New Arenas for Civic Expansion: Humans, Animals and Artificial Intelligence, 2020-2024

This project involved cross-national qualitative research which explored what factors shape individualism, and human and non-human relations in civil society, with reference to animal rights and welfare, and artificial intelligence. Interviews were carried out to explore the framing of animal rights and animal welfare in Civil Society Organisations’ advocacy and campaigning materials in order to understand how they express and reflect civil society views on animal rights and animal welfare. We specifically explored how they seek to recast and challenge traditional conceptions of civil society to take fuller account of human and non-human relations. For animal rights and artificial intelligence, interviews were conducted in Civil Society Organisations in the United Kingdom. Further interviews were conducted on animal rights in Non-Governmental Organisations in India.