Master of Arts / Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work / Robert K. Schaeffer / Following a strict form of vegetarianism, vegans adopt a philosophy and practice a
lifestyle that seeks to eliminate the use of all animal products and by-products in any form.
Although vegetarian diets have been popular in many cultures for centuries, a more organized
and defined version of veganism as we know it today did not emerge until the mid-1940s.
Although the origins and nature of vegetarianism and veganism have been researched in depth
for decades, this lifestyle has scarcely been evaluated as a social movement. Therefore, I seek to
fill this gap in knowledge and describe veganism as a social movement and evaluate its social
effects.
I have gathered historical and sociological data and theories from a variety of sources. I
combine this data in order to thoroughly illustrate the history, nature, and future of vegans as a
social movement and show how it has contributed to social change. The sociological definitions
of what constitutes a social movement as described by Charles Tilly and Sidney Tarrow will
illustrate the many ways vegans can be viewed as a social movement. A synthesis of these two
social scientists’ definitions in the analysis of vegans as a social movement will show that vegans
meet both Tilly and Tarrow’s criteria for a social movement. I will use these criteria as a
framework to show how vegans’ activity and growth fit into Tilly and Tarrow’s theoretical
outline for what constitutes a social movement. Further, I use other evidence such as polls and
news articles in order to support this idea, showing the movement behaviors of vegans in
Western culture.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:KSU/oai:krex.k-state.edu:2097/4135 |
| Date | January 1900 |
| Creators | Troncale Rawls, Shannon |
| Publisher | Kansas State University |
| Source Sets | K-State Research Exchange |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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