Animal Suffering and the Politics of Shame

This project starts from the idea that shame is an unavoidable part of how we become who we are and how societies maintain order. Rather than seeing shame only as something negative or harmful, it argues that shame can play a valuable critical role. Because shame cannot be eliminated, the project asks how it might be used more productively to question and change social norms. It develops what it calls a “politics of shame”: an approach that treats shame not mainly as a tool for correcting individual behavior, but as a way of challenging the norms that shape social life. The project focuses on shame in response to animal suffering, shifting attention from individual wrongdoing to the moral assumptions that allow certain forms of harm to be seen as normal or acceptable. Examining animal suffering reveals the fragility of these norms and, more broadly, of the values governing our treatment of animals, the environment, and one another.

Funder: Austrian Science Fund (FWF)