Where Are the Nonhuman Animals in the Sociology of Climate Change?

Abstract

The emergence of interdisciplinary animal studies during recent decades challenges sociologists to critically reflect upon anthropocentric ontology and to paint a more comprehensive picture of the social. This article focuses on the recent emergence of the sociology of climate change during the last twenty years, with a warning that it may have proceeded without critical interrogation of residual humanism evidenced by the exclusion of nonhuman animals. The inclusion of these nonhuman animals in the discussion of human/animal relations is vital in the societal discourse of climate change. After surveying key texts and leading journal literature, it is clear that this discussion of human/animal relations is lacking or altogether omitted. It is then worth considering how animalized environmental sociology could contribute to redefining the discipline of sociology as a whole.