The interspecies gap: Designing out harm in post-capitalist futures
Post-growth economic paradigms (in particular degrowth, the wellbeing economy and doughnut economics) provide pathways to a better future for all.
Karen Singleton - PhD Candidate in Criminology - Te Herenga Waka, Victoria University of Wellington
The polycrisis affords an opportunity to redesign our economy to meet individual and social wellbeing needs within planetary boundaries. Post-growth economic paradigms (in particular degrowth, the wellbeing economy and doughnut economics) provide pathways to a better future for all. Nonhuman animals, however, are rarely part of the post-growth discourse. Yet, without deliberate intervention during institutional design phases post-growth frameworks risk embedding the same instrumental and anthropocentric (human exceptionalist) assumptions that systemically kill animals in their trillions while locking-in harm and violence for generations to come.
I will explain why it is vital they are included as sentient individuals and explore the harm of animal capitalism and the animal-industrial complex. I will talk about my upcoming research which will explore nonhuman animal visibility/invisibility within post-growth scholarship and the importance of language. My research will conclude with the importance of creating new and inclusive future imaginaries for nonhuman animals within a post-capitalist world.
Karen is a PhD Candidate in Criminology.
This seminar will be held ‘in person’.