She likes animals: The construction of veganism, a feminist analysis.
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.11157/anzswj-vol37iss1id1217Keywords:
Vegan, social justice, social work, autoethnography, feministAbstract
INTRODUCTION: This article explores the changes witnessed in the socio-cultural and political landscape related to animal rights/animal justice/animal liberation movements and provides a critical analysis of the notion that the topic of animals in social work is somehow a peripheral or fringe issue.
APPROACH: An autoethnographic approach is employed to examine the construction of veganism and animal justice/liberation within social work. The author reflects on her own personal journey as a vegan for more than 30 years and a vegan social worker for the past 20 years.
CONCLUSIONS: Using a narrative drawn from the author’s own experience and informed by a critical intersectional feminist approach, this article uses key moments of tension, disruption, marginalisation or expansion as a vegan social worker within academia to explore how various discourses of ‘othering’ contribute to areas of both acceptance and resistance within social work toward inclusion of consideration of animals.
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