Learning to Be Affected: Subjectivity, Sense, and Sensibility in Animal Rights Activism

2014 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 262-288 ◽  
Author(s):  
Niklas Hansson ◽  
Kerstin Jacobsson
Keyword(s):  
Animal Rights ◽  
Theoretical Perspective ◽  
Affective Responses ◽  
Identity Change ◽  
Embodied Simulation ◽  
Nonhuman Animals ◽  
Sense And Sensibility ◽  
Animal Rights Activism

Abstract Becoming an animal rights activist is not just a process of identity change and re-socialization but also implies, as this article suggests, a “re-engineering” of affective cognitive repertoires and processes of “sensibilization” in relation to nonhuman animals. Activists thereby develop their mental responsiveness and awareness and refine their embodied sensitivity and capacity for sensing. The article proposes a theoretical perspective for understanding these processes. Empirically, this article examines the development of affective dispositions informing activists’ subjectivity and embodied sensibilities. It looks at the ways in which visceral, bodily, or affective responses are cultivated to reinforce activist commitments. First, the analysis identifies “micro-shocks” and “re-shocking” experiences as mechanisms for sustaining commitment. Second, “emphatic identification” and “embodied simulation” are highlighted as mechanisms for nurturing empathy towards animals. Finally, it identifies the role of “affective meat encounters” and the cultivation of disgust as mechanisms for nurturing sensibilities. The analysis is based on a case study of animal rights activists in Sweden.

The Institutions of ‘Strong’ Local Political Leadership in Spain

2009 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 698-712 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Sweeting
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Research ◽  
Theoretical Perspective ◽  
Political Leadership ◽  
Executive Authority ◽  
Formal Rules

In this paper I examine local political leadership in Spain. Spanish mayors are examples of ‘strong mayors’—that is, they have considerable executive authority and discretion in municipal affairs. Yet little detailed research exists on the formal and informal institutional bases of their position. I fill this gap by presenting empirical research on two Spanish municipalities. Using a new institutionalist theoretical perspective, I examine the rules around the appointment and removal of the mayor, the composition of the cabinet, the role of the full council, and the conventions around the role of the mayor in the municipality. Legal powers, a culture of individualised leadership, and councillor representation based on support for the party are all important for maintaining the mayor's position. Some formal rules around the mayor in the case-study municipalities are ‘latent’—that is, they exist but are not used.

Degrees of Embodiment in Literary Reading

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marco Caracciolo
Keyword(s):  
Lived Experience ◽  
Literary Reading ◽  
Motor Resonance ◽  
Embodied Simulation ◽  
Psychological Mechanisms ◽  
Key Issues ◽  
Bodily Feelings ◽  
Literary Narrative

This chapter surveys some of the key issues in the study of embodiment in literary reading. Recent research in psycholinguistics has called attention to the role of motor resonance and experiential models in understanding language—two psychological mechanisms often brought together under the heading of “embodied simulation.” How does literary reading, and particularly reading literary narrative, leverage these embodied phenomena? Does embodiment always matter in reading or only in specific circumstances? Building on linguist David Ritchie’s scalar account of embodied simulation, and using Bret Easton Ellis’s American Psycho as a case study, this chapter distinguishes among various types of embodied involvement and shows how they shape the experience of reading Ellis’s novel. It also draws attention to the question of consciousness, calling for empirical research on the interplay between unconscious processes and lived experience (mental imagery, bodily feelings, etc.) in engaging with literary narrative.

Power, accidents, and institutional changes: the case of a Chinese hospital in Hong Kong

2012 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 151-174
Author(s):  
SHU-YUN MA
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Theoretical Perspective ◽  
Historical Institutionalism ◽  
Institutional Setting ◽  
Institutional Changes ◽  
Political Sovereignty ◽  
Windows Of Opportunity ◽  
The Impact

ABSTRACTIn response to the call for more investigation on ‘institutional dynamism’, this article examines the role of power and accidents in causing institutional changes, employing the theoretical perspective of historical institutionalism. The impact of two ‘accidents’ (epidemics) on the institutional setting of a hospital in Hong Kong under different power contexts (changes of political sovereignty) is analysed as a case study. The finding is that power matters more than accidents. This is not to deny the importance of accidents. Accidents matter because they produce windows of opportunity for institutional changes to take place. Through political manoeuvres powerful actors may decide which accidents should cause change.

Every Sparrow That Falls: Understanding Animal Rights Activism as Functional Religion

2000 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 305-330
Author(s):  
Wesley V Jamison ◽  
Caspar Wenk ◽  
James V Parker
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Religious Belief ◽  
Animal Rights ◽  
The United States ◽  
Religious Movements ◽  
Original Research ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Animal Rights Activism ◽  
Meaningful Role

AbstractThis article reports original research conducted among animal rights activists and elites in Switzerland and the United States, and the finding that activism functioned in activists' and elites' lives like religious belief. The study used reference sampling to select Swiss and American informants.Various articles and activists have identified both latent and manifest quasi-religious components in the contemporary movement Hence, the research followed upon these data and anecdotes and tested the role of activism in adherents' lives. Using extensive interviews, the research discovered that activists and elites conform to the five necessary components of Yinger's definition of functional religion: intense and memorable conversion experiences, newfound communities of meaning, normative creeds, elaborate and well-defined codes of behavior, and cult formation. The article elaborates on that schema in the context of animal rights belief, elucidates the deeply meaningful role of activism within a filigree of meaning, and concludes that the movement is facing schismatic forces not dissimilar to redemptive and religious movements

The Relationship between Empathy and Personality in Undergraduate Students’ Attitudes toward Nonhuman Animals

2012 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-38 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ann C. Eckardt Erlanger ◽  
Sergei V. Tsytsarev
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Animal Rights ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Personality Factors ◽  
Negative Beliefs ◽  
Positive Attitudes ◽  
Attitudes Toward Animals ◽  
Nonhuman Animals ◽  
Students Attitudes

Abstract The majority of research investigating beliefs toward nonhuman animals has focused on vivisection or utilized populations with clear views on animal issues (e.g., animal rights activists). Minimal research has been conducted on what personality factors influence a nonclinical or nonadjudicated population’s beliefs about the treatment of animals. The purpose of the present study was to examine the role of empathy and personality traits in attitudes about the treatment of animals in 241 undergraduate students. Results indicated that those with high levels of empathy held more positive attitudes toward animals and more negative beliefs about animal cruelty than those with low levels of empathy. Some differences in participants’ specific attitudes toward animals were found. Limitations and implications for future research are reviewed.

scholarly journals Channelling discomfort through the arts: A Covid-19 case study through an intercultural telecollaboration project

2021 ◽  
pp. 136216882110582
Author(s):  
Melina Porto ◽  
Irina Golubeva ◽  
Michael Byram
Keyword(s):  
Intercultural Communication ◽  
Social Transformation ◽  
Affective Responses ◽  
Communication Education ◽  
Online Surveys ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Project Data ◽  
A Site

In this article we argue, in the context of the current dominance of the performative and instrumental drives characterizing the accountable university, that language and intercultural communication education in universities should also be humanistic, addressing ‘discomforting themes’ to sensitize students to issues of human suffering and engage them in constructive and creative responses to that suffering. We suggest that arts-based methods can be used and illustrate this with an intercultural telecollaboration project created in response to the Covid-19 pandemic of 2020. In this way language and intercultural communication education can become a site of personal and social transformation albeit modest and piecemeal as part of a longer process. Through arts-based methodologies and pedagogies of discomfort, Argentinian and US undergraduates explored how the theme of the Covid-19 crisis has been expressed artistically in their countries, and then communicated online, using English as their lingua franca, to design in mixed international groups artistic multimodal creations collaboratively to channel their suffering and trauma associated with the pandemic. This article analyses and evaluates the project. Data comprise the students’ artistic multimodal creations, their written statements describing their creations, and pre and post online surveys. Our findings indicate that students began a process of transformation of disturbing affective responses by creating artwork and engaging in therapeutic social and civic participation transnationally, sharing their artistic creations using social media. We highlight the powerful humanistic role of education involving artistic expression, movement, performativity, and community engagement in order to channel discomforting feelings productively at personal and social levels.

scholarly journals The Law of the Jungle: Advocating for Animals in Australia

2008 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 181 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Glasgow
Keyword(s):  
Animal Welfare ◽  
Animal Rights ◽  
Philosophical Foundation ◽  
Legal Regime ◽  
Animal Protection ◽  
The Law ◽  
A Site ◽  
Valuable Role

<p>A movement of activist ‘animal lawyers’ has recently arrived in Australia. This article contends that Australian lawyers have a significant role to play in advancing the animal protection cause. Part I discusses the philosophical foundation of the modern animal protection movement and describes the<br />important theoretical divide that splits it into animal ‘welfare’ and animal ‘rights’. Part II explains the Australian legal regime governing animal protection to show how the law acts as a site of exploitation. Part III explores the role of lawyers within the movement. It does this by appraising<br />the obstacles in the way of animal protectionism and exploring what makes an effective lawyer advocate. It then uses a case study of battery hens to demonstrate the valuable role lawyers can play to support the animal cause.</p>

scholarly journals Elementary Forms of Religious Life in Animal Rights Activism

2014 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 305-326 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kerstin Jacobsson
Keyword(s):  
Animal Rights ◽  
Belief Systems ◽  
Religious Life ◽  
Activist Group ◽  
Sacred And Profane ◽  
Animal Rights Activism ◽  
Secular Religion ◽  
Religious Elements ◽  
Symbolic Boundary

Many scholars have noted that secular belief systems, despite lack of a spiritual base, can possess qualities and display features similar to religion. The most well-known and forceful formulation of this is, arguably, Durkheim’s claim that elementary forms of religious life pervade collective life in all societies. This article suggests that animal rights activism can fruitfully be analyzed as an instance of “secular religion”. Drawing on Durkheim and based on a study of animal rights activists in Sweden, the article identifies a number of elementary forms and experiences of religious life in animal rights activism. These include overwhelming conversion experiences, a division of the world into sacred and profane, concern about protecting the sacred, commitment to spreading the message and living out one’s faith, the feeling that suffering and guilt have meaning, and the constitutive role of common symbols and rituals. The article argues that it is in the light of the activist group as a moral community formed around a sacred ideal that these religious elements are best understood. At the same time, the animal rights activists challenge established boundaries between sacred and profane, when dismantling the symbolic boundary between humans and animals.

Every Sparrow That Falls: Understanding Animal Rights Activism as Functional Religion

2000 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 305-330 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wesley Jamison ◽  
James Parker ◽  
Caspar Wenk
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Religious Belief ◽  
Animal Rights ◽  
The United States ◽  
Religious Movements ◽  
Original Research ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Animal Rights Activism ◽  
Meaningful Role

AbstractThis article reports original research conducted among animal rights activists and elites in Switzerland and the United States, and the finding that activism functioned in activists' and elites' lives like religious belief. The study used reference sampling to select Swiss and American informants. Various articles and activists have identified both latent and manifest quasi-religious components in the contemporary movement. Hence, the research followed upon these data and anecdotes and tested the role of activism in adherents' lives. Using extensive interviews, the research discovered that activists and elites conform to the five necessary components of Yinger's definition of functional religion: intense and memorable conversion experiences, newfound communities of meaning, normative creeds, elaborate and well-defined codes of behavior, and cult formation. The article elaborates on that schema in the context of animal rights belief, elucidates the deeply meaningful role of activism within a filigree of meaning, and concludes that the movement is facing schismatic forces not dissimilar to redemptive and religious movements

Animal Rights Activism and Animal Welfare Concerns in the Academic Setting: Levels of Activism and the Perceived Importance of Research with Animals

1995 ◽  
Vol 76 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-31 ◽  
Author(s):  
David M. Compton ◽  
Kerri L. Dietrich ◽  
Jeff S. Smith ◽  
Summer D. Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Animal Rights ◽  
Information Needs ◽  
Public Support ◽  
Past Research ◽  
Psychological Research ◽  
Animal Experimentation ◽  
Academic Community ◽  
Human Condition ◽  
Animal Rights Activism

Past research suggests that public support for the use of animal models as means to improve the human condition is present but many individuals have expressed ambivalence. In the present study, various sectors of the academic community (students and faculty) as well as the general population, were surveyed to assess their positions on the need for, and value of animal research, the value of psychological research in which animals are employed, and the respondents' consummatory habits. The results suggested that more information needs to be provided about the role of animal experimentation, including a discussion of the benefits produced by using animals to answer psychological questions.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document