24 April, member of the team, Petteri, gave a guest lecture in the Colloquium of the Working Group “Animal-Human Sociology” within the German Sociological Association. See below for the title and the short abstract for the talk. Petteri sends many thanks for Marcel Sebastian for invitation and for having him in colloquium!
Making the modern ‘meat complex’ – The co-production of Humans and Pigs in Finnish agricultural modernization
Using the history of Finnish agricultural modernization as the case-study, this presentation discusses the making of the modern ‘meat complex’. While the context of the talk is historical – the modernization of animal agriculture in the first half of the 20th century Finland – the approach is conceptual. First, the notion of complex is discussed to fit the concept itself within the context of multispecies relations, ‘meatification’ of society, and commercialization of agriculture in the early 20th century Finland. Second, the talk focuses on the relations between humans and pigs and highlights ‘multispecies practices’ as an analytical concept with which the co-production of humans and pigs might be analysed. Finally, to illustrate the multispecies practices, the co-production of humans and pigs is discussed in the contexts of circular economy of energy and multispecies labour relations.