LOJK10281U Animals in Society

This course focuses on the role of animals in society and the complexities of human-animal relations. Animals are used in food production to the benefit of man, they serve as research animals in the medical sector, animals are used in nature preservation or as companion animals. Often, these different relations to animals cause conflicts over how or indeed if we should use animals and thus highlight how different stakeholders represent different interests. The course will explore the economic and sociological aspects of such relations between humans and animals. Also, we will discuss whether and how animal products can be part of a sustainable diet and how the increasing focus on problems related to meat consumption might affect our views on animal production.

Sociology of animals in society

This element concerns sociological aspects of the use of animals. It will be discussed how different societal actors (including e.g. farmers, consumers, citizens, vegans, etc.) view and legitimize the use of animals for different purposes - and the values these different perspectives represent. During the lectures and exercises the students will be presented to a number of sociological concepts that can be used to describe and understand human uses of animals. All in all this will offer insights in the importance of different sociodemographic, cultural and historical background factors, that can be used in the study of disagreements over animal uses.

Economics of animals in society

Can we leave it to consumers’ demand to secure animal welfare? How can we increase the consumption of ‘sustainable’ meat and how effective are different tools to nudge consumers to shift to a more plant-based diet? Which methods can be used to elicit the economic value of the use of animals? It is true that pork producers always face a trade-off between animal welfare and productivity?

These and other questions related to the economic aspects of using animals are discussed in the course. We will analyse how different perceptions of animal welfare can be included in economic analyses. The point of departure in our discussions will be how the keeping of animals can be analysed in consumers’ utility maximizing and/or producers’ profit maximizing framework. The concept of market failure and economic arguments for regulating animal welfare are presented and discussed.