under guest editorship of Patryk Szaj and Dariusz Gzyra

We cordially invite you to submit article proposals for the interdisciplinary thematic issue Animals in Political Theory and Practice under the guest scientific editorship of Patryk Szaj and Dariusz Gzyra. The titular division of theory and practice suggests that we would like to transcend the format of analysis coming from the circle of the so-called political turn in thinking about human relations with other animals.

No doubt, theorizing related to that movement has been one of the most significant achievements of animal thought in recent years. By all means, the transition “from questions about how individuals ought to think about and treat animals to questions of what animals are owed as a matter of justice” (Alasdair Cochrane) constitutes an intellectual and research challenge. Therefore, we look forward to articles relating to the proposed system changes, the postulated transformation of institutions, and the modification of political mechanisms and the conceptual apparatus involved in human relations with other animals.

At the same time, we would like to examine the political dimension of historical and contemporary social practices related to animals. Consequently, we are waiting for articles that probe the past and present reality in search of various aspects of the political dimension of interspecies relations.

The proposed scope of considerations (the list is not final, we also accept other proposals):

• On the definition and scope of the political turn in animal studies
• From ethics to politics – why the need for the political turn?
• Animals in contemporary political theory and political philosophy
• The notion of zoopolis – analysis, criticism, supplements
• Sentientism/sentiocentrism in political theory
• A perfect and imperfect theory in the context of the pro-animal political turn
• Modes of transformation – gradualism, reformism, welfarism, radicalism, visionary, pragmatism, abolitionism, extinctionism
• Liberal values and animals
• Interspecies commons, the interspecies common good
• Animals in conservative thought
• Capitalism and other economic systems and the exploitation of animals
• The political nature of non-human labor (animals as non-human workers, Cheap Nature and animals, hopes and pains of interspecies solidarity, interspecies socialism)
• The place of animals in left-wing thought
• Animals in anarchist theory
• Animals in national and cosmopolitan thought
• Animals and ideologies
• Speciesism as the core of state ideologies
• Democracy and other political systems’ views on animals
• From negative to positive animal rights
• Individualism and collectivism in a pro-animal social change
• The political role of a pro-animal utopia
• Political dimensions of ethical extensionism
• “The political” in and out of the frame of the Overton window
• Political rights of animals
• Animals in international politics
• Animals and war (non-human refugees, occupation, zoocide, ethnic cleansing and species cleansing)
• Biopolitics, thanatopolitics, necropolitics and animals
• The political dimension of the law governing the use of animals
• The problem of political representation of non-human animals
• Interspecies deliberations
• The praxis of fostering interspecies communities
• Local policies of interspecies coexistence
• Forms of expressions of non-human political will, animals as political actors
• Animal resistance
• Political alliances and animosities of emancipation and freedom movements, the political nature of intersectionalism
• Animals in the rhetoric of contemporary political debates, the political nature of language, pro-animal revisions of the language
• Care, compassion, crying, anger, hatred – political dimension of emotions
• Contemporary political divides and non-human animals, animals in the programs of political parties
• Portfolio of pro-animal activism
• “The private is political” and animals
• Theories and practices applied to the presence of non-native animals
• Political aspects of (critical) animal studies
• Political dimensions of animal stories
• Animals in political biographies
• The political nature of veganism, political veganism
• Pro-vegan development policy
• The (non)presence of animals in climate policies and ecological economics (Green New Deal, Fit for 55, doughnut economics, degrowth, etc.)
• De-ideologization and depoliticization of animal rights and veganism
• The political potential of new food technologies

Deadline for submitting articles for the 2025 issue: 15.04.2024.

Articles in Polish or English, which shall not exceed 30,000 characters with spaces, should be entered into the OJS:

https://journals.us.edu.pl/index.php/ZOOPHILOLOGICA/about/submissions.

Texts should be prepared in accordance with the editorial recommendations, which can be found on the “Zoophilologica” journal website under the link provided above.

Submitted texts must not have been previously published or submitted for publication elsewhere, either as a whole or in significant part. The Ministry of Education and Science score for the article published in the “Zoophilologica. Polish Journal of Animal Studies” is 70 points.