Veganism: Politics, Practice, and Theory

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What exactly do vegans believe Why has veganism become such a critical and criticized social movement, and how does veganism correspond to wider debates about sustainability, animal studies, and the media Eva Haifa Giraud offers an accessible route into the debates that surround vegan politics, which feed into broader issues surrounding food activism and social justice. Giraud engages with arguments in favor of veganism, as well as the criticisms levelled at vegan politics. She interrogates debates and topics that are central to conversations around veganism, including identity, intersectional politics, and activism, with research drawn from literary animal studies, animal geographies, ecofeminism, posthumanism, critical race theory, and new materialism. Giraud makes an original theoretical intervention into these often fraught debates, and argues that veganism holds radical political potential to act as more than a diet by disrupting commonplace norms and assumptions about how humans relate to animals. Drawing on a range of examples, from recipe books with punk aesthetics to social media campaigns, Giraud shows how veganism's radical potential is being complicated by its commercialization, and elucidates new conceptual frameworks for reclaiming veganism as a radical social movement.

Reviews

Giraud's navigation of veganism's politics and its move into the mainstream offers invaluable insight into the nuances of veganism's various manifestations. * LSE Review of Books *
To date, this critically important work represents perhaps the most comprehensive and theoretically nuanced survey of the culture and politics of veganism. Of particular merit is Eva Haifa Girauds careful attention to questions of political strategy, making this book an invaluable tool for social justice movements navigating the politics of food consumption. * Dinesh Joseph Wadiwel, Senior Lecturer of Socio-Legal Studies and Human Rights, University of Sydney, Australia *
Eva Haifa Giraud offers a wonderfully engaging and thought-provoking exploration of veganism as a powerful ethical and political praxis. She makes a compelling case for understanding and resisting the appropriation of veganism by capitalist consumer logics, and for ongoing scholarship and activism dedicated to reaffirming veganisms radical underpinnings. * Kathryn Gillespie, Postdoctoral Scholar, University of Kentucky, USA *
A stunningly elegant mediation that explores the interlacing between different forms of veganism, for a genuine dissolution of structural inequalities subjugating animals and humans. Eva Haifa Giraud distils veganism to its barest essencethat food is central in bringing veganisms fullest potential to fruitionreversing the harms solidified by our current relations to animal and human others. * Yamini Narayanan, Senior Lecturer in International and Community Development, Deakin University, Australia *

Author Bio

Eva Haifa Giraud is a Senior Lecturer in Media at Keele University, UK. She is the author of What Comes After Entanglement (2019).