An Analysis of Australia's Animal Protection Framework: Activating Bourdieu's ‘Field’ Method

In Australia, despite the best efforts of a robust animal protection movement, substantive law reform has remained elusive. This article explores the explanatory capacity of Pierre Bourdieu's work by examining Australia's animal protection framework as a ‘field’. Applying Bourdieu, I argue that, within animal protection as a regulatory field, the welfare–cruelty opposition constitutes a form of ‘symbolic violence’. For intensive animal farming industries, this status began to manifest from the 1970s onwards, when these industries began to operate under Codes of Practice. The introduction of Codes of Practice also marginalised ‘animal cruelty’ as an offence relevant only to defendants estranged from the economy proper. The analysis has implications for how we think about law reform and animal protection advocacy, animal cruelty and animal welfare. It highlights the value of reflexivity and presents a unique perspective on social change that has relevance for a range of contemporary social justice issues.