in Africa
10 mins	Break
70 mins	Policies and strategies	Large scale strategies	Urban scale strategies
		Ian Rotherham(Hallam, Environment)An eco strategy     Andrew Jobling (Hallam, Geography) Latin American responses to neoliberalism   John Smith (Sheffield U, Politics) A socialist strategy	Rob Hunt(Hallam, Planning, Regeneration and Housing)Radical strategy for housing  Bob Jeffery (Salford U) A publicly-owned high quality bus system    Speaker from the Visteon occupation (invited)
5 mins	Break
25 mins	What next? Plenary	Future discussions Future political organisation and actions

Chimpanzee’s plan to attack zoo visitors shows evidence of premeditated thought

My article of the day (on so many levels) written by Mark Henderson and published in The Times.

“When Santino the chimpanzee started pelting zoo visitors with stones, his keepers were mystified.

“Not that they were surprised by his displays of aggression — the 31-year-old chimp is, after all, a dominant male. But there was no obvious source of stones in his enclosure; so where was he finding all the missiles?

“All became clear when they carried out a search and found his stockpiles of rocks. Santino had been fishing stones from the moat surrounding his enclosure – and, even more impressively, he had been shaping odd pieces of concrete into aerodynamic disc-shaped missiles. Then he had been stashing them away for future use…

“But his behaviour has led scientists to conclude that premeditation is not a uniquely human trait.

“It seems chimpanzees, too, are capable of forward planning, and have a sophisticated understanding of past and future…”

Read more here

And here

25 years since the Great Miners’ Strike

I was six years old during the Miners’ Strike of 1984-1985. Twenty five years later the resentment and hostility still runs deeply within many local Yorkshire communities, particularly those who were directly involved  in what was effectively civil war. No doubt the viscous life-blood of such emotions will remain undiluated by the passing of time: first hand stories and memories surrounding the savage repression and brutality exercised by the police; of families torn apart (during and after the Strikes);  and the political failure to meaningfully rehabilitate these post-mining communities, will ensure that those who cried “Coal, not Dole!’ will be never be fogotten.

George Brealey and Paul Castle: photograph by Don McPhee

In 2000-2001 I had the fortune to undertake some research in the village of Grimethorpe (of Brassed Off fame).

The warm spirit and resolve of the community(s) there shone through despite a socio-economic canvas still steeped in poverty and deprivation: a common fate clearly shared by many ex-mining villages across the UK.

Inevitably, there has been a great deal of commentary and reflection (and much of it worth reading ) in the British press about the political & economic impact of the strikes – but I want to draw attention to Miners strike: It was like a civil war” published in the Times. The author goes back to my town of birth, Pontefract, to revisit the enduring legacy 0f the strikes.

Finally, with respect to the iconic Don McPhee photograph (above) the Guardian asked the question, “What happened to the two protagonists?” the answer is found here: The miner and the copper.

International Women’s Day (8th March)

Tomorrow (8th March) is International Women’s Day 2009. International Women’s Day is marked around the world as an occasion for the celebration of the political, social and economic empowerment of women, and for the reassertion of women’s rights worldwide.

Credits for the image to "Shutter.Chick" (Flickr website)

Below are some of the global United Nation themes used for International Women’s Day :

- 2009: Women and men united to end violence against women and girls
- 2008: Investing in Women and Girls
- 2007: Ending Impunity for Violence against Women and Girls
- 2006: Women in decision-making
- 2005: Gender Equality Beyond 2005: Building a More Secure Future
- 2004: Women and HIV/AIDS
- 2003: Gender Equality and the Millennium Development Goals
- 2002: Afghan Women Today: Realities and Opportunities
- 2001: Women and Peace: Women Managing Conflicts
- 2000: Women Uniting for Peace
- 1999: World Free of Violence against Women
- 1998: Women and Human Rights
- 1997: Women at the Peace Table
- 1996: Celebrating the Past, Planning for the Future

As always, Open Democracy has a selection of some relevant articles which are worth your time and attention: see  here

Is this the poster pig for East Yorkshire Farmers?

Following on from the “Happy Pigs Make For Tastier Sausages” article highlighted in the previous post (see here)  and while noting that though, “the farmers are members of the RSPCA’s Freedom Food Assurance Scheme”  so too were the farmers of these pigs, these ducks (and here), and these fragile and defenceless birds:

 I propose that this should be the poster pig for the Campaign:

Goodness  – she’s so very happy happy happy! she’ll even willingly dismember herself (such is her gratitude to you for having granted her  – ‘for a limited time only’  – the greater freedom to live a more natural and fulfilling life, as nature intended).

On a very related note: this site ‘Suicide Food‘ deserves attention. Once again the extreme lengths that vested interests go to convince us/ we are are willing to go to convince ourselves that eating flesh is “A -ok!”… to the extent that we can believe that other animals are indebted to us for depriving them of life and eating their remains is at once both utterly striking, and horrific.

I’ll just close by drawing your attention to the concluding paragraph by Henry S. Salt (1914: 7) in his article: The Humanities of Diet :

“I advance no exaggerated or fanciful claim for Vegetarianism. It is not, as some have asserted, a panacea for human ills; it is something much more rational, an essential part of the modern humanitarian movement, which can make no true progress without it. Vegetarianism is the diet of the future, as flesh-food is the diet of the past. In that striking and common contrast, a fruit shop side by side with a butcher.s, we have a most significant object lesson. There, on the one hand, are the barbarities of a savage custom.the headless carcases, stiffened into a ghastly semblance of life, the joints and steaks and gobbets with their sickening odour, the harsh grating of the bone-saw, and the dull thud of the chopper – a perpetual crying protest against the horrors of flesh-eating. And, as if this were not witness sufficient, here, close alongside, is a wealth of golden fruit, a sight to make a poet happy, the only food that is entirely congenial to the physical structure and the natural instincts of mankind, that can entirely satisfy the highest human aspirations. Can we doubt, as we gaze at this contrast, that whatever intermediate steps may need to be gradually taken, whatever difficulties to be overcome, the path of progression from the barbarities to the humanities of diet lies clear and unmistakable before us?

Radio caller reveals cannibal habits

 

I sat down at in my desk, routinely checking the local and national news while drinking black coffee, and then stumbled across these articles in quick succession. Given my interest in moral geographies, and as someone who is actively making decisions and life choices which are not speciesist (and therefore does not partake in the eating of animals’ flesh, drinking of their juices, nor wearing their skins etc.) these articles gave a disturbing yet fascinating and vivid insight into the contemporary moral and cultural zeitgeist:

 

1. A radio presenter was stunned when he answered a call from a listener who admitted she was once an unwitting cannibal. “We were all in shock really at what we were hearing.” Article taken from The Independent.

 

The Independent article is fascinating on a number of levels concerning our treatment of humans and other animals. For example, it gives an clear insight into the moral schizophrenia or ‘othering’ that we bestow on non-human animals-as-legitimate-sources-of food… interesting to note that the expected ‘exotic’ cuisine covers horses, dogs and monkey brains, but not young farmed black children (which in the context would come under ‘unexpected’ (?!) exotic cuisine then). Two key questions arise from this:

 

1. What is the morally relevant criteria that says ‘Yes!’ it is morally acceptable to deprive a non-human animal of life in order to eat parts of their body (in this instance), but not a human animal?

 

2. Why is it so culturally reprehensible to eat members of one’s own species, yet so culturally acceptable to gorge ourselves on the corpses of other animals (well – ‘farmed’ animals at any rate)?

 

One further question: I wonder if the butcher-farmer in question would have pleaded “but they (the little black girls) were treated organically/ humanely” in his defence?

 

I pose this not as a flippant question, but a timely one having read this article in the Hull Daily Mail: “Happy Pigs Make For Tastier Sausages“. Presumably an appeal to the ‘happily farmed human children’ would explain why the “meat… tasted (much) better” to Anthea and her mum.