'We are all animals': the emergence of the grassroots nonhuman animal rights movement in Istanbul

Official URL: http://risc01.sabanciuniv.edu/record=b1628633 (Table of Contents)

Within merely a few years time a radical nonhuman animal rights movement with an explicitly vegan character has appeared on the activist scene in Istanbul and in other locations in Turkey. This thesis looks into some of its characteristics. How does a carnist turn into a nonhuman animal rights activist; what are the patterns that characterize the transition to a vegan lifestyle and recruitment into the animal rights movement? And what do these findings imply for the collective action frames that vegan missionaries in Istanbul employ to convert and recruit new people? Generally internal divisions within the nonhuman animal rights movement in Istanbul are based on differences regarding collective action frames, which lead activists to apply certain tactics and reject others. I suggest that the relatively late emergence of the animal rights movement in Turkey has enabled activists to look critically at what has gone wrong in the animal rights movement elsewhere. The critical perspective by animal rights activists in Turkey has led to the movement’s radical character and the concern on the part of activists to apply the “right” tactics. This also explains the high degree of awareness regarding other forms of discrimination than speciesism, such as sexism, heterosexism, racism, nationalism, and misanthropy. Nevertheless, internal frame disputes reveal that work remains to be done when it comes to avoiding other forms of discrimination within the movement. Critical intersectional voices are on the rise; pushing the movement for further self-improvement.