Knowing Animals:
cross-fertilisation between natural and social sciences for understanding the quality of life of animals

Welfare Quality International Conference
http://www.welfarequality.net

Florence, Italy,
Palazzo dei Congressi (Villa Vittoria)
http://www.firenzefiera.it

5/6 March 2009

How we represent animals and interact with them, the conditions in which we study them, and the capacities for sentience and an emotional life that we attribute to them, all influence our views on
how animals should be treated and what constitutes a good life for them.  The various ways of knowing animals are nonetheless embedded both in different science practices and varied cultural
and practical relationships and encounters. In this conference, we look at one of these human -
animal encounters, namely animal farming and at how we study and represent the lives of the
animals kept for food production. Such encounters are highly mediated by the farming and meat industry, the apparatus of food safety and animal welfare science and regulation, as well as an increasingly sophisticated process of qualification enacted by the food industry. Through a two day discussion, around five specific themes, we aim at establishing what we believe is an increasingly necessary dialogue and cross-fertilisation of ideas and perspectives between animal scientists and social scientists to reflect upon the practices of knowledge production and the understanding of animals, their agency and the quality of their lives that such practices generate.

Keynote Speakers:

David Fraser, Professor of Animal Welfare, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
John Law , Professor of Sociology, Lancaster University, UK
John Webster, Professor of Animal Husbandry, Bristol University, UK
Adrian Franklin, Professor of Sociology, University of Tasmania, Australia
Joy A. Mench, Professor of Animal Science, University of California, Davis, USA.
Erica Fudge, School of Humanities and Cultural Studies at Middlesex University, UK
Lindsay Matthews, AgResearch Ltd., Ruakura Research Centre, Hamilton, New Zealand
Lawrence Busch, Professor of Sociology, Michigan State University, USA.

Themes of the conference

Theme n.1 Naturality: cowness, pigness, chickenness;

Theme n.2  Designing for welfare;

Theme n.3  Zoomorphisms and anthropomorphisms;

Theme n.4 Standards as a mode of Animal Welfare Governance;

Theme n.5 Animal Welfare and Food Quality.

Call for Papers

Proposals for papers or posters, which must address one or more of the above themes, should be sent by email to Mara Miele at knowinganimals@cardiff.ac.uk by 2nd November 2008. Proposals should not exceed 250 words and should identify the principal theme(s) they address. Notification of acceptance of abstracts will be made by November 30th 2008.

Further information on www.knowinganimals.org

This conference is promoted by the Welfare Quality project www.welfarequality.net