Finalized Program for 2020 Conference

Title: Worldly Togetherness? Showcasing sociological contributions to understanding multispecies entanglements

Date: August 7^{th –} 8^th 2020

Location: Online

To further the creation of a sustainable and just world, and for the advancement of science, the question posed by Alfred McClung Lee, “Sociology for whom?” should be answered: sociology for all humans and other animals

David Nibert (2003, p.22)

Forty years ago, Clifton Bryant challenged sociologists to address their neglect of the ‘zoological connection’ in order to better understand the social world we share with other animals. In the decades that followed, socio-ecological studies of animals – that have developed the sociological imagination in different ways – have grown significantly. As a result, we have a burgeoning body of research to inform our understandings of multispecies entanglements as they relate to various social contexts. This ranges from insights on lived inter-species relationships and the structural conditions that underpin them, to the complex interplay of resistance and conformity that accompany any struggle towards a sustainable and just world. This collective knowledge has never been more needed than it is right now. 2020 has been a year of cataclysms and crises, with pandemics, bushfires, floods and other manifestations of our changing climate wreaking havoc on the integrity and stability of social and ecological systems. These disturbances are unmistakably intertwined with more-than-human relations and how living entities engage with and impact on the materiality of the world. We can no longer choose to ignore the zoological connection, nor the devastating impacts humans have had on our shared planet. The pursuit of a sustainable and just world cannot be postponed any longer.

This is a discussion that sociologists working in multispecies fields are well placed to inform. To this end, the Australian Sociological Association’s ‘Sociology & Animals Thematic Group’, the American Sociological Association’s ‘Society & Animals Section’ and the Canadian Sociological Association’s ‘Animals in Society’ research cluster have united to present an online showcase of cutting-edge research in the animal studies domain. This event will bring together research and researchers that critically explore aspects of human-nonhuman animal entanglements, and it will broadcast this research to a wide audience so that this research might inform pursuits of a more just and sustainable future: whatever that might transpire to be. We welcome presentation proposals from scholars conducting sociological research that is for nonhuman animals, including (but not limited to):

References:

David Nibert, (2003) “Humans and other animals: sociology’s moral and intellectual challenge”, International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, Vol. 23 Issue: 3, pp.4-25, https://doi.org/10.1108/0144333031079023

 

Federica Timeto, Ca’ Foscari University
A Naturalcultural Bestiary of Agencies

Jonathan Turnbull and Adam Searle, University of Cambridge
Nature Buffering: Liveness, Liveliness, and the Digital Animal Encounter

Briohny Walker and Ruby Grant, University of Tasmania
“I Know the Animals… and It Feels like Home”: A Qualitative Analysis of Older Lesbians’ Inter-species Community in Rural Tasmania

Corey Wrenn, University of Kent
A Survey of American Sociologists

Roger Yates, University College Dublin
The Battle of Ideas. The Generational Fight for the Heart of Veg