Events

On 4-5 November 2023, I made a presentation titled "Lost Faces: The Blindness of the Ethnographic Perspective towards Non-Human Actors" at the VI International Congress on Critical Debates in Social Sciences organised by Izmir Democracy University in Izmir, İzmir. 

You can access the video of the presentation from the "Talks" tab. In this presentation, starting with the history of ethnography, I tried to trace the traces of anthropocentric understanding through a historical reading from the first ethnographic studies in history to the studies carried out until today. As a result, I discussed the possibility of Multispecies Ethnography and argued that the field needs a new methodology by exemplifying the results of anthropocentric understanding.

At the International Science Forum held in Antalya (29-30-1. November-December 2023), we discussed and debated issues related to climate crisis, environmental problems and migration. I was there representing The Save Movement and Yana Yana Association, with which I have been struggling together. At the International Antalya Science Forum (ANISF) on "Climate Change, Environmental Crisis and Migration" organised by Akdeniz University Social Policy and Migration Studies Application and Research Centre (ASPAG), I presented an oral presentation titled "Civil Society Organisations in the Fight against Climate Crisis: The Save Movement and the Case of Plant-Based Treaty" organised by ASPAG.

Photography has been discussed in many areas in terms of both its nature and effects. “Does photography represent reality? If so, how much will it cost?", "To what extent does the photographer's socio-cultural structure and epistemic attitude affect the photographs he takes?", "To what extent is the relationship of the photographed actor with photography similar to the photographer's relationship with photography?", "Who can be photographed or through photographic images? Can it be mourned?” ... These and similar debates date back to long before the 19th century, when photography first appeared, to the evaluations of ancient Greek thinkers such as Socrates, Plato and Aristotle regarding the nature of art and its representational value.

This work problematizes the position of the person photographed, the photographer and the audience by questioning what kind of relationship photography has with its object. The claim that photography reflects an indisputable reality with a positivist approach that reduces relationships to objective facts will not gain value in the face of today's reflexive understanding of social sciences. The photographer builds a narrative through his relationship with the photograph before and after taking the photograph. He tries to mediate the photographs with his audience within this narrative. For example, a war photojournalist coming from a relatively prosperous country may have a mission such as "showing the invisible realities" when going to countries where civil wars have broken out, but the photographer's view of the locals in the region, how he handles his own position and the socio-cultural structure he is in at that moment may have a mission. Dominant discourses directly affect the photographer's relationship with photographs. Similarly, the audience that encounters the photographs is also important. Viewers with different socio-cultural structures do not react the same to a photograph. Differences in ways of seeing and their effects on our daily lives play a role here.

This study also criticizes the fact that photography discussions are centered on human-human relations. As will be mentioned in the study, many photography theorists ignore the agency of non-human animals with an anthropocentric attitude in their discourses on photography. What is the status of the non-human animal as a photographic image? How do the photographer and the audience relate to them? In recent years, animal photojournalism has emerged to break this understanding, and many animal photojournalists claim that violence is read only through humans, and that violence against non-human animals is also addressed from a point that points to humans. Organizations with a global impact, such as We Animals Media, are trying to build a non-anthropocentric social memory by photographing all kinds of violence against non-human animals with animal photojournalists from all over the world. This study emphasizes that photography, the photographer and the audience should get rid of an anthropocentric attitude and perceive the photographic image from a non-speciesist perspective. Only then can we talk about the neutrality of the photographic image and the construction of vision regimes from a non-speciesist point of view.

Key Words: Photography, visual regime, animal photojournalism, posthumanism, anthropocentrism.

Throughout the historical process, environmental factors have been decisively important factors from the formation of living beings to their death. The relationship of all living things, including humans, with the environment has determined their life course. The fact that the ecological structure is so decisive raises the question for us humans: "How much influence does ecology have on the dynamics of our socio-cultural structures?". Unfortunately, this question is not on the agenda today. The reason for this is the alienation of the human species from other species and its environment in line with an egocentric understanding of the universe, isolated by large urban structures. So how does the human being relate to the environment today? Especially at a time when urban structures are increasing and expanding, the fact that the increasing population is causing diseases, wars and famines in an increasingly Malthusian manner makes us doubt what the environment is in the eyes of humans and how we position our own species. It is said, so to speak: "We are at such a war with the environment that if we win, we will lose". In the introductory part of this presentation, based on the relationship that human beings have established with their environment, answers will be sought to questions such as how environmental relations were established throughout early human history, how cities were structured, and how human relations with the environment are today.

Nomadic human life, together with the transition to a sedentary lifestyle, changed various forms of habits. Simply put, thanks to agriculturalization, production and consumption relations became more refined. Along with agriculturalization, animal husbandry also developed and became an industrial sector. Perhaps for the first time, man distances himself from the non-human to such an extent that he turns it into a commodity, an object of consumption embedded in everyday life. The selfishness of human beings increases more and more. It is precisely in these periods, when industrialization is gaining momentum, that the livestock sector becomes popular and is used as a food stock for the growing population. It was during these periods that veganism was first taken up as a serious philosophical principle. The human being is so embedded in his/her relationship with the non-human that he/she is blind to the habitats within the environmental structure outside himself/herself. Veganism develops and enriches as a principle of life, a comprehensive ideology that offers practical barriers to everyday life, rather than being reduced to a mere form of consumption. Today, ecology, that is, human agency in relation to environmental conditions, cannot find meaning without encountering the non-human, the non-human other. Therefore, in the second part of this presentation, we will discuss the solutions offered by veganism to the problematic relationship that humans have with their environment, and why the environment and the non-human should be considered and respected in the same context. 

Finally, believing that every presentation should have a constructive outcome, we would like to include the arguments that exclude veganism in today's ecological struggle, and open up for discussion the ways in which these arguments should be developed and include veganism. Today, we see human socio-cultural structures intersecting with ecological studies. For example, intersectional perspectives such as ecofeminism, deep ecology, ecosocialism, green anarchism have begun to emerge. Where does veganism fit in here? Does being vegan indicate a deviation in the ecological determinist historical process or, on the contrary, does it attempt to correct a deviation that has become industrialized, outside of ecology, and endowed with human desires? In this presentation, we will open up these issues for discussion by presenting examples from current formations, as well as examples of work done and acquired by vegans throughout the historical process. 

Keywords: Deep Ecology, Social Ecology, Veganism, Eco-Feminism, Green Anarchism.