BACKGROUND
Acknowledging the limitations of an enduring nature-culture dualism, recent theoretical turns that foreground the non-/post-/and more-than-human broadly share an intent to decenter humans and foster new ways of thinking about and relating to nature. However, these various conceptions of less human-centric, more biodiverse, and materially ‘entangled’ futures routinely fail to acknowledge several groups of animals.
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These animals are part of the everyday fabric of most urban areas, permanently residing in zoos, research facilities, rescue centres, stables, mobile children’s parties, and petting zoos, or part of more temporary patterns of residence for racing events, agricultural exhibitions, circuses, and other animal-based spectacles.
As long as these kinds of activities continue largely unchallenged, there is little hope of achieving radical, transformational change in human-nature relations. Indeed, the persistent normalisation, and attempts to ethicalise such practices, may be hampering efforts to bring about a wholesale revision of these relations.
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Dr. Paula Arcari
Leverhulme Early Career Fellow
Centre for Human Animal Studies
Edge Hill University