Unsere Projekte
Translating Mercy for Animals' Transfarmation Resources for Farmers
Transfarmation Austria is translating Mercy for Animals' "Resources for Farmers" into German so that they are accessible to an even wider audience.
Project members: Claudia Hirtenfelder, Soňa Kalafusova, Lisa Hofko
The Case of Anti-Speciesism at Vegan Animal Sanctuaries
This project explores how institutional change can be driven through the body, affect, and relational practice. Drawing on a qualitative, inductive study of vegan animal sanctuaries in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, we introduce the concept of embodied institutional work. Through ethnographic fieldwork and analysis of (audio)visual and social media material, we identify three key mechanisms—embodied empathizing, embodied de-anonymization, and embodied prefiguration—that challenge speciesist institutional norms and prefigure alternative multispecies relations. Our work contributes conceptually to institutional theory and animal organization studies, and methodologically to the integration of rational and affective, traditional and posthuman approaches in organization studies.
Project members: Doris Schneeberger , Daniel Semper, Lee Jarvis.
Transfarming Toward Sanctuaries
One option for farmers who seek to transition away from animal agricultural operations toward more sustainable and ethical practices is to establish sanctuaries for the animals in their charge. This process of 'transfarmation' raises important questions about the legal protection granted to animals in farms and sanctuaries. In this project, we (Zipporah Weisberg and Sona Kalafusova) explore the limitations of the legal framework governing farmed animals in sanctuaries across Europe. We argue that a novel legal category is required to encapsulate the specific rights and entitlements owed to sanctuary animals. To that end, we explore the pros and cons of categories such as legal persons, legal beings, and refugees, among others, for understanding the status of sanctuary animals. Importantly, our aim is not to suggest that exploited farmed animals should be abandoned to their fate as property without the right to life (or any other meaningful rights). To the contrary, our hope is that by establishing a distinct legal (and political) status for formerly farmed animals residing in sanctuaries, the foundation will be laid for the attribution of the same status to all farmed animals.
Project members: Zipporah Weisberg and Soňa Kalafusova
Lecture Series: Understanding Transfarmation Models
Sanctuaries are one model employed by farmers undertaking transfarmation, the transition away from animal agricultural production. Others involve a move toward veganic and market gardening or specialization in the production of soy or mushrooms. This project, involves learning from farmers and produces about their experiences through a series of pre-recorded panel discussions.
Project members: Claudia Hirtenfelder
