I’ve been going through, issue-by-issue, the major sociology journals since 1975 looking at the treatment of animal related themes. Needless to say, there isn’t much. I’ll post about this research later. Here’s a great passage I came across today:
I don’t normally insert graphics of quotations, but I didn’t think anyone would believe me! And, if you can believe it, the passage comes from a contribution to a symposium on social movements and organizational theory. Go see for yourself!
Charles Perrow “An Organizational Analysis of Organizational Theory,” Contemporary Sociology 28, no. 3 (2000): 473.
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I do believe that pet animals are sold in boutiques, yes. And animal parts are sold in boutiques as well. I don’t know what that has to do with animal rights.
That could be taken the wrong way. I mean it has everything to do with animals’ lack of rights.
He isn’t using boutique to refer to a store, but to refer to a small, fashionable specialty with implications that it is self-indulgent and decadent. He means that animals are not properly a concern for sociology and sociologists.
If you are looking for more literature on animal rights, it is an emergent theme in what has been called ‘green criminology’ particularly with the work of Piers Beirne, who is one of the editors of Theoretical Criminology.
I don’t know if this will be helpful, or if you are looking for sociology-specific articles, but thought if it could help…
Yes, I know of Beirne’s work and am looking forward to the new book. I’ll be using some of his work on “inter-species sexual assault” in my first year class. For this project, I’m limiting myself to sociology specifically. Criminology is a fairly autonomous field in sociology, but the problems enter when we take the fairly interdisciplinary nature of criminology into account: e.g., psychology, economics, political science. Further, green criminology seems even more marginal in criminology than animal studies is in sociology! Even with Beirne editing “Theoretical Criminology,” there has not been much other than his and Ted Benton’s work.
You’re in Ottawa’s criminology program (on the basis of your comment and email address)? Is anyone teaching green criminology there?
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