Category: Articles

An Interview with Matthew Calarco – Thinking Like Animals

Pablo P. Castelló  Junior Fellow of the Animals and Biodiversity programme, Global Research Network. Matthew Calarco is a continental and animal philosopher who has lived veganism as a set of daily practices for over three decades. His work has decisively influenced the field of critical animal studies and animal philosophy, and inspired the work of many scholars in those fields. Calarco is a grounded philosopher in that he stresses the importance of being attentive to the ecologies of our neighbourhoods and towns, how we constitute and are constituted by these ecological relations, and the environment more generally. He has coined the term “indistinction,” which is a concept that seeks to open spaces where the lines between humans and the more than human world blur. He contends that indistinction should contribute to changing human-animal relationships, and enable more just ways to live with, relate to and be with others. In this interview, Calarco will discuss some of his most important and ground-breaking ideas: he challenges the argument that speciesism is a key axis to discriminate against animals, and argues that we should not be led to practice veganism by creating sacred sites in which humans and some animals appear as inedible, but rather think of human and non-human animals as being meaty, that is, edible and vulnerable embodied mortals. This interview happened through correspondence in the Summer of 2021.   Pablo P. Castelló (PPC): Can you tell us a bit about yourself? Where are you based and where were you raised? What was the political culture around you like? And how did you end up in the field of animal philosophy? Matthew Calarco (MC): I currently live in Aliso Viejo, California in the United States and teach philosophy at California State University, Fullerton. I was born and raised just down the road from here in Escondido. The city of Escondido was fairly conservative when I was growing up (and still is), and I attended Christian school up until middle school. So, I was surrounded for many years by strongly conservative people and institutions; oddly enough, though, those values and worldview never really appealed to me or formed me in any deep way. I became critical of religion at a fairly young age, and I always had a taste for the “outside”—by which I mean not just the outdoors (which I did love) but also alternative cultures, music, and ways of life. I was deeply immersed in hip hop culture and DJing all through my teen years and twenties, and my experiences in those circles were deeply formative for me. Even though I eventually left the music and DJing scene, the values and ideals of indie hip hop and related musical cultures remain important to me. In terms of animal philosophy and my interest in those topics, those things too began fairly early in my life. Before I entered high school, my family adopted a vegetarian diet largely for health reasons; but as we became more informed about animal issues, the commitment…

Diversity In International Arbitral Tribunals

As one practitioner said, the arbitral tribunal’s diversity is the last thing in anyone’s mind when they are looking for an arbitrator. 1 Many surveys also demonstrate that the diversity in arbitral tribunals is still an issue.2 Most of the time, parties in dispute tend to rely on a closed pool of famous arbitrators leaving behind the other part of young and rising practitioners.

The collapse of counter-terrorism

As the Islamic State claims responsibility for the recent terrorist attacks in Paris and Belgium, David Kilcullen’s book Blood Year: Islamic State and the Failures of the War on Terror is essential reading that charts how this terrorist group – once believed to be a minor threat – spread from Iraq through to Europe and beyond, with gruesome consequences for all it comes into contact with.

International Arbitration and Mediation: Friends or Foes?

International arbitration and mediation have been serving and complementing each for over a decade. Although both aim to resolve disputes between parties in conflict, fundamental differences in terms of process and application still remain, with debates around each is supportive or undermining of the other.

Migration and Poverty: An Indian Reality

Migration is a very delicate matter that needs to be addressed appropriately and has been a subject of intense debate in recent times. This paper tries to look at this phenomenon of migration in relation with poverty and education. Poverty is the outcome of mismanagement of human and natural resources. It can be considered as one of the major root-causes of migration. Inspite of various Constitutional provisions and a number of legislations enacted for the betterment of migrant population, the plight of the migrants and their children have not drastically been changed. The children of the migrant laborers are still being denied not only their right to education but also right to childhood and right to livelihood; the women are victims of all kinds of exploitations, harassments and humiliations. Unless or until we change the adopted pattern of development for years, in all spheres of national life and make all developments human centric, migration cannot be stopped and the prevailing pathetic condition of the migrants, their children and families continue to be present in different forms.

International and Non-International Armed Conflicts and Application of International Humanitarian Law as Lex Specialis

Does the distinction between international and non-international armed conflicts still exist or has it been virtually eliminated? If there are no distinctions and same set of rules govern both international and non-international armed conflicts, will the international humanitarian law apply as the lex specialis to the exclusion of the international human rights law in all armed conflicts, whether international or noninternational in character? This article addresses these issues with the help of legal instruments and case laws.