ABSTRACT
The goal of this chapter is to present the development and scope of vegan studies in sociology. It shows how field-wide trends, such as the development of environmental sociology, sociology of food, and sociology of animals and society paved the way for vegan studies in sociology. These movements allowed sociology to break from its anthropocentric foundations and consider nonhuman animals in their work, which, in turn, allowed for vegan studies to thrive in the field of sociology. The chapter starts by explaining how sociological thought evolved to get to vegan studies, after which it considers studies of institutions and issues related to vegan studies, but which do not fit into vegan studies proper. The bulk of the chapter highlights major areas of study within sociology that contribute to vegan studies: symbolic interactionist studies, sociology of culture, inequality (race and gender), and social movements. The chapter ends by outlining the myriad paths for sociologists to further contribute to vegan studies. While sociology is a strong contributor to the interdisciplinary field of vegan studies, there still exist many gaps to fill.
