Animalizing Sociology

As the discipline of sociology took place, the changes witnessed by the modern period affected not just the organization of human life, but also the ways we relate to non-human animals. The processes of urbanization and industrialization, the exploitation of labour and resources fundamental to capitalism, our understandings of what it means to be human and live a social, or a 'civilized' life are all multi-species processes. This book surveys some of the key thinkers within the classical tradition of social theory, who, in spite of their different ontological and epistemological positions, all understood the social in terms of human endeavour. Accepting and critically engaging with the anthropocentrism of their thought, Animalizing Sociology rejects the idea of dismissing the sociological tradition when seeking to understand our relationship with other animals, advocating instead that we reinvent social theory. It draws upon the conceptual riches and insights found in the work of the most famous and influential theorists in sociology to examine the ever-increasing scale and severity of the exploitation of animals, thus raising key questions of sociology and its past and future projects.