‘Until every cage is empty’: frames of justice in the radical animal liberation movement

Johnston, Genevieve; Johnston, Matthew S.

doi:10.1080/10282580.2020.1719361

Cited by 2 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…Ultimately, CAS strives for liberation for all, human and non-human under what is theorised to be the innately oppressive system of global capitalism (Nibert, 2017; Nocella et al, 2014). Linking these ideas to activism, Johnston and Johnston (2017, 2020) have called into question existing discourses which position animal rights activism as an extremist, single-issue movement. In doing so, this serves to delegitimate and make it easier to dismiss these campaigns (Del Gandio and Nocella, 2014).…”

Section: Theoretical Framework: Green-cultural Criminology and Animal...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In doing so, this serves to delegitimate and make it easier to dismiss these campaigns (Del Gandio and Nocella, 2014). Having twice conducted large scale content analyses of documents produced by North American radical animal rights groups, Johnston and Johnston (2017, 2020) identified an abundance of evidence of the ways animal rights activists embrace intersectional goals, form alliances with other radical social movements, and campaign against multiple forms of oppression such as sexism and racism, supporting this total liberation narrative, countering perceptions of animal rights struggle as being reductive in its concerns.…”

Section: Theoretical Framework: Green-cultural Criminology and Animal...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The Animal Liberation Front (ALF) is perhaps the most well-known element within the global animal rights movement today (Best and Nocella, 2004; Johnston and Johnston, 2020). As opposed to resembling a traditional group with established leadership positions and hierarchies, the ALF represents a form of leaderless resistance.…”

Section: Introduction and Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Within this, independent, autonomous cells and individuals engage in action unilaterally, providing it adheres to the key principles of the movement. 1 Common tactics include freeing animals from farms and sabotaging equipment used in animal industries (Johnston and Johnston, 2020). Websites like Bite Back serve as a useful resource for informing others about animal liberation activism.…”

Section: Introduction and Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Drawing on Johnston and Johnston’s (2020) methodological approach, this article adopts a green-cultural criminological lens to examine the way animal liberation activists represent and construct their actions in defence of non-human animals. These acts occur in a context of the social and legal ‘acceptability’ of violence towards non-human animals (Cudworth, 2015), the criminalisation of animal liberation and environmental activism (Schlemach et al, 2019; Stephens Griffin, 2021), and takes place against an increasingly catastrophic ecological backdrop, in which the consequences climate change and other environmental problems impact at an alarming rate (IPCC, 2021).…”

Section: Introduction and Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Biting back: A green-cultural criminology of animal liberation struggle as constructed through online communiques

Stephens-Griffin

2022

Crime, Media, Culture

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This article conceptualises animal liberation direct action in green-cultural criminological terms. To do this, it draws on Johnston and Johnston’s methodological approach and undertakes qualitative content analysis of animal liberation communiqués published on the website, Bite Back. Whilst a significant body of scholarly literature has discussed animal liberation struggles, this article develops an understanding of these often-criminal acts and events within a cultural criminological context. Findings from this analysis reveal three themes. First, activists variously resist and embrace the state and media’s ‘terrorisation’ and discursive delegitimating of animal liberation struggle. Activists wilfully play on the framing of themselves as terrorists. Second, activists are also able to re-contextualise what might otherwise be seen as minor, apolitical events into a much broader liberation struggle. Third, animal liberation activism is frequently and explicitly connected to other emancipatory struggles. To conclude, the article argues that animal liberation activists engage in direct action on a local level, and strategically promote hyper localised instances of direct action globally through online communiqués. In doing so, animal liberation activists engage in a ‘prefigurative integration’ of what might otherwise be dismissed as isolated hyper local ‘petty events’ within a global struggle against violence, exploitation and oppression.

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Section: Theoretical Framework: Green-cultural Criminology and Animal...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Theoretical Framework: Green-cultural Criminology and Animal...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introduction and Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introduction and Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introduction and Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Biting back: A green-cultural criminology of animal liberation struggle as constructed through online communiques

Stephens-Griffin

2022

Crime, Media, Culture

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“I believe a cage is a cage and no one deserves to be put in one”: Animal Liberation in Contemporary Film

Petković¹

2021

Art+Media

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The paper analyses diametrically opposite portrayals of animal liberation in four contemporary films (Denis Henry Hennelly’s Bold Native (2010); Kornél Mundruczó’s White God (2014); Chris Renaud’s The Secret Life of Pets (2016), and Joon-ho Bong’s 2017 Okja). The discussion of the films’ “politics of visibility” and its role in animal liberation is informed by the theoretical work being done in the field of critical animal studies (CAS). In CAS, animal liberation, also known as abolitionism, refers to the ethical and political position which rejects all kinds of human use of nonhuman animals; as such, it is at the basis of the animal rights movement and various forms of related activism, primarily the “direct action” of physically rescuing animals from factory farms and research laboratories. Dedicated to animals’ liberty, abolitionism is nonetheless human-centered and is obviously treated as such in Bold Native and Okja, which both romanticize and explore the pitfalls of militant animal rights activism, while deploying the images of nonhuman animals mainly, though not exclusively, as victims. Yet the phrase “animal liberation” in this paper also refers to to the state in which former pets find themselves once they are liberated from generally abusive human ownership. Former pets no longer under human supervision are either ridiculed, as exemplified by Renaud’s Flushed Pets, or, as in White God, depicted as monstrous and bloodthirsty. These portrayals, it is argued, convey the danger and threat a liberated animal poses to the anthropocentric order. Article received: April 22, 2021: Article accepted: June 21, 2021; Published online: September 15, 2021; Original scholarly paper

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‘Until every cage is empty’: frames of justice in the radical animal liberation movement

Cited by 2 publications

References 32 publications

Biting back: A green-cultural criminology of animal liberation struggle as constructed through online communiques

Biting back: A green-cultural criminology of animal liberation struggle as constructed through online communiques

“I believe a cage is a cage and no one deserves to be put in one”: Animal Liberation in Contemporary Film

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