Civilising Violence against Animals? Process-Sociological Reflections on the Ambivalence of Personalisation and Objectification of Animals.

The societal negotiation, evaluation, and sanctioning of violence against animals varies considerably: while some animals are largely protected from violence and hold a high social status as friends or family members, extensive violent practices toward other animals remain legal and normalized. This article analyzes, from a process-sociological perspective, how the ambivalent civilizing process of violence against animals can be explained. To this end, it examines the simultaneous processes of increasing personalization and objectification of animals. Personalized animals, such as many so-called companion animals, are regarded as individual subjects of high moral relevance. Objectification, by contrast, primarily affects farmed animals, which are largely treated as interchangeable objects and commodities. The article also identifies several factors that contribute to the growing challenge to the normative distinction between personalized and objectified animals. This challenge itself, however, remains highly contested and continues to provoke new societal debates about violence against animals.