Animal rights as a new social movement

Today, some theorists and activists claim that thousands of years of history have been built on an anthropocentric, patriarchal and speciesist fiction. According to these theorists and activists, many existing fields such as theology, history, philosophy, law, literature, sociology, etc. have alienated and even objectified animals with their narratives that prioritize humans. This marginalization and objectification does not remain only at the intellectual and theoretical level, but also includes a historical practice in which animals are exploited in every sense. According to these, a new historical reading is both possible and necessary. Animal rights theorists announce to the world, both through the texts they write and the actions they take, that the practices and narratives that ensure the continuation of the past must change. These theories, with their strong arguments on a philosophical basis, reveal discourses and actions that affect all areas of life. For example from the food market to eating-drinking habits, from clothing to fashion-design, from literature to art, from religion to politics. The aim of this study is to understand and discuss the place of animal rights and animal theory in changing social dynamics in the context of new social movements. Although the animal issue has begun to be discussed in many ways in the Western world, it is quite new that the issue has emerged in Türkiye. It has not yet found the necessary attention in academia. In this context, the study aims to contribute to both social change and social movement studies in the academic community and as an exclusive topic, to the discussion of the animal issue within sociology. Nevertheless, unlike the traditional human-society understanding of modern sociology, it aims to discuss the new areas of existence and boundaries of sociology from an ontological and epistemological perspective within the framework of the discourse formed under the influence of animal theory. Study aims to understand the animal rights issue in the context of new social movements by using semantic-interpretive method and descriptive analysis technique. For this purpose, in the study, articles, discussions, sharings on social media networks and sources that have been put forward on the subject were examined.