Social Ties in Animal Politics: Mutuality Beyond Humanity
University of Sheffield 8-9 September 2026
Abstracts due 12 June.

Social and political relationships constitute the foundation of our shared communities. Yet, scholars working in the field of animal politics have not had these social ties as their primary focus. They have predominately highlighted the systematic injustice and exploitation that blight many of our relationships with nonhuman animals. This body of work has argued extensively for the rights of animals to fair treatment and political representation.

Although crucial, a focus on injustice leaves out the question of whether the numerous relational concepts traditionally reserved for human society — such as civic friendship, trust, and solidarity — can be meaningfully extended to nonhuman animals. The project of identifying and theorising injustice continues to be important, but a positive vision of what a just interspecies community would look like necessitates engagement with social ties. To reimagine and build a multispecies political community that works for us all, we must begin exploring the actual, lived quality of the social and political relationships that bind humans and animals together, or set us apart.

To that end, this conference seeks to investigate the everyday reality of coexistence with animals by exploring the diverse range of social, political, and institutional relationships between us. By thinking about the limits and potential of existing interspecies encounters, we hope to unearth the conceptual and critical resources needed to rethink our shared social and political life with animals.

Doing so requires us to engage with the idea that we are co-participants who share in social ties with nonhuman others. But there are profound challenges to any possible vision of mutuality beyond humanity. For example, can the inescapable asymmetries in power, or the significant communicative and epistemic barriers between species, be overcome to realise a genuine interspecies politics?

We will bring together scholars of animal ethics, animal politics, and cognate disciplines to explore these and related questions, including but not limited to:

• In what ways do human-animal social relationships contribute to a flourishing political community? How do these relationships serve individual and collective interests in health, happiness, and community?
• Can positive relational concepts like civic friendship or co-citizenship be meaningfully extended to non-human animals? Are interspecies relations of trust, civility, and tolerance possible?
• How, if at all, should negative relational concepts like aggression, incivility, or contempt be applied to animals? If animals can be our companions and our friends, can they also be our enemies?
• Is interspecies solidarity possible? Can humans and animals have mutual goodwill towards one another?  Can we have alliances with animals?
• Why might mutuality with domesticated animals differ from with wild animals? Should we pursue relationships with wild animals, or is mutuality undesirable? On what terms might it be acceptable?
• Can humans and animals engage in mutually creative and cultural relationships? Can humans and animals play, learn and co-create?
• Are relations of mutuality possible if there are profound asymmetries in power and cognitive ability between humans and animals? Can farmers, for example, be friends with those animals that they exploit? Can humans be friends with mice?
• How do the concepts of love and care challenge or complicate traditional ways of thinking about justice for animals? 
• How should ethical theory account for the inherent dangers and exploitation present in many human-animal relationships, even those defined by intimacy? Can animals be exploited? Do animals have an interest in noninferiority?
• How might emerging technologies facilitate, improve or harm relationships with animals? How, if at all, should AI be used to transform relationships with animals? How might animals need protection from these developments?

This is the latest in a series of longstanding annual ‘Animal Politics’ conferences. Details on past events (since 2010) can be found here: https://josh-milburn.com/animal-politics/ 

Organisers: Alasdair Cochrane (University of Sheffield); Steve Cooke (University of Leicester); Sara van Goozen (University of York); Josh Milburn (Loughborough University); Angie Pepper (Roehampton University); Matt Perry (University of Sheffield).

Please send anonymised abstracts of no more than 300 words to m.w.perry@sheffield.ac.uk by end of day Friday 12th June. Please include your name and affiliation in the body of your email. Abstracts should be suitable for a 30 minute presentation and will be subject to a blind review process. Successful proposals will be notified by 30th June.

There are no fees to attend, but please register or submit an abstract by emailing the organisers. Refreshments and a buffet lunch will be provided. This conference is gratefully funded by a Mind Association Conference Grant, as well as a contribution from a Wellcome Trust grant on Multispecies Mutualisms held at the University of Sheffield.

We are committed to making the event welcoming for everyone by adhering to the BPA/SWiP Guidelines for Accessible Conferences and the BPA/SWiP Good Practice Scheme. For more information, please get in touch with the organisers.

Abstract

Despite being strong, arguments for animal rights often fail to motivate. One reason for this is that rights are associated with concepts, such as respect, that are difficult to apply to nonhuman animals. These concepts are difficult to apply because they are implicitly grounded in the special status of humans. Respect for persons includes an element of reverence-based respect. The human/animal dichotomy is reinforced by cultural forces and farming practices that strip nonhuman animals of individuality and render their lives mundane, invisible, and uninteresting. To facilitate progress towards justice for nonhuman animals, this article proposes cultivating and safeguarding an attitude of wonder towards individual animals. Feelings of wonder, it is argued, have the potential to spark a shift in moral perspective and ground a form of reverence-based respect for nonhuman animals.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/japp.70040

When I first encountered slaughterhouse vigils, I thought them a somewhat pointless & self-indulgent form of protest. But, as thinking carefully & reading accounts, I changed my mind. I now think these protests can send a powerful signal about the moral status of nonhuman animals. They do this by signalling that the suffering & death of nonhuman animals can be worthy of grief & attention.

Despite changing my mind about slaughterhouse vigils, I still think the commonest form, practiced by the Animal Save Movement, is too broad & demanding. In large part, this is because it has its roots in the idea of Christian witness. My paper develops a secular form of witnessing to address this.

The paper: ‘Bearing witness, animal rights and the slaughterhouse vigil’ is open access: journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10…. I also wrote a short summary for the Vegan Society, which is here: https://www.vegansociety.com/get-involved/research/research-news/vigils-and-witnessing-animal-rights-activism

The political turn has challenged the anthropocentric bias of political philosophy, forcing political theorists to notice nonhuman animals. Consequently, animal ethics is now more mainstream in political philosophy and political philosophy more mainstream in academic conversations about animals. But, while inroads have been made to extend political philosophy beyond humanity, the project of making animals visible has only just begun. As part of this project, this conference brings together political philosophers and scholars from cognate areas under the theme of ‘forgotten animals’. 

We propose to discuss topics including, but not limited to:

• Animals overlooked by scholars of animal politics. This might include invertebrate animals; marine animals; animals not yet born (or those long dead); or non-sentient animals.
• The exclusion of animals from established areas of inquiry, such as international political theory, the problems of political authority and legitimacy, relations of power, paternalism etc.
• Political traditions that have yet to fully grapple with questions of animal rights, including conservatism, libertarianism, communitarianism, and realism.
• Issues of philosophical method. What does inclusive animal politics look like? When are generalisations about animals problematic or even politically dangerous? How might we talk about ‘animals’ without denying the diversity and difference in the animal kingdom?
• Political philosophers whose work offers potential for inclusion in the political turn despite not directly addressing the animals issue, or whose work on animal politics has been neglected or overlooked.

Keynote speakers: Saskia Stucki and Chris Armstrong.

Organisers: Angie Pepper, Josh Milburn, Matthew Perry, Sara van Goozen, Alasdair Cochrane, Steve Cooke. 

Please send abstracts of no more than 300 words to smc77@le.ac.uk by end of day Friday 13th June. Abstracts should be suitable for a 30 minute presentation and will be subject to a blind review process. Successful proposals will be notified by 30th June.

Refreshments and a buffet lunch will be provided. Conference fees will be dependent upon numbers, but we anticipate these being no more than £40.

A small number of bursaries will be available for early career scholars and those on precarious contracts to help with conference fees and accommodation. If you wish to be considered for a bursary please indicate this and include a sentence or two explaining why with your abstract.

The conference is sponsored by the Society for Applied Philosophy. Publications arising from the event should acknowledge the Society for Applied Philosophy. We aim to make the conference accessible in accordance with the BPA/SWIP guidelines.

https://philevents.org/event/show/133354