The dynamics of sheep welfare in Norway – between idealised images and practical realities

What is it about?

This article explores how sheep welfare is understood and regulated in Norway. We argue that animal welfare may be analysed in parallel to product quality, focusing on three major perspectives of sheep welfare: animal treatment, product quality, and an abstract conceptualization in public discourse. Convention theory points to several general difficulties in reaching an agreement on what is “good quality” and welfare. The article suggests that key actors keep the potentially conflicting understandings apart in different “worlds of production” ( Salais and Storper 1993) although concrete interactions between possible worlds are fundamental to concretize improvements in the real world.

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