Animalising Social Life: An Introduction

Human-Animal Studies (HAS) has opened up new lines of scholarly enquiry which is animalising our understanding of social life. This is a significant development because it reminds us of our longstanding co-existence with other species, and it draws attention to the myriad of interspecies contexts, networks and encounters that we continue to be embroiled in today. Although sociology is a relative newcomer to human-animal scholarship, HAS scholars question the largely human-centric focus in many social science disciplines. This paper will initially consider why animals and animal-related issues have increasingly registered on public and academic agendas in recent years. It will also trace the emergence of ‘animal sociology’ and highlight the tarnished status of human-animal scholarship within more anthropocentric wings of the academy.