The Network for Critical Animal Studies in Finland
The network, founded in 2017, brings together Finnish researchers interested in different aspects of critical animal studies (CAS). The aim is to strengthen critical animal studies as a research field, enhance collaboration between researchers, and support researchers’ participation in societal discussions and activism. In 2018, the network started a project funded by the Kone Foundation, and the Eläimiksi website was created as a part of that project.

What is critical animal studies?
Critical animal studies has its roots in human-animal studies, a growing field both in Finland and internationally. For a long time, non-human animals were regarded as outside the social and cultural spheres and were excluded from social analysis. Due to this, the social and cultural significance of these animals – and their value as individuals – has been underestimated or ignored completely. However, our rapidly increasing understanding of other animals’ cognitive and social abilities is now forcing us to reassess how we view non-human animals and their status.

Unlike human-animal studies, however, critical animal studies is explicitly critical towards the current status of non-human animals and aims to improve it. Critical animal studies emphasises the political aspect of research and calls attention to the inequality between species. The aim is to demolish unjust power relations and discriminatory practices, and to promote interspecies justice.

Critical animal studies is a multidisciplinary research field, bringing together researchers from social and educational sciences, humanities, law and arts. The field has been influenced by the critical approaches in e.g. social sciences and cultural and art studies. Critical animal studies researchers often utilise posthumanist theories, which question the prevalent anthropocentric practices and human-animal dualism. Intersectional research is also common within the field: species is viewed as one of several intersecting categories such as race, gender and class, and thus e.g. speciesism, racism, sexism and classism (and the related power relations) are analysed as intertwined phenomena. Critical animal studies has developed the concept of ‘carnism’ and analysed veganism as a new way for humans of being in the world with other animals.

 

The Network for Critical Animal Studies in Finland is also
in Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Kriittinenelaintutkimus/
and in X: https://twitter.com/CASfinland.

You can send an email to the network at info(at)elaimiksi.fi
and to the editorial team at toimitus(at)elaimiksi.fi.

To join the network’s mailing list, please contact info(at)elaimiksi.fi.
To become a member of the network, please fill out the membership application form at https://www.elaimiksi.fi/liity-jaseneksi/ (only in Finnish ATM, sorry!)