Governing Animals, Governing Humans: Animal Protection Politics and the Government of Human—Animal Relations...

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Judith Renner (Senior Lecturer in Political Science, Senior Lecturer in Political Science, University of Potsdam)

Governing Animals, Governing Humans

Animal Protection Politics and the Government of Human—Animal Relations in European and Global...

Judith Renner (Senior Lecturer in Political Science, Senior Lecturer in Political Science, University of Potsdam)

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English

Oxford University Press
25 December 2025

Animals & society; EU & European institutions

Series: Voices in International Relations

Governing Animals, Governing Humans explores how the global politics of animal protection works as the government of human-animal relations. Responding to recent calls by scholars coming from post-humanist, new materialist, or post-anthropocentric backgrounds who criticize the discipline's human-centred outlook it suggests a way how animals can be analyzed as targets of government by bringing into conversation Foucauldian scholarship within IR, political science and Critical Animal Studies (CAS). Empirically, the book is driven by an interest to understand and theorize two contradicting global tendencies in regard to how humans relate to animals: on the one hand, a growing global concern for animals which has led to animal protection and animal welfare turning into issues of international relevance. On the other hand, the growing use and exploitation of animals as means of human convenience which manifests in the increase of the global trade in animal products, in the numbers of animals used worldwide and in the conditions under which these animals are kept. The book argues that whereas these tendencies seem to be conflicting on the first view, they are in fact closely intertwined as animal welfare, which has emerged as the dominant strategy of global animal protection, establishes the intensive production and use of animals along animal welfare standards as the primary practice of animal protection, coopts animals and humans into this strategy as subjects of animal welfare and animal consumption and thus governs human-animal relations along the seemingly contradicting but intertwined tendencies of animal protection and animal use.ABOUT THE SERIES: Voices in International Relations, published under the auspices of the European International Studies Association (EISA), furthers the development of research at the frontiers of International Relations (IR). It expands the remit of the field by including innovative scholarship that broadens key debates in the discipline, but it is more interested in reconfiguring such debates by approaching them from inside and outside the conventional core. Thematically, we aim to publish research that pushes the limits of IR conventionally defined from within and connects it to debates developing outside the discipline. We are committed to furthering diversity and inclusion in terms of authorship, location, topics and approaches from both inside and outside Europe. We have an inclusive approach to neighbouring disciplines, be it sociology, history, anthropology, geography, economics, political theory or law.

Series editors: Debbie Lisle, Tanja Aalberts, Anna Leander, and Laura Sjoberg.

By: Judith Renner (Senior Lecturer in Political Science Senior Lecturer in Political Science University of Potsdam)
Imprint: Oxford University Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 234mm, Width: 156mm,
ISBN: 9780198966685
ISBN 10: 0198966687
Series: Voices in International Relations
Pages: 256
Publication Date: 25 December 2025
Audience: College/higher education , Further / Higher Education
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Judith Renner is Senior Lecturer in Political Science and International Relations (IR) at the University of Potsdam. Before coming to Potsdam, she held positions as a Lecturer and Researcher at the Technical University of Munich and the Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich where she received a Dr. phil. in Political Science in 2011. Her current research focusses on questions of (global) human-animal relations and their possible integration in IR research. Before, she has worked on human rights, transitional justice, memory politics, and global norms. Her theoretical focus is on poststructuralist approaches to politics and IR.