Reukers, Roos (2026) Conceptualizing Multispecies Structures of Injustice: A Critical Animal Studies Revision of Iris Marion Young's Framework. Bachelor thesis, Global Responsibility & Leadership (GRL).
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Abstract
The lives of most nonhuman animals alive today are marked by routine violence, suffering, desperation and death, while they are transformed into material building blocks for endless economic growth and accumulation. Scholars in the field of Critical Animal Studies (CAS) stress the structural nature of the injustices faced by nonhuman animals, while Iris Marion Young’s theory of structural injustice provides a helpful framework for investigating how structural processes produce injustice. However, her theory was developed with humans in mind and does not account for multispecies dimensions of structural injustice. In this dissertation I argue that the field of Critical Animal Studies can extend and revise Young’s framework to overcome its anthropocentric assumptions by telling us how to conceptualize multispecies structural injustice. Using insights from CAS, I argue for revising the subjects of injustice to account for a multispecies framework, through rethinking the concepts of social groups, agency and voice. Furthermore, I argue that CAS and Young can complement each other, as Young provides a developed account of responsibility and CAS can help to reconceptualize that in a multispecies manner. This dissertation applies the revised framework to the animal agriculture industry as an example of structural injustice and then argues for collective responsibility to transform it. This application is indicative of other forms of multispecies structural injustice that require further analysis to better understand how structural processes operate and how to act.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Bachelor) |
|---|---|
| Name supervisor: | McKeown, M.C. |
| Date Deposited: | 10 Jun 2026 11:52 |
| Last Modified: | 10 Jun 2026 11:52 |
| URI: | https://campus-fryslan.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/827 |
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