Dr Richard White from the RAC discusses the concepts of critical animal geographies and vegan geographies.
For many people the word "Geography" evokes (fond?) school day memories sitting in classrooms learning facts about the world’s longest rivers or highest mountains; where polar bears live and where pyramids are found. No doubt there would also be a strong association of drawing and creatively colouring in maps: green for land, blue for sea! If we were asked to reflect on all this, and suggest what the essence of Geography “is”, then we might find a consensus that geographers have a particular interest in "things" (objects, people), and how these things relate to space, place, and scale (we're coming back to the 'mapping' again). While this may be broadly true, I would also venture that many readers of this article would express surprise at the tremendous diversity of approaches in how geographers have looked to engage and explore these relationships. For example, "my" discipline of human geography, in distinction to "physical" geography, has traditionally focused on the ways in which humans (no surprises there!) both influence - and been influenced by - place, space, and the environment. However, my identity as a ‘human’ geographer only carries so far, for my research and interests are keenly rooted in a vibrant sub-field of "critical" or "radical" geographies: a field of engagement, it might be noted, never taught at school. It is developments within these dynamic and often confrontational approaches that I want to draw attention to in this article. Before doing so it is worth acknowledging how geography is remarkably inter-disciplinary in its nature, taking great inspiration from a range of social sciences, from sociology and history to economics, politics, and moral philosophy. This same openness to ideas and influence applies across the critical animal geographies and vegan geographies literature too, not least in relation to critical animal studies (see Nocella et.al, 2014; Taylor and Twine, 2014).
Critical Animal Geographies
A long-standing interest in the lives of nonhuman animals can be seen in geography. However, this interest has largely been confined to "where do polar bears live" zoological mapping exercises that, no doubt, did make the compulsory school curriculum! Against this, however, a notably ‘ethical’ dimension has emerged over the last generation: a dimension that is increasingly inspiring geographers to approach, understand, and explore ‘our’ relationships with other animals. These geographers take seriously the need to fully consider "the plight of the [nonhuman] animals" (Wolch and Emel (1998, p. xi). As a helpful contrast to mainstream animal geographies, these approaches have been labelled under the umbrella term "critical animal geographies”. The 2015 publication of Critical Animal Geographies by Kathryn Gillespie and Rosemary-Claire Collard is an excellent overview of the past, present, and possible future interventions pertinent to consciously critical animal geography, and is highly recommended. While critical animal geographers embrace a multitude of theories and approaches, a common foundation for many lies both the desire "to live without places of violence" (White, 2015, 214), and a question: "How can we more justly share space?" (Collard and Gillespie, 2015, 8).
In keeping with broader radical and critical approaches, critical animal geographers impress upon broader academic, policy-making, and activist communities the importance of bringing questions of spatial justice to the fore, whenever talking about social justice (see Matsuoka and Sorenson, 2018). The central argument here is that we must re-think our assumptions about space: space is never neutral or indifferent to the social context that is being played out; rather it is always active and alive in ways that open up or close down opportunities for change. In the context of animal suffering and ethical calls to "go vegan" for example, we can quickly see how geography might be a central factor. For example, we might reflect on the implications contained within Carol Adams's reflection: "Geographically, slaughterhouses are cloistered. We do not see or hear what transpires there." (Adams, 1990, 49), and think of how many places of violence are deliberately private and hidden from public view. It is easy to see how trying to raise public consciousness about these 'hidden' acts, in an effort to change hearts and minds, for example, inform many types of engaged activism and educational outreach.
Similarly, we might be encouraged to adopt a critical geographical gaze to think more consciously about how the freedom of sentient beings are frequently violently denied through their bodies being subjected to spatial containment: whether it be a male calf separated from his mother and penned in a 22″ x 54″ 'veal' crate, or elephants being incarcerated in zoos (see Morin, 2015). Geography is always present in these moments and entangled in complex and problematic ways with these violent relations. If we can recognise "how" and "in what way" more fully, then we stand a far greater chance of successfully confronting and transgressing such violent human-animal encounters. Importantly the care and concern of critical animal geographers are constantly evolving and extending. Some particularly significant work, for example, has begun to focus on the broader landscapes of posthuman communities: ensuring that the question of social-spatial justice is relevant for all forms of life, including insects (see Gunderman and White, 2021).
There are several prominent critical animal geographers who (and in keeping with many critical animal studies scholars) have found inspiration in drawing on anarchist theory and action ("praxis") (e.g. Gunderman and White, 2021; Veron and White, 2021; Springer 2021). It has been particularly pleasing from this perspective to see the work of two brilliant anarchist geographers, Peter Kropotkin (1842-1921) and Élisée Reclus (1830-1905) being re-visited and applied to the challenges that we face in the here and now. Writing at a time before the word veganism was brought into the world (see The Vegan Society, 2014) Reclus authored a wonderful pamphlet, On Vegetarianism (1901, n.p.), which contained a series of passionate and persuasive arguments for people to embrace beauty and reject their flesh-eating habits. One of these remains as simple as it is powerful:
The horse and the cow, the rabbit and the cat, the deer and the hare, the pheasant and the lark, please us better as friends than as meat. We wish to preserve them either as respected fellow-workers, or simply as companions in the joy of life and friendship.
More generally, their attempts to emphasise the striking similarities and communalities between species, particularly in Kropotkin's (1902 [2012]) reflections on Mutual Aid and Mutual Support that unite humans and other animals in the struggle for life still have resonance and value when envisaging, articulating, and enacting post-speciesist vegan geographies in the 21st century.
Vegan Geographies
It is of no surprise - given the scholar-activist identity of many prominent critical animal geographers and their research - to see an important aspect within this field responding to the question as to how and in what ways can geography can contribute to a deeper understanding of critical veganism and vegan praxis (see Giraud, 2021; Hodge et. al, n.d, forthcoming; Veron, 2016, White, 2017, Narayanan, 2018; Springer; 2019). Importantly, vegan geographers have – and continue to - actively seek out an explicitly intersectional approach to their work. For example, when focusing on spaces of animal (ab)use, violence, and exploitation embedded in particular sites - the slaughterhouse - critical animal geographers have been keen to extend that critique to include the human animal. What are the human geographies here, narrated along lines of class, or race and gender for example? Who gets to work in the slaughterhouse (typically the most vulnerable and marginalised in society) and how do these experiences affect them? Increasingly research has begun to uncover the acute levels of suffering that individuals, families, and communities consequently bear. These include post-traumatic stress disorders, higher levels of alcohol and drug dependency, domestic violence, crime, ill health, and so on (see Nagesh, 2017; Newkey-Burden, 2018). In this way, "to be" vegan reflects an important ethical commitment to human justice.
In terms of broader vegan geographies, there are ongoing critical reflections toward barriers to veganism, and how these might be addressed. On one level, a deeper understanding of the social and cultural norms that can be drawn upon to help vegan geographies in new inclusive ways are also at the forefront of enquiry. How can veganism be extended to include a greater diversity of representation among underrepresented groups and communities in important and empowering ways (see Harper (2016)? On another level, these engagements might lead to interrogating the existing political-economic structures that underpin the provision of food. If government subsidies were invested away from factory farming, and toward organic vegan produce for example, what important differences could this make vis-a-vis accessibility and affordability? In this context, an exceptionally sharp narrative has emerged in response to the question of whether it is possible to move toward a more evolved vegan society under capitalism. Here there exists emergent literature that problematises the rise of veganism in ways that are promoted across mainstream society as a "lifestyle", rather than an ongoing (ethical) commitment to exclude all forms of exploitation (see White, 2017, 2018).
Conclusion
Hopefully, for many readers, these brief reflections have opened up a new understanding of "geography", one that extends traditional formative classroom encounters with the subject. Needless to say, there are many key questions in need of addressing when thinking about critical animal geographies, vegan geographers, and the challenge of ending animal suffering in a largely speciesist world (here, readers might also be interested in Hovorka et.al. 2021 publication ‘A Research Agenda for Animal Geographies). That an increasingly diverse intersectional critical animal and vegan geographies are in ascendency at this present time though offers great comfort and hope that we might be able to better articulate, understand more fully, and move purposefully toward a fully vegan society in the future. If there is just one thing to take from this article, let it be this: whenever we think about questions of trans-species social justice, let us be more mindful of an inherently spatial praxis that is at work here. In short, geography matters. I am hopeful that if more academics, policy-makers, and activists alike embrace and think through the implications of this, this will help strengthen our collective efforts to achieve the liberatory goals we are so desperately working toward.
REFERENCES
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Giraud, E.V. (2021) Veganism: Politics, Practice and Theory. Bloomsbury: London.
Gunderman, H. and White, R. J. (2021) "Critical posthumanism for all: a call to reject insect speciesism", International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, Vol. 41 No. 3/4, pp. 489-505. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSSP-09-2019-0196
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