Department of Chemistry and BiologyChemistry, Biology, Process Engineering, Biodiversity and Ecology

Today, 84% of French people want intensive farming to be banned in a country where 8 out of 10 animals slaughtered come from these farms and where only 2% of the population identify as vegetarian. To explore this paradox, political scientist Réjane Sénac offers an in-depth look at the animal rights movement. By interviewing 59 association leaders and activists (269 from Libération Animale, 30 from Millions d'amis, L214, SPA, etc.) and observing activist actions and alternatives—such as night vigils in front of slaughterhouses, awareness campaigns, video distribution, and animal shelters—she highlights how these mobilizations shake us up and bring animal abuse into the public eye. She questions how the animal issue challenges our relationship with injustice, violence, love, and hope. 

Discussing

A lecture hosted by Laurent Bègue-Shankland, professor of social psychology, member of LIP/PC2S, and director of the Maison des Sciences Humaines Alpes.

Additional information

Réjane Sénac is a CNRS research director at the Center for Political Research at Sciences Po (CEVIPOF) and director of the political science department at Sciences Po. Her research and teaching activities share a common focus on examining contemporary expressions of the principle of equality through the prism of differentiations deemed legitimate and illegitimate. To this end, she has analyzed the principles of public justification for inclusion policies for those she describes as "non-brothers," particularly the promotion of parity and diversity. She works on the synergies between contemporary mobilizations against injustices, particularly sexist, racist, social, ecological, and speciesist injustices. Her publications include Par effraction. Rendre visible la question animale (Stock, 2025), Comme si nous étions des animaux (Seuil, Libelle, 2024), Radicales et fluides. Les mobilisations contemporaines (Presses de Sciences Po, 2021), and Les non-frères au pays de l’égalité (Presses de Sciences Po, 2017).


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