Volume VII, Issue II (2009)

You can download the JCAS issue in one complete PDF document by clicking here: JCAS Volume VII, Issue II. This is the second issue that I have published as Editor-in-Chief.

Content
 

Editorial Board, ICAS Report, and Editorial
pg. 1-8

The Animal Voice Behind the Animal Fable
Namma Harel
pg. 9-21

The Broken Promises of Monsters: Haraway, Animals and the Humanist Legacy
Zipporah Weisberg
pg. 22-62

The Great Unity: Daoism, Nonhuman Animals, and Human Ethics
Lisa Kemmerer
pg. 63-83

Normative Sociology: The Intuitionist Crisis and Animals as Absent Referents
Part I of II essays on animals and normative sociology
David Sztybel
pg. 84-128

BOOK REVIEW
Pattrice Jones (2007) Aftershock: Confronting Trauma in a Violent World: A Guide for Activists and their Allies, New York: Lantern
Reviewed by: Lisa Kemmerer
pg. 129-137

FILM REVIEWS
Behind the Mask (2006) Uncaged Films and ARME
Reviewed by: Sarat Colling and Anthony J. Nocella, II
pg. 138-143

Winged Migration (2001) Sony Picture Classics
Reviewed by: Nicole R. Pallotta
pg. 144-152

This issue, past issues and much more information about JCAS can be found here: Institute for Critical Animal Studies

Animal(s) Matter(s)

The Future of Critical Animal Studies

This day conference will bring academics and activists together to consider future ways of addressing the radical implications of critical work on understanding and dealing with non-human animals.

Venue: Foresight Centre, University of Liverpool (Building 359)

Date: April 23rd, 2010

Speakers: Alistair Currie (PETA); Professor Celia Deane-Drummond (Chester and CAFOD); Jasmijn de Boo (Animals Count); Professor Robert Garner (Leicester); Dr Simon James (Durham); Dr Dan Lyons (Uncaged Campaigns); Dr Karen Morgan (Cardiff); Dr Anat Pick (UEL); Dr Richard Twine (Lancaster); Dr Richard White (Sheffield Hallam). Full speaker information and programme.

Registration Fee (includes lunch and refreshment):  £40 (waged) / £30 (students and unwaged). 

For further details, contact Stephen R. L. Clark, Department of Philosophy, University of Liverpool.

Please let us know if accommodation is needed on either the night of April 22nd or April 23rd.  With enough advance notice, we may be able to arrange a conference discount at a local hotel. 

This conference is sponsored by the Institute for Critical Animal Studies, the Society for Applied Philosophy, the Mind Association, and the Department of Philosophy at the University of Liverpool.

SESSION: Marketization and its discontents

Session organisers: Christian Berndt (University of Frankfurt), Marc Boeckler (University of Mainz), Peter Lindner (University of Frankfurt)

Half a century of radical market orientation under neoliberal policy programs and radical critique of the market as a capitalist device for uneven accumulation processes notwithstanding, our knowledge of the fragility of market arrangements remains very limited. Reactions to the current economic crisis illustrate this very well. Mainstream economists appear to have been caught completely wrong-footed, wondering “how [they] got it so wrong” (Krugman 2009) whereas from a political economy point of view the current situation serves as yet another empirical evidence for the crisis tendencies besetting capitalism. Approaching the market from a god’s eyes view, both positions have little to say about how concrete markets are continuously stabilized, maintained and reshaped or retreat, fail and fall apartTo broaden our understanding of the assemblage  and disassemblage of markets is the central concern of this session. It conceives of marketization (1) as arrangements of people, things and socio-technical devices that format products, prices, competition, places of exchange and mechanisms of control; (2) as a deeply ambivalent endeavor, never complete and always prone to failure, variably establishing linkages and cutting others; (3) as an inherently uneven process, incorporating and expelling places, people and things, exposing existing socio-material relations to new structures of inclusion and exclusion, poverty and wealth; (4) as an innately geographical project, relying on ongoing differentiations between market outside and inside and creating contested borderlands which are always subject to reassessment and reconfiguration.

In this context our aim is to attract contributions which address critical junctures in the making of markets where established linkages break, devices fail to work, competition ends, places of exchange collapse and new spaces for arguments about the legitimate boundaries of markets open up. Possible topics may include but are not restricted to:

*Public discourse: What crisis, whose crisis?

*Political battles: Re-negotiating the limits of marketization and commodification *Locating economic crises: places and devices of demarketization *Case studies on the disassemblage of markets *Frontier regions of marketization as fields of struggle about the legitimacy of markets *Demarketization and new borderlands of global capitalism *Ruptures and adjustments between markets and market models *Calculative spaces and the limits of calculation *The critical dynamics of virtual market places *From “market failure” to the “failure of (neoclassical) economics”

*The diversity of demarketization

*Heterodox theorizing of the market and its other

For more information about the AAG see *here*

ECONOMIC DEGROWTH TODAY

Call for the Second International Conference on Degrowth

Barcelona, Spain, 25-28 March 2010

ICTA (Universidad Autonoma de Barcelona), and Research & Degrowth

This is a preliminary call for a second conference on socially sustainable economic degrowth, linking economic, environmental and social perspectives, with emphasis on practical policies & concrete proposals.

Thirty years ago, Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen published a book in French (edited by Jacques Grinevald and Ivo Rens) with the title “Demain la Décroissance” (Degrowth Tomorrow) (1979). We say, “Aujourd’hui la Décroissance” (Degrowth today). To see the Call for Papers click *here*

For more information about Degrowth, see Simplicité volontaire et décroissance . The narration is in French – the images are rooted in a universal language:

Anthony Nocalla II

In the first of the In the Spotlight posts, which I’ll be using to highlight some of most influential and inspirational individuals I know, past and present, I want to draw attention to Anthony Nocella II.

Anthony is an author, educator, and peacemaker working on his Ph.D. at Syracuse University’s Maxwell School and a professor of Criminology, Sociology, and Peace and Global Studies at Le Moyne College and SUNY, Cortland. He also teaches Life Skills at a New York youth detention facility and is the Executive Director of the Central New York Peace Studies Consortium.

I’m fortunate enough to be working with Anthony in several areas, but do so largely through my capacity as Chief Editor of the Journal for Critical Animal Studies (JCAS). Anthony’s tireless energy and commitment to build peace through dialogue for humans, other animals and the Earth is truly magnificent. 

Without doubt Anthony is certainly playing an increasingly influential role within the most interesting initiatives and collaborations that are emerging from the (more radical and progressive) academic and activist communties. For more information about his research and current commitments please visit his main webpage: PEACE BUILDING .

In The Guardian

Bolivia has enacted what animal rights activists are calling the world’s first ban on all animals in circuses.

A handful of other countries have banned the use of wild animals in circuses, but the Bolivian ban includes domestic animals as well.

The law, which states that the use of animals in circuses “constitutes an act of cruelty”, took effect on 1 July with operators given a year to comply, according to the bill’s sponsor, Ximena Flores.

Read on… Bolivia Bans All Circus Animals!

Lib Now! the ICAS Blog

Lib Now! (short for Liberation Now!) hosted by the Institute for Critical Animal Studies (ICAS) is a worldwide animal advocacy informational source providing the latest on campaigns, events, classes, workshops, trainings, publications, films, and other resources in, on, and for higher education.

 This video link with Dr. Steve Best, University of Texas, El Paso and President of the Institute for Critical Animal Studies (ICAS) and Tom Regan speaking on animal rights and social justice, is one of many excellent discussions which can be found on this site.

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.

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.