Risk,Morality and the Sociology of Animals — Reflections on the Foot and Mouth Outbreak in Ireland

Abstract

Using the occasion of the recent outbreak of Foot and Mouth in Europe/Ireland, this paper draws attention to the suppression of animals from most sociological discussions of society-nature relations or of ecological risks. It explores the ideas of two major theorists of ‘transition beyond modernity’ – Beck and Bauman – and argues that this most recent crisis in the food system considerably problematises their arguments for the transition. However it also draws on Bauman's work on morality and modernity to find an explanation for the treatment of the animals involved in the crisis and more generally for the non-recognition of these sentient others within the social world.