ABSTRACT
Chapter 4 moves into the present and turns to contemporary veganism to explore how the mainstreaming of veganism has offered new ways of relating and understanding veganism as a tripartite practice for health, animals, and the environment. The chapter begins by sharing contemporary activists' knowledge of and opinions of historical activism, demonstrating that the notion of an ‘ideal activist’ has been constructed as untethered from reality in particular gendered, racialised, and classed ways. This construction is off-putting for vegans, leading to doubts in identifying or claiming oneself as an ‘activist.’ However, there is also a turn to the everyday itself as the space in which effective activism unfolds, rather than exceptional events of protest. In exploring the contemporary landscape of vegan activism, this chapter explores the historical legacies and contingencies of animal activism, the spectrum of tactics, and the proliferation and successes of quiet activism approaches tentatively offered in interviews with vegans. The chapter also considers how vegans are connecting across struggles and oppressions not as comparative experiences, but instead as interconnected spaces and power relations.
