Analyzing the Hungarian Foie Gras Boycott

Analyzing the Hungarian Foie Gras Boycott

Professor Zsuzsa Gille (Sociology, University of Illinois) has published a new article, “The Hungarian Foie Gras Boycott: Struggles for Moral Sovereignty in Postsocialist Europe,” in the journal East European and Politics & Societies. The article appears in the February 2011 issue (vol. 25, no. 1: pp. 114-128).

Abstract: In 2008 an Austrian animal rights organization announced a boycott of Hungarian foie gras, arguing that force-feeding geese and ducks constitutes animal cruelty. The case received a lot of media attention and quickly evolved into a bitter conflict. The article scrutinizes the case as an example of postsocialist conflicts around ethics and morality and the concept of common good. The incident demonstrates not only unexpected obstacles for Hungary to be accepted as civilizationally European but also for Hungarian farmers’ ability to act as morally sovereign self-regulating subjects in a neoliberal world.

You can access more information and the full text at the journal’s web site. (note: subscription may be required for full text access)


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