Format/Structure

We expect 3-5 presentations of apprx 12 mins each plus time for discussion.

Long Abstract

This panel will explore the diverse ways that political ecologists examine and articulate the complex relationships that constitute contemporary animal agricultural production. These cover various forms of production and their associated value chains, and span local-to-global relationships. Much recent work on animal agriculture has drawn from environmental humanities, political economy, and food systems research. This panel will open a conversation between political ecology and adjacent fields, such as critical animal studies, multispecies studies, animal geography and anthropology. Key concerns include chemical production and use in animal ag. and subsequent contamination, worsening zoonotic disease emergence and spread, rising antimicrobial resistance, and persistent questions of human and non-human justice. The panel will draw on current empirical material and fieldwork to generate new insights on methodological innovation, narrative practice, and convergences across related fields. It will explore how political ecologists can better study and represent human-animal relationships, how these experiences and relationships are narrated, and emerging conceptual insights on how animals are situated in relation to social and political worlds.

Papers will address one or more of the following questions:

- What are the state-of-the-art approaches and ongoing challenges for political ecologists to examine animal production systems and animals’ positions in these local/global value chains?

- How can we move beyond the framing of animals as ‘protein’ and ‘meat’ to consider alternative ways of seeing human-animal relations, and to generate and nourish alternatives?

- How can our findings be articulated in ways that provoke new ways of thinking and praxis for political ecologists and broader society?

This Panel has 7 pending paper proposals.
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