The Human and the Meat
Animal Domination in Capitalist Societies
My second book was published in October 2025 by transcript Verlag.
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Over 85 billion animals are killed in slaughterhouses yearly to sustain a profit-driven meat production system – devastating animals, workers, and the environment. How did we get here? How has capitalist society reshaped human-animal relations? Elaborating a novel materialist and intersectional framework, Chiara Stefanoni conceptualizes the social form of human-animal relations and its centrality within the interconnected structure of domination in capitalist societies, especially in relation to gender and class. Through a historical analysis of industrial slaughterhouses, the study reveals how the human/animal divide and meat-based diet are not timeless facts, but concrete social solutions crucial for the reproduction of capitalist society.
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The book has received endorsement from Dr Richard Twine, Reader in Sociology, Centre for Human-Animal Studies (CfHAS), Edge Hill University, UK.
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"Stefanoni animalizes the history of capitalism and further develops understandings of the organisation of human-animal relations in capitalist societies. Moreover, she presents an original reconciliation between Marxist and intersectional approaches within critical thought. This is all done with clarity and attention to theoretical detail producing a work which is critical animal theory and history as it should be. This book announces Stefanoni as a significant voice in contemporary critical (animal) theory".
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The book has been positively reviewed by the Austrian author and philosopher Stefan Feinig (you can read the review in German language here):
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"The Human and the Meat is not a moral pamphlet. It is not a vegetarian manifesto. It is not light reading for the evening train. It is a theoretical foundation. A measuring device for the present. And a book that shows that animal liberation cannot be a lifestyle choice, but is a struggle at the intersection of capitalism, power, knowledge, and subject form".
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