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6 - The Attitudes of People with Different Gender Identities and Different Perceptions of Gender Roles towards Nonhuman Animals and Their Welfare
- Edited by Emma Milne, Durham University, Pamela Davies, Northumbria University, Newcastle, James Heydon, University of Nottingham, Kay Peggs, Kingston University, London, Tanya Wyatt, Northumbria University, Newcastle
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- Book:
- Gendering Green Criminology
- Published by:
- Bristol University Press
- Published online:
- 28 March 2024
- Print publication:
- 06 October 2023, pp 97-118
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Summary
Introduction
The UK claims to have a long tradition of animal welfare, including the creation of the world's first animal welfare charity, the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, which was founded in 1824 and which became the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA, 2022). The UK also claims its legislation goes beyond European Union (EU) requirements (World Animal Protection, 2020). Yet, 6.4 billion nonhuman animals are killed annually to support the UK food supply (Animal Clock UK, 2020) and more than 3.4 million animals were used for the first time in experiments in 2018 (Animal Aid, 2018). Jail terms for animal cruelty in England and Wales are the lowest in Europe (Bell, 2017). In order to decrease and ultimately eliminate nonhuman animal suffering, there needs to be better understanding of attitudes towards nonhuman animals. While previous studies have explored attitudes towards nonhuman animals using a range of variables, those that have studied gender as a variable have used the traditional binary definition of gender, ‘men’ and ‘women’ (Wells and Hepper, 1997; Evans et al, 1998; Woodward and Bauer, 2007; Lee et al, 2010; Tesform and Birch, 2013; Kendall et al, 2016; Byrd et al, 2017; Knight et al, 2017). These studies found that women are more likely to be concerned with nonhuman animal suffering (Wells and Hepper, 1997; Evans et al, 1998).
However, gender is not a biological construct or even a distinct category. Butler (1990: 31) defines gender identity as ‘a performative accomplishment compelled by social sanction and taboo. … Gender is … an identity instituted through a repetition of acts’. While she recognises the limits to how much agency individuals performing gender can have (Butler, 2004), the idea of gender as a performative accomplishment redirects the attention from internal individual matters towards interactional and institutional realms (West and Zimmerman, 1987). Thus, gender identity becomes a matter of both bodies and cultures (Fausto-Sterling, 2019). The recognition of non-binary (NB) gender identity is relatively recent, with Australia offering a third gender ‘X’ option on all passports in 2011 (The Guardian, 2011), and the state of Oregon in the United States recognising non-binary gender identity in 2016 (Shupe, 2016).
8 - Food Production Harms in the European Context: The EU as an Enabler or a Solution?
- Edited by Nicholas Lord, University of Manchester, Éva Inzelt, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Wim Huisman, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, Rita Faria, Universidade do Porto
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- Book:
- European White-Collar Crime
- Published by:
- Bristol University Press
- Published online:
- 13 April 2023
- Print publication:
- 21 July 2021, pp 125-142
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Summary
Introduction
Food is vitally important for human subsistence. Moreover, the nature of socio-environmental and politico-economic conditions is particularly intricate in the process of food production. This intricacy begs the question, ‘who is producing what kind of food, for whose benefit, and to whose disadvantage?’ (Moragues-Faus and Marsden, 2017: 281).
This chapter poses the question of whether food production-focused research can also become the lens that helps to open up new lines of inquiry about what is ‘European’ about European white-collar crime. Even though both isolated deviancy and systemic harm feature in the fabric of modern food systems, criminological engagement with intersections of food, crime and harm has not been prolific (see Walters, 2007; Cheng, 2011; Croall, 2012). Once the concept of food crime was introduced by Croall in 2007, avenues for research included food fraud, food poisoning (Tombs and Whyte, 2010), food mislabelling (Croall, 2012), trade practices and environmental law (Walters, 2006), food pricing, exploitation in food production (Tombs and Whyte, 2007) and cruelty to animals (Agnew, 1998; Yates, 2007).
The intersection of food and criminological research in the European context can be observed in The Routledge Handbook of White-Collar and Corporate Crime in Europe (2015), which invokes the topic of food crime in relation to food adulteration and hygiene regulation. Since then, European criminologists have developed a better understanding of the criminal acts embedded in the food chain through the analysis of food fraud (Lord et al, 2017; Flores Elizondo et al, 2018; Ruth et al, 2018) and harmful labour practices (Davies, 2018). Nevertheless, only 12 out of 42 contributors to the most recent edition of A Handbook of Food Crime (Gray and Hinch, 2018) come from European countries, with the majority of authors being North American and Australian researchers. It is evident that the European research on food crime needs to be problematized further. Moreover, the specificities of the European context might facilitate this task and provide additional opportunities for academic inquiry, thus advancing research into both food crime and European white-collar crime.
Echoing critical traditions in criminology, I suggest that focusing solely on food crime creates boundaries that do not allow us to venture beyond the rigid binary between criminal and lawful. Food production may involve serious harms that lie beyond traditional definitions of crime (Gray and Hinch, 2015), on the spectrum that Passas (2005) calls ‘lawful but awful’.
Atomic Force Microscopy Study of Atherosclerosis Progression in Arterial Walls
- Peter S. Timashev, Svetlana L. Kotova, Galina V. Belkova, Ekaterina V. Gubar’kova, Lidia B. Timofeeva, Natalia D. Gladkova, Anna B. Solovieva
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- Journal:
- Microscopy and Microanalysis / Volume 22 / Issue 2 / April 2016
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 04 February 2016, pp. 311-325
- Print publication:
- April 2016
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Cardiovascular disease remains the leading cause of mortality worldwide. Here we suggest a novel approach for tracking atherosclerosis progression based on the use of atomic force microscopy (AFM). Using AFM, we studied cross-sections of coronary arteries with the following types of lesions: Type II—thickened intima; Type III—thickened intima with a lipid streak; Type IV—fibrotic layer over a lipid core; Type Va—unstable fibrotic layer over a lipid core; Type Vc—very thick fibrotic layer. AFM imaging revealed that the fibrotic layer of an atherosclerotic plaque is represented by a basket-weave network of collagen fibers and a subscale network of fibrils that become looser with atherosclerosis progression. In an unstable plaque (Type Va), packing of the collagen fibers and fibrils becomes even less uniform than that at the previous stages, while a stable fibrotic plaque (Vc) has significantly tighter packing. Such alterations of the collagen network morphology apparently, led to deterioration of the Type Va plaque mechanical properties, that, in turn, resulted in its instability and propensity to rupture. Thus, AFM may serve as a useful tool for tracking atherosclerosis progression in the arterial wall tissue.