Is the animal rights movement a social movement?

by Pierre-André Gagnon

Does the animal rights movement qualify as a social movement? That seemingly trivial question could be more important than it appears. Indeed, sociologist Lily Munro argued in 2012 that it remains “one of the most misunderstood social movements of our era” (2012, p. 167). This is not surprising given that most authors simply assume that they do not need to justify their claim when they define the animal rights movement as a social movement. In other words, its status as a social movement is rarely theoretically problematized in the literature. This gap constitutes a serious problem for the animal rights movement because, as Bob Torres pointed out, “action without theory is often absolutely counterproductive, and at the worst, can be self-defeating.” (2007, p. 111) In an attempt to fill this theoretical gap, the question guiding my presentation will be: “Where to locate the animal rights movement in the social movement literature?”
A few attempts have been made to qualify the animal rights movement. A literature review indicates that it has been described as 1) a new social movement, 2) a post-citizenship movement, and 3) a lifestyle movement. In this presentation, I will assess each of these claims. I will argue that new social movement theory and post-citizenship movement theory are too general to have much explanatory power. On the other hand, lifestyle movement theory seems to offer much explanatory power to understand the animal rights movement as conceptualized by many abolitionists, especially by like Gary Francione (2010).
My presentation will conclude with some reflections on the consequences of conceptualizing the animal rights movement as a lifestyle movement. Most importantly, I will argue that lifestyle movement theory highlights an important point that has also been raised by many authors (such as Brian Luke (2007) and David Nibert (2013)): because the animal rights movement mostly focuses its analysis on the individual level (i.e. a person lifestyle choice), the social structures, mainly the speciesist ideology, that for the most part determine lifestyle choices in the first place remain invisible. In other words, while lifestyle movement theory can be useful to describe part of the animal rights movement, it does not offer any theoretical insight as to what the movement should be doing to change these social structures. For these reasons, it appears that a better theoretical understanding of the animal rights movement as a social movement is necessary to guide its action.


Biography:
Pierre-André Gagnon is a Ph.D. Student in Political Science at the University of Ottawa, Canada. His thesis proposes a gramscian analysis of the interaction between the animal rights movement and the Animal Industrial Complex. His interests also include the animal rights movement as a social movement as well as political theory.

Email: PGAGN031@uottawa.ca

Carnism, gender and sexuality: visual and discursive articulations in fast-food ads

by Anabela Santos

The debate on the ideological foundations of meat consumption started within social sciences and humanities in the late 1970s. Recently, a new concept has emerged in academia to identify the ideology that underpins the consumption of (certain) nonhuman animals - carnism (Joy, 2010). In Western societies, carnist ideology categorizes nonhuman animals by degrees of importance, ontologizing some of them as carriers of meat. Besides expressing human supremacy over nonhuman animals and establishing hierarchical relations between species, carnism interacts with different systems of oppression, particularly those involving gender and sexuality.
Over the last decades, feminist and queer scholars have pointed out that meat consumption reinforces traditional gender roles and is tied to the performance of hegemonic masculinity. Others have also noted that meat-eating practices underlie the (re)production of heterosexual norms.
Recognizing that advertising images are a privileged arena for the (re)production of dominant ideologies and the promotion of meat culture, this paper discusses the articulation of carnism with gender and sexuality in print ads that have been disseminated by fast-food corporations in Western industrialized countries. In particular, it analyzes how carnist discourse has been intersected with representations of (hetero)normative masculinity and femininity.
Based on social semiotic analysis, this paper argues that nonhuman animals are often depicted in fast-food print ads as gendered and (hetero)sexualized subjects, in such a way as they seem to be complicit in their exploitation and encourage the edibility of their own bodies. Fast-food advertising tends to support an oppressive triad that conjugates carnist/speciesist violence, the maintenance of male dominance and the apology of heteronormative paradigms in the context of neoliberal capitalism.
Thus, informed by the principles of critical animal studies, this paper will contribute to a better understanding of how advertising promotes an anthropocentric logic that ontologizes nonhuman animals as consumer goods, configures located powers and privileges, and simultaneously reinforces carnism, speciesism and (hetero)sexism. Furthermore, it will enhance the critical questioning of the role that capitalist elites such as fast-food corporations have played in the maintenance of the carnist system in contemporary societies.

Keywords: carnism, gender, sexuality, advertising, fast-food corporations.


Biography:
Anabela Santos is a PhD student in the FCT Doctoral Program in “Communication Studies: Technology, Culture and Society” (University of Minho, Portugal). She holds a Master's degree in Communication Sciences from the University of Minho, as well as a Master's degree in Political Science from the Russian State University for the Humanities. Her research interests include feminist media studies, critical animal studies, theory of intersectionality and anarchist studies. She has been involved in feminist movement, LGBTQI* activism and social justice issues.

Email: amsantos86@gmail.com

The master’s wife, children and animals – the order of carnophallogocentrism.

by Anette Kristensson

When the Austrian writer Elfriede Jelinek, in her novel Lust, describes the husband of the small family in terms of being a master of pets she really pinpoints the structural powers of domestication.
The child is here conceived of, used and in the end killed as a pet because he can not fulfil the role of being a substitute for his mothers lover.
The brutal misogynic violence in the story is described trough metaphors of animal abuse – like, e.g., dogs pulled on the leash, mastered horses, or as the fragmentation of slaughtered bodies. In using these metaphors the connection between animal- woman- child-abuse becomes obvious. There is structure in the violence.
And it is not just on a metaphorical level. The reason why these metaphors work so well is because this kind of violence is worst when it comes to the animal. There is no limit to the violence here. As the French philosopher Jacques Derrida explained there is no “though shall not kill” when it comes to the animal. Derrida give a name to this cultural phenomenon -carnophallogocentrism. The oppressive structures of power, signified by Derrida’s neologism, goes to the very core of the western civilisation and its archaic roots needs to be analyzed. In Jelinek’s novel the connections between carnocentrism, phallocentrism and logocentrism is shown trough the oppressive structure in the family.


Biography:
Anette Kristensson (born 1977) have studied mostly continental philosophy and aesthetics and wrote my master thesis about Jacques Derrida’s concept of carnophallogocentrism. Now, I am going to develop this topic in my PhD in Child and Youth studies at Stockholm University.

Animal Symbolism in the Writings of Charlotte Perkins Gilman

by Monika Holder

The aim of my doctoral dissertation is to research the presence of animals and animal imagery as well as motivations behind the literary usage of animals in the works of influential American feminist writers of the late 19th century and early 20th century. Specifically for the purposes of my application for this symposium, I propose to focus on the work of Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Western political theory is prevalent with examples of how women and animals are cast together and the centuries-long deliberation as to whether women have souls mirrored similar discussions regarding the moral status of animals. In patriarchal society, women, along with animals, are linked as “others” and viewed as subordinate to men. As a result of prevalent political and philosophical dualism, the patriarchal society has been structured along the set of binary oppositions such as man/woman, civilized/wild, human/animal. In such scheme of things, women have been juxtaposed with men and, along with animals, accorded a subservient, secondary position in culture and civilization.
A counter view to this deeply entrenched patriarchal habit developed through a growing number of 19th century female authors who promoted a change in society and culture. They challenged traditional patriarchal roles and spoke of women’s rights to their own freedom, breaking the links to any domineering male figure in their lives. They used animal symbolism either to illustrate female oppression and exploitation, or out of empathy for those natural creatures that had also become victimized by patriarchal humanism.
As a critical component of my research, I would like to examine the use of animal imagery by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Gilman’s commentary on her period’s animal based fashion is harsh and outspoken; much like her views on the sexual roles of men and women in society, and the stereotypes and injustices that she depicted in The Yellow Wallpaper (1892) and Herland (1915). Gilman wrote The Yellow Wallpaper as a severe criticism of the overbearing patriarchal society of her day, in a semiautobiographical account of a woman treated for depression. Through the cruel treatment suffered by the narrator as part of her “rest cure”, she takes on very animalistic behaviors in her own way of fighting the oppression of her husband, and keeping her sanity. 
In Herland, Gilman’s well-known feminist utopia, the writer uses animal analogies to explain the human condition as well as to portray biological and behavioral differences between the sexes.  There are opinions that Herland, with a focus on a female dominated culture strongly linked with nature, is a very early precursor to the ecofeminist movement that began in earnest in the 1970s. Her perspective shared on motherhood and the environment in writing Herland is consistent with today’s ecofeminist ideology; also reinforced by her own personal beliefs that her move from an industrialized New England to a more natural environment in California was crucial for fostering her own health and creativity. 
The research methodology of my dissertation will be based on literary and cultural texts as well as their critical responses with particular emphasis on materials related to animal studies and feminist writings. 

Key words: Feminism, Ecofeminism, Animals, Environment, Gilman. 


Biography:
Monika Holder is a Ph.D. student at Warsaw University (Institute of English Studies, American Literature Department). She holds a Master degree in English Studies as well as a Master Degree in International Relations (Warsaw University). She returned to university after working for 7 years in advertising and public relations.  Her research focuses on feminist writings of the late 19th/early 20th century and animal studies.

You call me a ‘bitch’ Like it’s a bad thing: Animal liberation in Feminist Media

by Juawana Grant

Contemporary feminist media, such as Bust Magazine, participate in spreading the messages of progressive social movements at the street level by packaging easily digestible articles with glossy photos and celebrity covers. My research is concerned with how contemporary popular feminist media foster a new politics of consumption as a way to represent feminism’s coexistence with animal liberation movements. Further, I examine how this hybrid alt-ideology is currently situated between a feminist counterpublic and mainstream popular culture. Using textual analysis as my primary methodology, this paper provides an analysis of the representation of animal liberation movements within one popular feminist media organization. This analysis is then situated between theories of subculture and cultural capital to address how feminist media fosters intersectional social change discourse in publics and counterpublics. Feminist media has a history of peppering their content with other social change messages and connecting them with the reinforcement of a feminist identity. Many scholars have noted the link between feminism and animal liberation throughout history, such as during the suffrage and antivivisection movements in the 19th century; in the ecofeminist scholarship beginning in the seventies and gaining traction in the nineties; and in the riot grrrl zines of the so-called third wave, many of which became popular feminist magazines still operating today. What is less explored is how the animal liberation intersection plays out in the counterpublics that feminist media occupy. Neither has it been explored, particularly in contemporary popular feminist media, how they are blended with a subcultural DIY aesthetic and are positioned within the rise of both the creative classes and the mainstreaming of feminism and veganism in the popular. I use a blend of theories in subculture, cultural capital, and public sphere to interrogate the position of animal liberation messages within contemporary feminist media in an effort to identify how they function together in the space between alternative and mainstream publics. The rise of feminism and veganism in popular culture could be directly related to the mainstreaming of creative classes/DIY aesthetic which often share progressive social movement ideals. The question is: will it be reabsorbed or will the blending of spectacular subcultures and social movements as represented by alternative media create a new space and more effective, sustaining counterpublics which promote both feminist and animal liberation agendas that create a lasting disruption in dominant ideology?


Biography:
Juawana is a Master’s Candidate in Interdisciplinary Graduate Studies at the University of British Columbia Okanagan. She returned to university after 5 years as a social worker and activist in Las Vegas and Seattle. Her research and activist interests lie in the intersections between human and animal justice movements. Her thesis explores how animal liberation is represented in alternative and mainstream media. She is also a co-director of Animals at UBCO, a student-led animal activism project on campus. She also organizes and promotes events in the spirit of ICAS with the Pacific Northwest and British Columbia branch.

Areas of Interest:
1. Feminist Theory and Activism
2. Cultural and Media Studies
3. Radical pedagogy
4. Commodification of Vegan and Feminist Social Movements

Contact: Juawana@gmail.com

Black and white or grey? Considering the ambiguous status of the badger

by Delia Langstone

This paper considers the ambiguous status of the badger in the United Kingdom. The beloved, wise and reclusive creature portrayed in books for children such as The Wind in the Willows, has morphed in some circles into a dangerous creature, vilified as the carrier of Bovine TB. The association made between wild badgers and the infection of cattle with TB prompted controversial, ongoing Government-sponsored culls of badgers that are estimated to have cost up to £4000 per animal. Yet the badger remains an iconic animal here in the UK; they are popular objects of study for television wildlife programmes and the current cull policy draws thousands of people out on the streets in protest. Despite such public concern and their protected status however, badger setts are disturbed, and badgers are baited in the countryside in a barbaric activity that has remained the pursuit of a few and seems reminiscent of a bygone age. Meanwhile, in the same way that foxes have colonised British cities, badgers are now a familiar sight in our urban areas and this proximity to city-dwellers has thrown up stark contrasts between those that help and support these animals in well-established organised groups of ‘badger watchers’ and those that see these wild animals as ‘out of place’ in the city. This paper investigates this complex situation and considers the ambiguous status of the badger in the UK, drawing on news media sources and on interviews with those involved in urban badger-protection.


Biography:
Delia Langstone is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Social Sciences at UEL.  She is interested in the social history of technological development particularly new surveillance technologies, privacy, the social construction of the individual as a data subject and social sorting issues.  She is a member of the Society, Technology and Inequality Research Group (STIR) and has contributed a chapter entitled ‘Myths, crimes and videotape’ in The Myths of Technology: Innovation and Inequality, (Peter Lang 2009) which is one of STIR’s  Technology, Society and Inequality series of books.  She has recently started exploring the surveillance of non-human animals and such exploration may reveal about ourselves.

Human Competitions Involving Nonhuman Animals

by Nico Müller

Some recent interdisciplinary literature tries to get to grips with the question what makes (at least some) animal sports wrong, and so do I. I start with a brief survey of ethical and empirical research of competitive animal sports. I continue with an example of abuse in horse racing, and I ask what it is that makes horse races so problematic. I argue that in order to fully understand what makes sports such as horse racing so problematic, we need to look at them not merely as instances of sport, but also as instances of competition. This is my main topic: the competitions humans hold which involve sentient nonhuman animals ("CIAs") – what is there to say, ethically, about holding CIAs?
Quite a lot, in fact! First things first: What is a competition? I propose that competitions are activities which are guided by rules (formal or informal), which in turn fix both (i) what you are allowed to do in the competition (rules as side constraints) and (ii) what it takes to be successful in the competition (rules as determining success criteria). All the rules jointly give an incentive to competitors to behave in a certain way. Certain behaviors which competitions can incentivize involve inflicting harm on the animal, and these competitions can plausibly be said to be (extrinsically pro tanto) wrong. Now, among those CIAs who are harmincentivizing, I distinguish between two classes: They belong to the Harm-Requiring class if their side-constraints demand harm to animals (i.e. to be successful, or even to merely take part, you need to harm animals; think animal fights, sportive hunting). Given the assumption that inflicting harm is (pro tanto) wrong, the argument against competitions in this first class is straightforward. On the other hand, harm-incentivizing CIAs which do nevertheless not require harm belong to the second class, which I call the Merely-Harm-Incentivizing class. I identify three conditions that jointly suffice to make a CIA Merely-Harm-Incentivizing – the basic upshot is that in practice, success criteria which are indifferent to animal welfare will ultimately incentivize harmful competition behavior if their fulfillment is maximized in the scope of side-constraints that fail to be strictly welfare-ensuring. For example, it is first and foremost the sole striving for speed in horse racing, along with the insufficient side-constraints on competition, that make horse races as a whole incentivize harm to horses.
Since my argument against Harm-Incentivizing CIAs does not rest on a feature peculiar to sportive competition, my point generalizes: Wherever we find humanimposed competition of the kind that meets my conditions, we have a good reason to consider this competition (extrinsically pro tanto) wrong. And competitions of this kind are all about! Most forms of economic competition in animal trade fit my description, and so does a great deal of breeding of animals for human-imposed criteria. In conclusion, looking at sports involving nonhuman sentient animals provides a great starting point for recognizing the ethical significance of competitions involving animals in general, and this in turn proves fruitful as a basis for criticism of many problematic fields of human-nonhuman coexistence.


Biography:
I am a last year MA student in philosophy and sociology at the University of Zurich (UZH), where I have been studying since 2009. My research interests include normative questions in epistemology and ethics, and especially animal ethics. I have been active as a teaching assistant at my university and at the ETH Zurich, as student assistant at the UZH's Center for Ethics, as student representative in Zurich's Philosophical Society, and as the leading organizer of three annual lecture series at the UZH (one on the topic of thought experiments and philosophical methodology, the other one on disagreement; another one is scheduled to be held in 2016 on the topic of pain). I am presently involved in the creation of a vegan campus group at the UZH and preparing for an MA thesis in animal ethics, perhaps on the topic of Kant's treatment of nonhuman animals in the Metaphysics of Morals.

The genderisation of animal cruelty in bullfights in Portugal

 by Luís Cordeiro-Rodrigues & Emanuele Achino

Bullfighting is a practice that has been increasingly contested worldwide. In Portugal, where the practice remains legal, this contestation has also been significantly present. Hence, despite being a legal practice, engaging in bullfighting is a behaviour that is, in Portugal, generally socially stigmatised and seen as something not socially acceptable. This contestation has provoked a response from those who defend bullfighting. Protóiro, the Portuguese Federation for bull-related events, has put significant effort into rationalising the practice, trying to demonstrate that it is a practice that Portuguese should cherish and maintain. In this article, we will contend that this rationalisation can be conceptualised as comprising deviant techniques of neutralisation.
The techniques of neutralisation are used by neutralisation theorists as a concept that refers to the psychological mechanisms used by offenders who commit illegitimate acts to self-justify and justify their actions to others. Put differently, supporters of bullfights, analogous to the case of offenders, may feel guilty and ashamed of violating the basic norms of society (in this case, violation of animal cruelty beliefs) and, therefore, develop rationalisations that neutralise their potential guilt and shame.
In doing so, we have also underlined that the bullfight is mainly a male thing, even though there are females. Male bullfighters are described, in fact, with adjectives such as 'courageous', 'real man', 'brave', whereas female bullfighters are described as 'beautiful', 'sexy', 'elegant'. And yet, visual images provided from the fieldwork suggest that male bullfighters are portrayed as strong, the bulls as strong, and female images emphasis their elegance and beauty, although furhter research still remain to be provided on the matter for the time to come.


Biography:
Dr Luís Cordeiro-Rodrigues holds a PhD from the University of York. He has published on animal rights, multiculturalism and sexual orientation on the Journal for Critical Animal Studies, Green Theory and Praxis Journal, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Marx & Philosophy Review of Books and Political Studies Review. He also has a forthcoming book on multiculturalism with Pickering & Chatto.

Dr Emanuele Achino holds a PhD in Social Sciences with a focus on social movements and gender studies. He works with a cultural theoretical background, and with a qualitative and quantitative research framework. At the moment, he works as a research associate at the Experientia group in Turin, Italy. However, he got research in the field of social sciences with a cross cutting background, by moving from cultural research to structural research. Yet, he has recently moved attention to those connection between gender and non-human beings by developing ideas and research suggestions on the matter. He has recently published on the Journal of Gender Studies and on the International Journal of Interdisciplinary Environmental Studies.

7 October

9:00 – 10:20

Gender and Literature (Room Multiusos 2)

• Animal Symbolism in the Writings of Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Monika Holder (University of Warsaw)
• The master’s wife, children and animals – the order of carnophallogocentrism, by Annette Kristensson (Stockholm University)
• Potnia Theron: the mother goddess in ancient mediterranean mythologies as a paradigm of man-animal relationship, by Andreea-Maria Lemnaru (Université Paris-Sorbonne - Paris IV, Centre Léon Robin)

10:20 – 10:30 – Break

10:30 – 12:20

Legislation, Welfare and Animal Protection (Room Multiusos 2)

• Black and white or grey? Considering the ambiguous status of the badger, by Delia Langstone (University of East London)  
• A Critical Review of Animal Research Applications, by Kathrin Herrmann (Freie Universität Berlin) 
• The sprouting of a “Nonhuman Animal Spring” in Mexico: The surge of animal protection activities, will it work out, by Norma Contreras Hernández (Universiteit Twente), Hans Th.A. Bressers (Universiteit Twente), Louise Greathouse-Amador (Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla) & Nadiezdha M.P. Crespo Rosas (University of Bristol)
• A social process in analysis: towards a new animal protection law in Portugal, by Henrique Chaves Costa (FCSH-UNL) 

 

Gender and Sexual Identities (Room Multiusos 3)

• Feminism and Animals: Revenge Through Contemporary Art, by Miguel Bonneville (Lisbon, Portugal)
• The genderisation of animal cruelty in bullfights in Portugal, by Luís Cordeiro-Rodrigues (University of Fort Hare) & Emanuele Achino (Università degli Studi di Torino) 
• “Real men don't eat quiche”: Masculinity and meat consumption in commercials, magazines and food adventure series, by Helen Keller (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin)

 

12:20 – 12:30 – Break



12:30 - 13:00 – Talk by Karo Tak on activism: "The power of the individual" (Room Multiusos 2)

13:00 – 13:30 – Workshop: "Letter writing to political prisoners", by Black Pigeons Collective (Room Multiusos 2)



13:30 – 14:30 – Lunch



14:30 – 15:20 – Our Children and Other Animals: The Cultural Construction of Human-Animal Relations in Childhood book launch, by Matthew Cole (Room Multiusos 2)



15:20 – 15:30 – Break

15:30 – 17:20

Intersectionality (Room Multiusos 2)

• Total liberation or animal rights only? Intersectionality in the agenda and composition of the AR movement in the Baltic States through narratives of AR activists, by Kadri Aavik & Kristina Mering (Tallinn University and animal advocacy organization Loomus)
• One struggle, one fight? What is “intersectional activism,” and how can we build solidarity between radical-emancipatory movements? Experiences from an animal rights group in Switzerland, by Livia Boscardin (Animal Rights Group Basel and University of Basel)
• Blind Certainty: Problematising Anthropocentric Ontologies in Animal Liberation, by Jana Canavan (Lund University)
• Challenging Racism and Ableism within Animal Advocacy, Anthony Nocella (Institute for Critical Animal Studies)

Animals and Anarchism (Room Multiusos 3)

• The ethics of vegan anarchism & the squatters' movement, by tina cubberley (Independent Researcher - Dublin, Ireland)
• Subhuman and nonhuman animals: the crossroads between animal liberation, feminism, punk and anarchism within portuguese punk zines of the early 1990s, by Ana Mateus (Universidade de Coimbra)
• Against the Animal as an Anthropocentric Concept: Exploring the Ahuman, by Agnes Trzak (Anglia Ruskin University)
• Anarchists and the legislative dilemma – the 2004 Hunting Act in England and Wales, by Will Boisseau (Loughborough University) 

17:20 – 17:30 – Break

17:30 – 18:30 - Keynote Session

Emancipation in Posthuman Times, by Erika Cudworth (University of East London) - Room Multiusos 2

Taking Stock of the Scholarly ‘Animal Turn’: An exploration of the innovative, politicised and tainted nature of human-animal scholarship

by Rhoda Wilkie

Scholars are increasingly exploring and critically evaluating people’s longstanding and on-going interconnections with other animals in modern industrialised societies. This interspecies focus signals the ‘animal turn’ taking place in the academy, especially in more human-orientated social science disciplines, such as sociology, albeit to varying degrees. The ‘creative marginality’ associated with, and the upsurge of research generated by, this scholarly turn towards other animals effectively fuelled the growth of Human-Animal Studies (HAS), an innovative, interdisciplinary and politically eclectic field of scholarship. On the one hand, this highly productive phase of formative intellectual labour was pivotal to creating the infrastructure to consolidate and legitimate this rather tainted area of study within the academy. On the other hand, just as this human-animal field is becoming established, the broad alliance that seemingly enabled these pioneering scholars to work together is showing signs of fragmenting. Since there are some within the next generation of human-animal scholars who are advocating a more politicised and transformative agenda, as evidenced by the meteoric rise of Critical Animal Studies (CAS) in recent years, it is suggested that this development has sparked an internal debate within HAS about activist-scholars and what might count as ‘good’ and bad’ scholarship. One way of exploring these emerging debates within HAS is to consider the division of scholarly labour within this atypical social science field, and how this may require scholars to perform different types of ‘academic dirty work’.

 
Biography:
Rhoda Wilkie is a lecturer in sociology at the University of Aberdeen, where she earned her doctorate in 2002. She is the co-editor (with David Inglis) of the five-volume collection, Animals and Society: Critical Concepts in the Social Sciences and the author of Livestock/Deadstock: Working with Farm Animals from Birth to Slaughter.

 

“Lesbos”, animot, mulheres e animais: os outros in(con)formados

by Andreia Marin

... Eros, que nos quebranta os corpos, me arrebata.

Doce-amargo, invencível serpente.
(SAFO, Poemas e fragmentos, 18).

O homem deseja que a mulher seja, ao mesmo tempo, animal e planta, e que se esconda por trás de uma armadura fabricada.
(BEAUVOIR, O segundo sexo, p.202).

Ser mulher. Ser animal. Enfraquecida a existência ontológica do “Ser” e a substantivação limitante de “mulher” e “animal”, restam categorias discursivas onde se pretendeu encerrar as mobilidades do vivente. Não à toa, a discussão sobre os conceitos de animalidade e de humano, atraíram as disposições ecofeministas: lá, onde o animal é nomeado, descrito como negatividade do humano, percebe-se já uma estratégia que parece impor-se também à definição e caracterização da mulher, lançando a ambos em uma falta.
No animal, trata-se da descrição de modos de ser que evidenciam aquilo que o impede de ser humano, forjada sempre por este, que se dá como referência. Na mulher, uma delimitação do seu espaço de subjetivação a partir de uma perspectiva onde a completude é o homem, de forma que a feminilidade é pensada sempre em referência ao masculino. Antropocentrismo e androcentrismo parecem, portanto, encerrados na lógica da auto referência e na prática de delimitação do outro, inevitável do interior dessa perspectiva.
Na obra O segundo sexo, Beauvoir aproxima a mulher do animal, na descrição do ponto de vista androcêntrico. Logo de início, cita Santo Agostinho: a mulher é um animal instável, assertiva que se enquadra perfeitamente na ideia de gradação das imperfeições, defendida por São Tomas, que reverbera 
em representações modernas e contemporâneas redutoras do animal. Quanto mais restrito ao devir orgânico, menos perfeito; quanto mais razão, maior perfeição. A mulher, assim, estaria mais longe da perfeição que o homem.
Apesar de partir do recurso de distinção entre vida e existência, comum à ontologia fundamental, Beauvoir o faz denunciando a diminuição do devir orgânico e a valorização do projeto existencial: “pela invenção da ferramenta, a manutenção da vida tornou-se para o homem atividade e projeto, ao passo que na maternidade a mulher continua amarrada a seu corpo, como o animal” (BEAUVOIR, 1970, p. 86).
Outro aspecto interessante do pensamento de Beauvoir: a mulher, tal qual o animal, assume, em alguns momentos, um estranho duplo que a encerra no destino orgânico, enquanto a lança em uma dimensão mítica, que parece não ser mais que um reflexo da necessidade de sentido do projeto existencial androcêntrico.
No presente texto, discuto elementos dessa aproximação entre mulher e animal, baseada no devir orgânico: o distanciamento entre corpo e razão; a maior permissividade à homossexualidade feminina em relação à masculina, revelando o interesse pela reprodução, para a qual o homossexualismo masculino representa um maior risco; o duplo natureza-sagrado a que são destinados o animal e a mulher. A escrita é composta com a filosofia de Beauvoir, pela conformação do feminino, com a poética de Safo – “Lesbos” como recaptura do plano existencial feminino -, e com as provocações contemporâneas de Derrida – Animot como espaço de escape para a animalidade -, Agamben e Foucault.


Biografia:
Prof. Pesq. Universidade Federal do Triângulo Mineiro
Grad. Biologia (USP) e Filosofia (UFPR)
Dra. Ecologia e Recursos Naturais (UFSCar)
aamarinea@gmail.com

A ferida que nos separa: a Máquina Antropológica e o Animal

by Paulo Figueiredo

Agamben, no seu livro O Aberto: o Homem e o Animal refere que a máquina antropológica, onde o homem fazia uma produção de si próprio e construía o mundo com a linguagem, foi reconfigurada através da ciência. A ciência que decretou o Humanismo e a décalage entre Homem e Animal, colocando-o como soberano no mundo, o Sujeito cartesiano que “pensa, logo existe”. Partindo de uma iluminura pintada em uma Bíblia hebraica do séc. XIII, conservada na Biblioteca Ambrosiana de Milão, Agamben atravessa autores como Bataille, Kojève, Lineu, Von Uexküll e Heidegger, para estabelecer que a criação de apparatus trouxe a linha que divide o humano do inumano e cria uma cicatriz, uma fronteira/ferida entre homem e animal que é desviada para dentro do homem, colocando-o como estado de excepção. Ou seja, o homem só o é, na medida em que se reconhece como não sendo animal. E para tal, concebe-se, por intermédio da técnica, como dominador da Natureza colocando-a, como Heidegger dizia, em “total disponibilidade” ao alcance do proveito do humano. Assim, por via das ciências do humanismo e do apparatus, abre-se uma ferida até agora incicatrizável; uma separação entre Homem e Natureza. Projecto que começa agora a ser posto em causa perante a nova consciencialização para como o ecossistema tem sido colocado à disposição do Homem.
A apresentação terá por base os livros de Agamben e de Paul Ricoeur (O Aberto e Si-Mesmo Com Um Outro, respectivamente) e fará uso de exemplos de Bataille, Kojève, Lineu, Von Uexküll e Heidegger para situar e discutir a máquina antropológica como cisão entre Homem e Animal, para no final introduzir a hipótese da deterioração do ecossistema como catalisador da necessidade de repensar do lugar do Homem no mundo, usando para tal a Técnica como mediadora (como Walter Benjamin pretendia), e não como instrumento de dominação (Heidegger).


Biografia:
Paulo Figueiredo, 35 anos, residente em Lisboa, doutorando em Ciências da Comunicação pela Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas da Universidade Nova de Lisboa. Actualmente é investigador independente nas áreas das ciências da comunicação e filosofia da tecnologia e colaborador pontual do Centro de Estudos de Comunicação e Linguagem. 

Um Processo Social em Análise: Por uma nova Lei de Protecção aos Animais

by Henrique Chaves

Falar de movimentos sociais, sem olhar para a sua actuação e interacção com o Estado, pode tornar a análise sobre os movimentos sociais demasiado pobre, uma vez que o Estado é o órgão legislador que tem como uma das suas funções a criação de leis que rege o contexto onde este está inserido.
Em 2014, o movimento animalista português teve uma vitória concreta: maus-tratos contra os animais domésticos foram penalizados pela lei portuguesa, transformando-os assim em crime na esfera penal. Este Projecto-Lei foi protagonizado pela Associação Nortenha de Intervenção Animal (ANIMAL) através de uma Petição que tinha o seguinte título: “Por uma Nova Lei de Protecção aos Animais”. Partindo deste fenómeno social, procurarei analisar, profundamente, as dinâmicas relacionadas com este processo (Petição ao Projecto-lei) .
Este processo está marcado de avanços e recuos. A Petição que a ANIMAL lançou para recolha de assinaturas tinha objectivos que iam para além dos animais domésticos (exemplos: fim de animais nos circos e das touradas). Tendo cerca de 40 mil assinaturas e forte apoio de muitos artistas, intelectuais e pessoas mediáticas em geral. O que mostra o forte apoio social que a mesma teve antes de chegar ao parlamento. Mas no parlamento, a mesma é alvo de várias transformações, modificações e deformações.
Analisarei, principalmente, a dinâmica interna ao parlamento português. Não ficarei só pela análise especifica da petição ou da mobilização para levá-la ao parlamento, mas interessa-me, aqui, o processo de apreciação e discussão na Assembleia da Republica (AR). E, consecutivamente, aprovação na generalidade de alguns dos seus pontos através dos Projectos-Leis apresentados pelos partidos assentes na AR, Partido Socialista (PS) e Partido Social Democrata (PSD). Por fim, a aprovação global do projecto conjunto do PS e PSD.
Procurarei reflectir sobre este acontecimento utilizando como base a perspectiva dos movimentos sociais, debruçando-me aqui pelos contributos de Charles Tilly, que demonstra de forma interessante como é necessário compreender os movimentos sociais através da sua articulação com o Estado.
Por fim, esta comunicação visa descortinar o que se passa nos bastidores de discussão do parlamento, para além dos debates parlamentares. Mas também os bastidores de actuação de actores ligados às associações para além do trabalho efectuado na demonstração de rua (marchas, maninifestações, acções de sensibilização e outros) e/ou na comunicação social. Ou seja, bastidores que passam despercebido ao olhar do simples activistas e/ou cidadão, sendo, no entanto, neles que se encena a construção de novas dinâmicas que moldarão a sociedade.
 
Palavras chave: “movimento animalista”; “ANIMAL”; “Petição”; movimentos sociais”; “associações”.


Biografia:
Licenciado em Sociologia pela FCSH-UNL, encontra-se neste momento a fazer o primeiro ano de mestrado também em Sociologia, na variante de Comunidade e Dinâmicas Sociais, na mesma faculdade. primeiro ano de mestrado também em Sociologia, na variante de Comunidade e Dinâmicas Sociais, na mesma faculdade.

The filmic order and Animal Studies

by Ilda Teresa Castro

In the recognition of inter and intra-species relations of animals, the filmic serves as a tool for analysis and reflection, influence and intervention. Since the beginning of the Filmic History many works have represented and documented human and non-human animal interactions. In the last two decades, the growing production of documentaries with a focus on the non-human condition and natural world, the emergence of the ecodocumentary and ecocinema, reflects the ecological crisis that we experience in the Anthropocene. Simultaneously, dozens of digital videos available online register the behaviour of non-human animals in inter and intra-species interactions, revealing unsuspected realities, challenging perceptions and established beliefs.This communication approaches the representation and documentation on non-human animals mediated by filmic technologies throughout the Filmic History, and some of the consequences that it has on ethical involvement, animal law and paradigm shift.


Biography:
Ilda Teresa de Castro is a post doctoral researcher with the project "Paisagem e Mudança - Movimentos” (“Landscape and Change - Movements"). She obtained her PhD degree in Communication Sciences/Cinema and Television at Universidade Nova de Lisboa, with the thesis "Eu Animal - a ordem do fílmico na consciencialização ecocritica e na mudança de paradigma” (“I, Animal - the filmic order in ecocritical awareness and the paradigm shift"). Her thesis deals with the part films play, in the construction of an ecocritical conscience. She is an integrated member of the Instituto de Filosofia da Linguagem da Universidade Nova (IFILNOVA), and member of the Centro de Estudos de Comunicação e Linguagem (CECL).

castro.ilda@gmail.com

Feminism and Animals: Revenge Through Contemporary Art

by Miguel Bonneville

The principal objective of this paper is to demonstrate how feminist contemporary artists have used animals as metaphors in their works in order to expiate their relations with sexism.
Since 2003, my work has been about exploring the possibilities of autobiography and it is strongly related with feminist performance art as well as feminist contemporary art in general. 
The use of animals in feminist contemporary art is constant – from the paintings of Paula Rego to the sculptures of Kiki Smith and the performances of Ana Mendieta -, for the representation of men through a non-human animal form, or through anthropomorphism (the personification of animals) in works of art allow the artists to present a less shocking revenge (in Paula Rego’s case, for example, she states that “It’s easier if you make them into animals because you can do things to animals that you can’t do to people because it’s too shocking. You can cut off a person’s tail – like in ‘Wife Cuts Off Red Monkey’s Tail’ - which is a form of revenge for her.”), and it also allows them to provide the spectator with a wider range of possible readings and meanings, making it less dramatic and more detached.
This paper is a personal odyssey where I will describe some autobiographical experiences and how they have influenced my work during that last twelve years; how my experiences with sexism have been transposed into art and how men became non-human animals in my performances. I will also, in parallel, discuss, relate and give examples of feminist artists who have also worked with animal imagery – Hayley Newman, Rebecca Horn, Sophie Calle, Marina Abramovic, Guerrilla Girls, among others.


Biography: 
Miguel Bonneville (Portugal, 1985) completed the Acting Course at Academia Contemporânea do Espectáculo (2000-2003), the Visual Arts Course at Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (2006), the ‘Autobiographies, Life Stories and Artist’s Lives’ course at CIES-ISCTE (2008), the ‘Archive – Organization and Maintenance’ course at Citeforma (2013) and the ‘Sewing ideas’ course at Magestil (2013). 
Whether in performances, drawings, photographs, music, artist's books, Miguel Bonneville introduces us to autobiographical stories focused on the deconstruction and reconstruction of identity. 
He presents his work throughout art galleries and international festivals, namely the projects 'Family Project’, ‘Miguel Bonneville’ and ‘The importance of being…’, which have been showed in Spain, Germany, Poland, Estonia, Italy, Argentina, Brazil, USA and China.
He collaborates regularly with artists such as Carlota Lagido, David Bonneville, Sonia Baptista, Joana Linda, Joana Craveiro and Maria Gil, having also collaborated with Francisco Camacho, Teatro Praga, La Ribot, AVaspo, among others.
Bonneville has participated in artistic residencies like Sítio das Artes / Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (Lisbon, 2007), Homesession, (Barcelona, 2008), Mugatxoan / Serralves Foundation (Porto, 2010), Transeuropa2012 (Hildesheim, 2012), Arts Printing House (Vilnius, 2013), Arte y Desarrollo (Madrid, 2014) and Azala (Lasierra, 2014), and has given lectures about his work in Universities (FBAUP, ESAD, BBAA) as well as Contemporary Art Centers and Festivals (Iberia Center for Contemporary Art – Beijing, Alhóndiga – Bilbao, CAM – Gulbenkian).
He was part of the artistic nucleus of the contemporary dance production company Eira (2004-2006) and contemporary art gallery Galeria 3+1 Arte Contemporânea (2009-2013).
He works and lives in Lisbon, Portugal.

In black and white: explorations on Animalario by Nuria Cubas

by Vanessa Badagliacca

Animalario is a video art project released by the Spanish video artist and filmmaker Nuria Cubas (Madrid, 1984) between 2011 and 2012, and in progress, or rather possible to be continued even though complete in its concept. Watching the chapters composing this video-art piece, the first question arising would be—in the words of a John Berger’s essay title—“Why look at animals?” (1977). He remarked that from the same origin of man “the first subject matter for painting was animal. Probably the first paint was animal blood. Prior to that, it is not unreasonable to suppose that the first metaphor was animal”. If, as he highlights, Aristotle’s History of Animals, had already displayed quantitative and comparative differences between animal and man, nevertheless the process enabled by Nuria Cubas is significantly different.
For the extent, she indulges in a slow observation of animal behaviors, shape and physical characteristics. The spectator participates and is invited to put into action the richest repertoire of sounds owned by his/her aural memory while following the images passing by in the mute video, whose black and white awakens an atemporal imaginary of sounds. What is presented, using the words of a book by the Italian philosopher Guido Ceronetti, is “the silence of the body” (G.Ceronetti, Il Silenzio del corpo, Milano, Adelphi, (1979) 2010), even if the body to which he refers is the human. Silencing the non-human animals featured in Animalario, Nuria Cubas entices, or even accelerates, our projections, thoughts and feelings in the animals filmed.
The resemblance to Bill Viola’s I Do Not Know What It Is I Am Like (1986) is apparent, even though both pieces maintain evident differences as well. If Animalario seems to propose an approximation of the human to the non-human animal, Bill Viola’s video apparently points out differences and distances between them. According to Kari Weil, in fact, I Do Not Know What It Is I Am Like “reminds us of the what that is at the foundation of every who and of the ways in which we humans try to distance ourselves from this what. (K. Weil, Thinking Animals: Why Animal Studies Now?, Columbia University Press, 2012, p.38).
Abstaining from a documentary report, with a result more similar to a novel description filled by introspective random thoughts, in fact, she is able to recreate in the spectator view a sort of personal relationship with what he sees. In other words, she opens the path towards an activation of that “first metaphor” mentioned by Berger, eliciting what Gilles Deleuze identified as the “becoming-animal”. Moreover, the varieties of animals filmed, induce the spectator to reconstruct a sort of mental map, an atlas in which the geography of life of the non-human as well as the human animals is distributed, changeable, in transition.


Biography:
Vanessa Badagliacca is a PhD candidate in contemporary art history at the IHA, FSCH, UNL, where she is also member of the group research “Transnational perspectives on contemporary art”. Her theses focuses on organic materiality in the 20th century art and in 2014 she published two academic articles:  “When a tree becomes art. Alberto Carneiro and international artistic context around 1968”, Chronica Mundi, Issue on “Nature”, Volume I, Issue 9, 2014; “Doing and Nothing. An exploration on Song Dong’s Doing Nothing Garden and the possibility of renewing ourselves and our environment through not doing”, Zeteo. The Journal of Interdisciplinary Writing, Spring Issue 2014.

Against the Animal as an Anthropocentric Concept: Exploring the Ahuman

by Agnes Trzak

As academics and activists we contribute to antispeciesist work within such fields as animal studies and we locate ourselves within the animal turn , where we learn to focus on the animal as the subject of interest. I suggest a radically different approach for our work, which, like in many social justice causes, shifts the focus from the oppressed to the oppressor, specifically from the animal to what I term the (hu)man. The (hu)man, I suggest, is the masculinist, anthropocentric subject of kyriarchy, a concept describing the interconnectivity of all systems of domination (Sch ü ssler Fiorenza 1992) such as racism, sexism, ageism, nationalism, and speciesism. Thus, to achieve liberation I suggest we need to dismantle kyriarchy by deconstructing the (hu)man and all his institutions. We shall do so by practicing what Patricia MacCormack terms the ahuman (2014). In antispeciesist work we often try to lend a voice to animals by humanising their existence and suffering. We interpret and describe their worlds and their desires. Our intention is to ease their suffering, however we forget that it is the very instance of our human most benevolent identification, description, categorisation and classification of the animal that fetishises and thus objectifies them. Once we have gathered sufficient evidence we declare that specific animals are animate and sentient, thus resembling the human enough for us to acknowledge that they suffer in the spaces in which we imprison them. We do this in order to liberate them by granting them rights, albeit animal rights.
I argue that practicing liberation (be it animal, queer, race or disability based) through this (hu)man concept of right acquisition only ever betrays the Other. By fighting for (equal) rights we fight for ourselves and the animals to become more like, and part of, our oppressors, the white male cishetero subjects who define themselves through our Otherness. We should instead recognise and accept difference. Especially in our antispeciesist work we must acknowledge that we cannot ever know the animal , as it is a (hu)man concept and can thus only exist as a reflection of our perceptions and never in its own right.
I explore how this idea translates into a practice of the ahuman instead of the (hu)man. Within animal studies our subject will always be the animal and our discourse will always be a human and thus a (hu)man one. Hence, we need to shift our thought from the anthropocentric conceptualisation of rights to one of liberation. We can do so by theorising the ahuman instead of the animal. I suggest that the ahuman can not only be theorised but also practiced by creating a queer feminist vegan understanding of intersectional oppression in which the subject of our theory and practice is the (hu)man, which must be deconstructed, undone and eliminated so as to be replaced by the ahuman. I intend to draw attention to possibilities of becoming ahuman and thus preserving our differences as human Others, instead of being appropriated by the (hu)man. As an extension of this, my paper thus addresses not only the undoing of the (hu)man but also that of his relation to the animal.


Biography:
Activist and PhD student at Anglia Ruskin University, UK (work to be completed in August 2015). a.trzak@gmail.com

Anarchism and Animals

by Friederike Schmitz

 
In the course of the recent "political turn" in animal ethics, human-animal relations have been investigated from the perspective of a range of different political theories. Most prominently liberalism, communitarianism and Marxism have served as a framework to discuss the possibilities and implications of integrating the claims of nonhumans into political theory. Anarchism, however, is rarely discussed in this context, which is surprising because anarchist ideas and commitments play such a significant role within the animal liberation movement. In my talk, I will fill this gap by looking at some of the central aspects of the relation of anarchism to animals.
I will first sketch out a few general features of anarchist political theory. A link to the animal liberation position can be drawn if our treatment of animals is understood as one form of domination or oppression among others that need to be abolished. In addition, the anarchist elements present in many currents of environmental ethics can inform our relations with nonhuman animals as well.
After outlining these general connections, I will address various systematic questions concerning the theme. First I will discuss whether and in what sense the concepts of domination and oppression are applicable to human relations with animals. I will claim that while the case for an interpretation of our treatment of animals as oppression is straightforward, the concept of domination is more complicated. Here I will distinguish between a descriptive and a normative sense of the term and argue that although we may not be able to avoid dominating at least some animals in the descriptiv sense we can still strive to avoid dominating them in a normative sense.
The second systematic question concerns the potential connections between various oppressive relations. I will briefly rehearse the arguments for the interrelations of sexism and speciesism and racism and speciesism and will then highlight some of the sexist and racist behaviour to be found within the animal and vegan movement. Additionally I intend drawing attention to the connections between the treatment of animals and political power structures which suggest, in my view, that the current level of animal exploitation is made possibly by various mechanisms in our society, such a the abdication of individual responsibilty enabled by the prevailing forms of economic and political decision making. I draw the conclusion that the introduction of more direct forms of democracy and the self-organisation of communities would likely benefit animals.
Thirdly I will discuss how anarchists may consider the need to observe animals' interests if they are unable to easily communicate with the rest of society. 
Finally, I will sketch out the implications anarchist theoretical perspectives might have on questions of strategy for political activists.


Biography:
Friederike Schmitz studied philosophy and German literature in Heidelberg, Cambridge and Berlin. Her PhD in theoretical philosophy was on Hume and Wittgenstein in Heidelberg. She is currently working on a postdoc project on ethical and political aspects of human-animal-relations at the Freie Universität Berlin. She is the editor of a German reader on animal ethics that was published in January 2014.

Contact details:
Dr. Friederike Schmitz
Leinestrasse 11
D-12049 Berlin
friederike.schmitz@posteo.de 

Subhuman and nonhuman animals: the crossroads between animal liberation, feminism, punk and anarchism within portuguese punk zines of the early 1990s.

by Ana Mateus

Portuguese hardcore punk music became prominent in the beginning of the 1990s. This new generation would combine faster music and radical politics. Punk hardcore scenes developed alternative (i.e. anticapitalist and translocal) forms of producing, exchanging and consuming punk cultural products, to accomplish what Stephen Duncombe describes as: “make your own culture and stop consuming that which is made for you” (Triggs: 2006). In other words, people would set shows, write zines, run small distros and labels following anarchist DIY principles. The early 1990s Portuguese hardcore punk scenes political agenda was not meant to be “confined by the punk scenes” (Hardmann: 2005). In order to pursue social change these hardcore punk scenes disseminated a call for action that included new themes, tying punk to ecological, feminist, LGBT, anti-racist, animal’s rights, housing rights and anarchist collectives and associations.
These crossroads provided a strong sense of political engagement. Everyday life got under scrutiny for the purpose of liberation (cognitive / human / animal / earth / women’s). The emergence of zines entirely focus on animal liberation and on feminism, in this context, is my prime concern. The goal is to explore those pioneer zines political content and analyse how political involvement was conceived.
Feminist perspectives examine gender dynamics and work to make women and the challenges they face visible. My intention is to look closer on women’s writing focusing on the zines they wrote and on the way they address sexism and speciesism. Two zines in particular: “Naturanimal” the first Portuguese punk zine entirely dedicated to animal liberation, published by a woman who later would co-found the United Libertarian Women’s collective (Mulheres Libertárias Unidas) with other women and publish “!MULIBU!” zine, the first one entirely dedicated to women’s issues.

Triggs, Teal (2006) Scissors and Glue: Punk Fanzines and the Creation of a DIY Aesthetic. Journal of Design History Vol. 19, No. 1, 69-83.
Hardman, Emilie (2007) Before You Can Get Off Your Knees: Profane Existence and Anarcho-Punk as Social Movement. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association, TBA, New York, New York City, Aug. 11, 2007. Accessed in April 11, 2015:   http://citation.allacademic.com/meta/p184536_index.html


Biography:
Ana Mateus is a history graduation student at the University of Coimbra and a feminist activist.

The ethics of vegan anarchism & the squatters' movement

by tina cubberley

this video is about the shared revolutionary values of the vegan movement & squatted communitys . through video, photography, & spoken word performanse , i wil xplore conventional, socialy acsepted notions of free & safe spase ,& also ilustrate how the capitalist System robs the whole idea of freedom of its meaning . i wil then contrast these with the revolutionary praxis of the squatters' movement , & discus how the values on which this movement's defiant eforts to reclaim spase are based are also at the heart of the struggle for animal liberation . i wil draw on my own xperiense ,as a resident in & co-founder of a squatter spase , & as an anarcho-feminist animal rights advocate , to create a visual manifesto for the creation of a vegan squatters' movement . in summary, my presentation wil be a blend of images,storys ,thoughts & practical advise from a vegan squatter on begining the creation of a world in which we can all feel respected & safe .


Biography:
im a straight edge vegan feminist who's involved in the anarchist community in dublin . i hav co-founded a squatted spase which has sinse been evicted,& i do design work & outreach with the Vegan Information Project . im working on developing a dublin based chapter of Food Not Bombs ,an im also a zine writer ,focusing mainly on patriarchal & speciesist violence in my work ,as wel as xploring the revolutionary posibilitys of diy culture .