De-anthropocentrification now: a call for problematizing revisions of human-animal positions in social thought

Abstract

This article adds to an evolving literature arguing for revised human-animal positions in social thought. It elaborates on how writings fundamental to the modern human world ought to be problematized for their anthropocentric assumptions. It offers a way forward for approaching such “de-anthropocentrification” methodologically, and for the social sciences to thereby adjust their impact for sustainable futures. An implicit debate about the applicability of social constructionist theory to nonhuman animals provides an exemplary case to highlight the need for this turn in social thought. The article thus argues for the grand theory of social constructionism being applicable to a wide range of nonhuman animals too, and how this could have extensive consequences for embedding human abilities and experiences in a wider cosmos of social life and its unfolding.