Beyond Zoocentrism: Enhancing Veganism’s Transformative Potential

ABSTRACT Veganism as an ethical and political movement to abolish the mass exploitation of animals has been one prominent response to the ethical and ecological calamities of industrial animal agriculture. In this article, I draw on post-anthropocentric and decolonial tributaries to critically examine some problematic undercurrents that occasionally resurface in mainstream vegan discourses as evident amongst prominent organisations like PETA and The Vegan Society, namely a pervasive zoocentrism that redeploys rigid binaries between humans, plants and animals and ultimately excludes members of the wider biospheric community. I argue that such approaches ultimately reinforce human exceptionalism and undermine the objective of total liberation that vegan movements seek to achieve. Forging more ethical multispecies relations requires humbly embracing the inescapable indeterminateness of biospheric entanglements, and widening understandings of personhood. I close with indicative case studies and reflections on how the movements’ transformative political potential might be strengthened, namely by deconstructing the counterproductive emphasis on respect for (sentient) animal life, whilst underscoring noncompliance with intersecting oppressive systems.