British political scientist, political theorist, and intellectual historian
This article is about the British political scientist. For the Canadian ice-hockey player, seeRob Garner. For the Roman Catholic bishop, seeRobert Francis Garner.
Much of his work concerns animals in politics and ethics. This has been the subject of many of his books, includingAnimals, Politics and Morality (1993; 2004),Political Animals (1996),Animal Ethics (2005),The Political Theory of Animal Rights (2005),The Animal Rights Debate: Abolition or Regulation (2010, withGary Francione),A Theory of Justice for Animals (2013), andThe Oxford Group and the Emergence of Animal Rights (2020, with Yewande Okuleye). It is also the topic of threecollections he edited or co-edited. Garner has also authored or co-authored several textbooks on political science, political parties, andgreen politics.
Garner read for a BA at theUniversity of Salford and an MA at theUniversity of Manchester, before reading for a doctorate, also at Manchester.[1] He was supervised by David Howell, and submitted his thesis –Ideology and electoral politics in Labour's rise to major party status 1918-31 – in 1988.[2] He published work on theLabour Party in 1990,[3] and in 1991, by which time he was working at theUniversity of Buckingham, he published a paper onpolitical lobbying on behalf of animals.[4] In 1993, while still at Buckingham, he published his first book:Animals, Politics and Morality, withManchester University Press.[5] A revised and updated version was published in 2004.[6] In the book, Garner charts the history of the animal protection movement, setting out key positions taken on animals and exploring the possibility of change.[7][8][9] Also in 1993, co-writing with Richard Kelly, Garner published a textbook entitledBritish Political Parties Today. This was also with Manchester University Press, and was part of thePolitics Today series.[10] An updated version was published in 1998.[11]
After a time at theUniversity of Exeter,[12] Garner moved to theUniversity of Leicester. In 1996, he published the first edition of hisEnvironmental Politics withHarvester Wheatsheaf, part of the seriesContemporary Political Studies.[13] A second edition followed in 2000, and a third in 2011, both of which were published byPalgrave Macmillan.[14][15] 1996 also saw the publication ofAnimal Rights: The Changing Debate, acollection edited by Garner and published by Palgrave Macmillan.[16] In 1998, Garner published his second researchmonograph:Political Animals: Animal Protection Politics in Britain and the United States.[17] Published by Palgrave Macmillan, the book offered acomparison of British and American policy pathways around animal welfare, as well as animal protection movements in the two countries, usingpolicy pathway analysis.[18] By the late 1990s, Garner had been promoted toReader.[19]
In 2005, Garner published bothAnimal Ethics[20] andThe Political Theory of Animal Rights.[21] The former, published withPolity, is a scholarly introduction toanimal ethics andanimal rights.[7] The latter, published with Manchester University Press, explores what political theorists have said about animals and the place of animals in major political theories.[22][23] In 2006, he was promoted toprofessor at Leicester.[24] In 2009, the first edition of his textbookIntroduction to Politics, co-authored with Peter Ferdinand and Stephanie Lawson, was published withOxford University Press.[25] A second edition followed in 2012,[26] a third in 2016,[27] a fourth in 2020,[28] and a fifth in 2023.[29] Additionally, textbook called simplyPolitics by the three was published by Oxford in 2018.[30]
2010 saw the publication ofThe Animal Rights Debate: Abolition or Regulation byColumbia University Press.[31] The book took the format of a debate between Garner andGary Francione. While Francione defends anabolitionist approach to animal rights, Garner advocates for areformist stance.[32][33][34] Garner became a founding member in 2011 of theCentre for Animals and Social Justice, a British charity that aims to "embed animal protection as a core goal of public policy".[35] In 2011, Garner explicated a theory of animal rights inA Theory of Justice for Animals, which was published by Oxford University Press.[36] In this work ofpolitical philosophy, Garner defends a novel theory ofjustice affording rights to animals.[37][38][39][40][41]
Two edited collections followed: Oxford University Press'sThe Ethics of Killing Animals (co-edited withTatjana Višak) in 2015[42] andRowman & Littlefield International'sThe Political Turn in Animal Ethics in 2016.[43] In 2018, he published a textbook calledEnvironmental Political Thought withRed Globe Press; focussing ongreen political theory, this has a narrower focus than his earlierEnvironmental Politics, which coveredgreen politics generally.[44] In 2020, writing with Yewande Okuleye, Garner publishedThe Oxford Group and the Emergence of Animal Rights with Oxford University Press. The book is anintellectual history of theOxford Group, based oninterviews with surviving members of the group.[45] Garner retired from Leicester in 2020 and began an MA increative writing at theUniversity of East Anglia.[46]
^Garner, Robert (1999). "Animal protection and legislators in Britain and the United States".The Journal of Legislative Studies.5 (2):92–114.doi:10.1080/13572339908420593.
^Garner, Robert (2005).Animal Ethics. Cambridge: Polity Press.
^Garner, Robert (2005).The Political Theory of Animal Rights. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
^Zuolo, Federico (2015). "A Theory of Justice for Animals. Animal Rights in a Nonideal World. By Garner, Robert".Constellations.22 (3):473–5.doi:10.1111/1467-8675.12197.
^Visak, Tatjana; Garner, Robert (eds.) (2015).The Ethics of Killing Animals. Oxford: Oxford University Press.{{cite book}}:|author2= has generic name (help)
^Garner, Robert; O'Sullivan, Siobhan (eds.).The Political Turn in Animal Ethics. London: Rowman & Littlefield International.{{cite book}}:|author2= has generic name (help)
^Garner, Robert (2018).Environmental Political Thought. London: Red Globe Press.
