Veganism
Politics, Practice, and Theory
Published on 15. July 2021
Book
Paperback/Softback
208 pages
978-1-350-12491-2 (ISBN)
Description
What exactly do vegans believe? Why has veganism become such a critical and criticized social movement, and how does veganism correspond to wider debates about sustainability, animal studies, and the media? Eva Haifa Giraud offers an accessible route into the debates that surround vegan politics, which feed into broader issues surrounding food activism and social justice.
Giraud engages with arguments in favor of veganism, as well as the criticisms levelled at vegan politics. She interrogates debates and topics that are central to conversations around veganism, including identity, intersectional politics, and activism, with research drawn from literary animal studies, animal geographies, ecofeminism, posthumanism, critical race theory, and new materialism.
Giraud makes an original theoretical intervention into these often fraught debates, and argues that veganism holds radical political potential to act as "more than a diet" by disrupting commonplace norms and assumptions about how humans relate to animals. Drawing on a range of examples, from recipe books with punk aesthetics to social media campaigns, Giraud shows how veganism's radical potential is being complicated by its commercialization, and elucidates new conceptual frameworks for reclaiming veganism as a radical social movement.
Giraud engages with arguments in favor of veganism, as well as the criticisms levelled at vegan politics. She interrogates debates and topics that are central to conversations around veganism, including identity, intersectional politics, and activism, with research drawn from literary animal studies, animal geographies, ecofeminism, posthumanism, critical race theory, and new materialism.
Giraud makes an original theoretical intervention into these often fraught debates, and argues that veganism holds radical political potential to act as "more than a diet" by disrupting commonplace norms and assumptions about how humans relate to animals. Drawing on a range of examples, from recipe books with punk aesthetics to social media campaigns, Giraud shows how veganism's radical potential is being complicated by its commercialization, and elucidates new conceptual frameworks for reclaiming veganism as a radical social movement.
Reviews / Votes
Giraud's navigation of veganism's politics and its move into the mainstream offers invaluable insight into the nuances of veganism's various manifestations. * LSE Review of Books * To date, this critically important work represents perhaps the most comprehensive and theoretically nuanced survey of the culture and politics of veganism. Of particular merit is Eva Haifa Giraud's careful attention to questions of political strategy, making this book an invaluable tool for social justice movements navigating the politics of food consumption. * Dinesh Joseph Wadiwel, Senior Lecturer of Socio-Legal Studies and Human Rights, University of Sydney, Australia * Eva Haifa Giraud offers a wonderfully engaging and thought-provoking exploration of veganism as a powerful ethical and political praxis. She makes a compelling case for understanding and resisting the appropriation of veganism by capitalist consumer logics, and for ongoing scholarship and activism dedicated to reaffirming veganism's radical underpinnings. * Kathryn Gillespie, Postdoctoral Scholar, University of Kentucky, USA * A stunningly elegant mediation that explores the interlacing between different forms of veganism, for a genuine dissolution of structural inequalities subjugating animals and humans. Eva Haifa Giraud distils veganism to its barest essence-that food is central in bringing veganism's fullest potential to fruition-reversing the harms solidified by our current relations to animal and human others. * Yamini Narayanan, Senior Lecturer in International and Community Development, Deakin University, Australia *More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Unsewn / adhesive bound
Illustrations
6 bw illus
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 154 mm
Thickness: 13 mm
Weight
324 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-350-12491-2 (9781350124912)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Person
Eva Haifa Giraud is a Senior Lecturer in Media at Keele University, UK. She is the author of What Comes After Entanglement? (2019).
Content
Introduction: More than a Diet
1. Vegan Debates: Tracing Vegan Scholarship
2. Vegan Identities: Purity and Imperfection
3. Learning from Vegan Activism
4. Animal Subjectivity and Anthropomorphism
5. Intersectional Veganism(s
6. Post Vegan? The Rise of Plant-Based Capitalism
Conclusion: Maintaining the 'More Than'
Bibliography
Index
1. Vegan Debates: Tracing Vegan Scholarship
2. Vegan Identities: Purity and Imperfection
3. Learning from Vegan Activism
4. Animal Subjectivity and Anthropomorphism
5. Intersectional Veganism(s
6. Post Vegan? The Rise of Plant-Based Capitalism
Conclusion: Maintaining the 'More Than'
Bibliography
Index