If Not Rights, Then What?: Glorifying the Rights-Based Approach to Animal Protection (1)

About

Professor Cochrane and Dr Cojocaru will be speaking about concepts they explore in a recently published edited collection called Solidarity with Animals: Promises, Pitfalls and Potential. The concept of ‘solidarity’ has received considerable scholarly attention in many social justice movements but has been underexplored in the context of animal protection. Focussing on the recent ‘political turn’ in animal ethics, this collection of essays advances the field in two key ways: (1) it emphasizes that mutually beneficial human-animal relations cannot rely solely on personal transformation, but also require institutional transformation; and (2) to meaningfully improve the lives of animals, we must not only change our political systems, but better understand animals’ own perspectives and political agency to feed into ‘more-than-human-politics’. The book and the presentation will focus on how solidarity can be a key concept in advancing these ideas.

Speaker

Alasdair Cochrane is a Professor of Political Theory at the University of Sheffield. His primary research interests lie in the area of ‘animal politics’, which involves thinking not only about how politics impacts upon and harms the lives of non-human animals, but also how the tools of political power – political ideas and structures, institutions, and policies – might be harnessed to ensure that they enjoy flourishing lives. He has published four single-authored books, and numerous articles and chapters on the issue. His OUP book, Sentient Politics, won the Susan Strange best book for 2019.

Mara-Daria Cojocaru is both a philosopher and award-winning poet from Germany, affiliated as Privatdozentin with the Munich School of Philosophy, working with dogs in the UK while she develops an ‘animal informed philosophy’ – a blend of philosophical and creative writing that is not just about, but with and for other animals. In addition to political philosophy, philosophical pragmatism, and the philosophy of emotion, animal ethics and politics is her area of specialization.

Format

The talk is hybrid in nature so you can attend in person or online.

• 17:00 -18:15 – Talk by Prof Cochrane and Dr Cojocaru followed by a Q&A (available in person and online)

• 18:15 – 19:00 – Refreshments and networking (only available in person)

The Multispecies Collective Dialogue Series

The Multispecies Collective Dialogue Series is our series of events that shines a spotlight on non-members’ research or practice toward multispecies flourishing.