Desiring Ethics

Reflections on Veganism from an Observational Study of Transitions in Everyday Energy Use

Bibliographic Data

ID22343296
AuthorsAlice Dal Gobbo (0000-0003-0266-5711, Cardiff University, corresponding author)
Year2018
Volume6
Issue2
Publication date2018-11-27
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueRelations (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2283-3196 • E-ISSN: 2280-9643
PublisherLed Edizioni Universitarie (PUBLISHER • IT)
DOI10.7358/rela-2018-002-dalg
OpenAlexW2902592148
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited12

Ecological issues are becoming more and more salient to our everyday lives as the effects of climate change become evident, resource depletion is put into government's agendas, access to energy becomes increasingly costly and differentially distributed. They call on us to reconsider not only energy consumption and production systems, but also the very cultural and social premises of our societies. In particular, we need rethinking the anthropocentrism that has founded for centuries human exploitation of the earth. In this article I draw on empirical material from an observational study of everyday energy transitions in order to reflect psychosocially on the potentialities of veganism as an energy ethics of sustainability "beyond anthropocentrism". I argue that, despite many promises, the transition to a plant-based diet can become politically dangerous if adopted (and promoted) as an abstract moral imperative and not as a situated and ethical one

Anthropocentrism · Biology · Environmental ethics · Situated · Social science · Sociology · Sustainability · Agriculture Sustainability and Environmental Impact · Environmental Philosophy and Ethics · Geographies of human-animal interactions · Philosophy · Ecology

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