Human-animal co-existence is central to a politics of life, how we order societies, and to debates about who 'we' humans think 'we' are. In other words, our ways of understanding and ordering human-animal relations have economic and political implications and affect peoples' everyday lives. By bringing together historically-oriented approaches and contemporary ethnographies which engage with science and technology studies (STS), this book reflects the multi-sited, multi-species, multi-logic and multiple ways in which lives are and have been assembled, disassembled, practised and possibly policed and politicized. Instead of asking only how control and knowledge are and have been extended over life, the chapters in this book also look at what happens when control fails, at practices which defy orders, escape detection, fail to produce or only loosely hang together. In doing so the book problematises and extends the Foucauldian notion of biopolitics that has been such a central analytical concept in studies of human-animal relations and provides a unique resource of cases and theoretical refinements regarding the ways in which we live together with more than human others .

The Intersectionality of Critical Animal, Disability, and Environmental Studies: Toward Eco-ability, Justice, and Liberation is an interdisciplinary collection of theoretical writings on the intersectional liberation of nonhuman animals, the environment, and those with disabilities. As animal consumption raises health concerns and global warming causes massive environmental destruction, this book interweaves these issues and more. This important cutting-edge book lends to the rapidly growing movement of eco-ability, a scholarly field and activist movement influenced by environmental studies, disability studies, and critical animal studies, similar to other intersectional fields and movements such as eco-feminism, environmental justice, food justice, and decolonization. Contributors to this book are in the fields of education, philosophy, sociology, criminology, rhetoric, theology, anthropology, and English. If you are interested in social justice, inclusion, environmental protection, disability rights, and animal advocacy this is a must read book.

Why do animals talk in literature? In this provocative book, Mario Ortiz Robles tracks the presence of animals across an expansive literary archive to argue that literature cannot be understood as a human endeavor apart from its capacity to represent animals. Focusing on the literary representation of familiar animals, including horses, dogs, cats, and songbirds, Ortiz Robles examines the various tropes literature has historically employed to give meaning to our fraught relations with other animals. Beyond allowing us to imagine the lives of non-humans, literature can make a lasting contribution to Animal Studies, an emerging discipline within the humanities, by showing us that there is something fictional about our relation to animals. Literature and Animal Studies combines a broad mapping of literary animals with detailed readings of key animal texts to offer a new way of organizing literary history that emphasizes genera over genres and a new way of classifying animals that is premised on tropes rather than taxa. The book makes us see animals and our relation to them with fresh eyes and, in doing so, prompts us to review the role of literature in a culture that considers it an endangered art form.

An essential read for activists, community organizers, justice scholars, and academic administrators, Critical Animal Studies and Social Justice: Critical Theory, Dismantling Speciesism, and Total Liberation is a collection that combines scholarship and activism in nine ground-breaking and provocative chapters. The book includes contributions from around the world influenced by critical theory, feminism, social justice, political theory, media studies, environmental justice, food justice, disability studies, and Black liberation. By promoting total liberation and liberatory politics, these essays challenge the reader to think about new approaches to justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion . The contributors also examine and disrupt many of the exclusionary assumptions and behaviors by those working toward justice and liberation, encouraging the reader to reflect on their own thoughts and actions. They emphasize the direct links between exploitation of animals, the planet, and people, the significance of which we can no longer afford to ignore.

This accessible and cutting-edge work offers a new look at the history of western "civilization," one that brings into focus the interrelated suffering of oppressed humans and other animals. Nibert argues persuasively that throughout history the exploitation of other animals has gone hand in hand with the oppression of women, people of color, and other oppressed groups. He maintains that the oppression both of humans and of other species of animals is inextricably tangled within the structure of social arrangements. Nibert asserts that human use and mistreatment of other animals are not natural and do little to further the human condition. Nibert's analysis emphasizes the economic and elite-driven character of prejudice, discrimination, and institutionalized repression of humans and other animals. His examination of the economic entanglements of the oppression of human and other animals is supplemented with an analysis of ideological forces and the use of state power in this sociological expose of the grotesque uses of the oppressed, past and present. Nibert suggests that the liberation of devalued groups of humans is unlikely in a world that uses other animals as fodder for the continual growth and expansion of transnational corporations and, conversely, that animal liberation cannot take place when humans continue to be exploited and oppressed.

A New York Times Bestseller 'Within two pages, nature writing feels different and fresh and new ... This book demands we find the eyes to see and the heart to love such things once more. It is a very fine book indeed, truly full of wonder' - James Rebanks, author of Pastoral Song 'Unusual and captivating ... a thing of wonder, the book that most took me by surprise this year' - Jini Reddy, author of Wanderland Aimee Nezhukumatathil has had many homes, but wherever she was - however awkward the fit or forbidding the landscape - she found guidance and perspective in nature. The axolotl smiles, even in the face of unkindness; the touch-me-not plant shakes off unwanted advances; the narwhal survives its hostile environment. Even in the strange and the unlovely, Nezhukumatathil finds beauty and kinship. Warm, lyrical and gorgeously illustrated by Fumi Mini Nakamura, this book ranges through joy and pain, encountering love, motherhood and heritage, racism and the destruction humans can wreak. In all those things, it shows that if you listen carefully, if you open your eyes wide, the world is full of wonders.

Animals and Society uses a variety of historical sources and a coherent social theory to tell the story of the invention of animal rights. It moves from incidents like the medieval execution of pigs to a discussion of the politics and strategies of modern rights organisations. The book also presents radical interpretations of nineteenth-century animal welfare laws, and the accounts of the Noble Savage. The insights generated by social science are always at the core of the discussion and the author daws on the work of Michel Foucault, Norbert Elias, Claude Levi-Strauss and Mary Douglas. This wide-ranging and accessible book provides a fascinating account of the relations between humans and animals. It raises far-reaching questions about the philosophy, history and politics of animal rights.

Choice Outstanding Academic Title, 2008 Animals had a ubiquitous and central presence in the ancient world. A Cultural History of Animals In Antiquity presents an extraordinarily broad assessment of animal cultures from 2500 BC to 1000 AD, describing how animals were an intrinsic part of the spiritual life of ancient society, how they were hunted, domesticated and used for entertainment, and the roles animals played in ancient science and philosophy. Since much of what we know about animals in antiquity is gleaned from the images left by our ancestors, the book presents a wealth of illustrations. Seminal ancient narratives about animals - including works from Aristotle, Plutarch, Ovid and Pliny the Elder - are also drawn upon to illustrate contemporary ideas about and attitudes towards animals. As with all the volumes in the illustrated Cultural History of Animals, this volume presents an overview of the period and continues with essays on the position of animals in contemporary Symbolism, Hunting, Domestication, Sports and Entertainment, Science, Philosophy, and Art Volume 1 in the Cultural History of Animals edited by Linda Kalof and Brigitte Resl

This book aims to put the speciesism debate and the treatment of non-human animals on the agenda of critical media studies and to put media studies on the agenda of animal ethics researchers. Contributors examine the convergence of media and animal ethics from theoretical, philosophical, discursive, social constructionist, and political economic perspectives. The book is divided into three sections: foundations, representation, and responsibility, outlining the different disciplinary approaches' application to media studies and covering how non-human animals, and the relationship between humans and non-humans, are represented by the mass media, concluding with suggestions for how the media, as a major producer of cultural norms and values related to non-human animals and how we treat them, might improve such representations.

For much of our history, legal scholars focused predominantly on the law's implications for human beings, while ignoring how the law influences animal welfare. Since the 1970s, however, there has been a steep increase in animal advocates' use of the courts. Animal law has blossomed into a vibrant academic discipline, with a rich literature that examines how the law affects animal welfare and the ability of humans to advocate on behalf of nonhuman animals. But most animal law literature tends to be doctrinally-based or normative. There has been little empirical study of the outcomes of animal law cases and there has been very little attention paid to the political influences of these outcomes. This book fills the gap in animal law literature. This is the first empirically-based analysis of animal law that emphasizes the political forces that shape animal law outcomes.

For much of our history, legal scholars focused predominantly on the law's implications for human beings, while ignoring how the law influences animal welfare. Since the 1970s, however, there has been a steep increase in animal advocates' use of the courts. Animal law has blossomed into a vibrant academic discipline, with a rich literature that examines how the law affects animal welfare and the ability of humans to advocate on behalf of nonhuman animals. But most animal law literature tends to be doctrinally-based or normative. There has been little empirical study of the outcomes of animal law cases and there has been very little attention paid to the political influences of these outcomes. This book fills the gap in animal law literature. This is the first empirically-based analysis of animal law that emphasizes the political forces that shape animal law outcomes.

Africa and Her Animals challenges the common view that animals are essentially inferior to human beings: it is both the start of a long overdue conversation and a call to action. Non-human animals, essential to the everyday lives and well-being of Africans, impact and are affected by African societies in diverse ways. Africa and Her Animals investigates and analyses the moral, social, cultural, religious, and legal status of non-human animals in Africa. The contributors, drawn from a wide range of countries and specialist fields, purposefully demonstrate how theoretical and practical issues are inextricably linked, illustrating the importance of transcending disciplinary boundaries, and showing how scholars and practitioners can benefit greatly from genuine and sustained interaction with each other. Their research provides a fresh understanding of the philosophical, religious, and scientific underpinnings of the issues at the heart of the human-animal relationship in Africa. Africa and Her Animals is a valuable source of information and inspiration for researchers, students, development and NGO workers, policy makers, animal rights activists, and all who work with, or are interested in, animals in Africa.

For thousands of years, in the myths and folktales of people around the world, animals have spoken in human tongues. Western and non-Western literary and folkloric traditions are filled with both speaking animals, some of whom even narrate or write their own autobiographies. Animals speak, famously, in children's stories and in cartoons and films, and today, social networking sites and blogs are both sites in which animals-primarily pets-write about their daily lives and interests. Speaking for Animals is a compilation of chapters written from a variety of disciplines that attempts to get a handle on this cross cultural and longstanding tradition of animal speaking and writing. It looks at speaking animals in literature, religious texts, poetry, social networking sites, comic books, and in animal welfare materials and even library catalogs, and addresses not just the "whys" of speaking animals, but the implications, for the animals and for ourselves.

Contemporary Earth and animal activists rarely collaborate, perhaps because environmentalists focus on species and ecosystems, while animal advocates look to the individual, and neither seems to have much respect for the other. This diverse collection of essays highlights common ground between earth and animal advocates, most notably the protection of wildlife and personal dietary choice. If earth and animal advocates move beyond philosophical differences and resultant divergent priorities, turning attention to shared goals, both will be more effective - and both animals and the environment will benefit. Given the undeniable seriousness of the environmental problems that we face, including climate change and species extinction, it is essential that activists join forces. Drawing on a wide range of issues and disciplines, ranging from wildlife management, hunting, and the work of NGOs to ethics, ecofeminism, religion and animal welfare, this volume provides a stimulating collection of ideas and challenges for anyone else who cares about the environment or animals.

This work presents a goal-based model of decision making in which the relative priorities of goals drive the decision process -- a psychological alternative to traditional decision analysis. Building on the work of Schank and Abelson, the author uses goals as the basis for a model of interpersonal relations which permits decisions to incorporate personal and adopted goals in a uniform manner. The theory is modelled on the VOTE computer program which simulates Congressional roll-call voting decisions. The VOTE program expands traditional decision making and simulation models by providing not only a choice, but also a natural language explanation, in either English or French. It simulates real members of Congress voting on real bills, and producing reasonable explanations. The program is consistent with much of the descriptive political science literature on Congressional decision making and provides an explicit model of political issues, relationships, and strategies that converge in voting behavior. In developing the VOTE program, the author draws on his own practical experience in politics from four presidential campaigns and the White House. Given the underlying psychological basis of the program, VOTE can be extended to other decision making domains different from politics. Another use for the program is to simulate business decisions such as securities analysis, as well as mundane decision making such as choosing a college or deciding whether to get a Mohawk haircut.

The city includes opportunities as well as constraints for humans and other animals alike. Urban animals are often subjected to complaints; they transgress geographical, legal as and cultural ordering systems, while roaming the city in what is often perceived as uncontrolled ways. But they are also objects of care, conservation practices and bio-political interventions. What then, are the "more-than-human" experiences of living in a city? What does it mean to consider spatial formations and urban politics from the perspective of human/animal relations? This book draws on a number of case studies to explore urban controversies around human/animal relations, in particular companion animals: free ranging dogs, homeless and feral cats, urban animal hoarding and "crazy cat ladies". The book explores 'zoocities', the theoretical framework in which animal studies meet urban studies, resulting in a reframing of urban relations and space. Through the expansion of urban theories beyond the human, and the resuscitation of sociological theories through animal studies literature, the book seeks to uncover the phenomenon of 'humanimal crowding', both as threats to be policed, and as potentially subversive. In this book, a number of urban controversies and crowding technologies are analysed, finally pointing at alternative modes of trans-species urban politics through the promises of humanimal crowding - of proximity and collective agency. The exclusion of animals may be an urban ideology, aiming at social order, but close attention to the level of practice reveals a much more diverse, disordered, and perhaps disturbing experience.

Critical Animal Geographies provides new geographical perspectives on critical animal studies, exploring the spatial, political, and ethical dimensions of animals' lived experience and human-animal encounter. It works toward a more radical politics and theory directed at the shifting boundary between human and animal. Chapters draw together feminist, political-economic, post-humanist, anarchist, post-colonial, and critical race literatures with original case studies in order to see how efforts by some humans to control and order life - human and not - violate, constrain, and impinge upon others. Central to all chapters is a commitment to grappling with the stakes - violence, death, life, autonomy - of human-animal encounters. Equally, the work in the collection addresses head-on the dominant forces shaping and dependent on these encounters: capitalism, racism, colonialism, and so on. In doing so, the book pushes readers to confront how human-animal relations are mixed up with overlapping axes of power and exploitation, including gender, race, class, and species.

As people come to understand more about animals' inner lives-the intricacies of their thoughts and the emotions that are expressed every day by whales and cows, octopus and mice, even bees-we feel a growing compassion, a desire to better their lives. But how do we translate this compassion into helping other creatures, both those that are and are not our pets? Bringing together the latest science with heartfelt storytelling, Animals' Best Friends reveals the opportunities we have in everyday life to help animals in our homes, in the wild, in zoos, and in science labs, as well as those considered to be food. Barbara J. King, an expert on animal cognition and emotion, guides us on a journey both animal and deeply human. We meet cows living relaxed lives in an animal sanctuary-and cows with plastic portals in their sides at a university research station. We observe bison free-roaming at Yellowstone National Park and chimpanzees confined to zoos. We learn with King how to negotiate vegetarian preferences in omnivore restaurants. We experience the touch of a giant Pacific octopus tasting King's skin with one of his long, neuron-rich arms. We reflect on animal testing as King shares her own experience as the survivor of a particularly nasty cancer. And in a moment all too familiar to many of us, we recover from a close encounter with two spiders in the home. This is a book not of shaming and limitation, but of uplift and expansion. Throughout this journey, King makes no claims of personal perfection. Though an animal expert, she is just like the rest of us: on a journey still, learning each day how to be better, and do better, for animals. But as Animals' Best Friends makes clear, challenging choices can bring deep rewards. By turning compassion into action on behalf of animals, we not only improve animals' lives-we also immeasurably enrich our own.

This book advances current literature on the role and place of animals in sport and society. It explores different forms of sporting spaces, examines how figures of animals have been used to racialize the human athlete, and encourages the reader to think critically about animal ethics, animals in space, time and place, and the human-animal relationship. The chapters highlight persistent dichotomies in the use of and collaboration with animals for sport, and present strategies for moving forward in the study of interspecies relations.

This book is available as open access through the Bloomsbury Open Access programme and is available on www.bloomsburycollections.com. Colonialism, Culture, Whales: The Cetacean Quartet explores how our attitudes to whales, whale hunting, and whale watching expose colonial attitudes to the natural world in modern Western culture. Foraging across the disciplines and moving between ideas and methods drawn from postcolonial criticism, animal studies, and environmental humanities, the book critically examines the colonial histories of whaling, their legacies in contemporary tourism from whale-watching excursions to the performing orcas at SeaWorld, and cultural representations of anxieties about extinction in recent literature, television, and film. Extensively researched and engagingly written, the four essays that comprise The Cetacean Quartet should appeal to scholars in a number of different fields as well as to general readers interested in finding out more about our enduring, guilt-ridden fascination with one of the world's most iconic living creatures, the whale.

Drawing on anthropological and historical data, this book examines human-wildlife relations in China, Tibet, Japan, Bhutan, Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, India, Thailand and Vietnam. The volume initially focuses on the various ways in which wild animals are exploited as a resource, for food, medicine and crop-picking labour, before examining animals termed as pests or predators that are deemed to be harmful and dangerous. Bringing together anthropologists and historians, this book analyses the range, variability and historical mutability of human sensibilities towards animals in Asia and will be of interest to Asianists and anthropologists alike.

In Never Home Alone, biologist Rob Dunn takes us to the edge of biology's latest frontier: our own homes. Every house is a wilderness -- from the Egyptian meal moths in our kitchen cupboards and the yeast in a sourdough starter, to the camel crickets living in the basement, to the thousands of species of insects, bacteria, fungi, and plants live literally under our noses. Our reaction, too often, is to sterilize. As we do, we unwittingly cultivate an entirely new playground for evolution. Unfortunately, this means that we have created a range of new parasites, from antibiotic-resistant microbes to nearly impossible to kill cockroaches, to threaten ourselves with, and destroyed helpful housemates. If we're not careful, the "healthier" we try to make our homes, the more likely we'll be putting our own health at risk. A rich natural history and a thrilling scientific investigation, Never Home Alone shows us that if are to truly thrive in our homes, we must learn to welcome the unknown guests that have been there the whole time.

Many philosophers, including Aquinas, Locke, Schopenhauer and Kant, have assumed that there is a link between cruelty to animals and violence to people. During the last 40 years, evidence for this view has steadily accumulated as a result of statistical, psychological, and medical investigations, and there is now a substantial body of supporting empirical evidence. "The Link Between Animal Abuse & Human Violence" brings together international experts from seven countries to examine in detail the relationships between animal abuse and child abuse, the emotional development of the child, family violence, and serial murder. It considers the implications for legal and social policy, and the work of key professionals. Sections include critical overviews of existing research, discussion of ethical issues, and a special focus on the abuse of wild animals. This book is essential reading for all those who have a stake in the debate, either because their academic work relates to the issues involved, or because their professional role involves contact with the abused or the abusers, both human and animal, including child care officers, community carers, law enforcement officers, health visitors, veterinarians, anti-cruelty inspectors, animal protection officers, social scientists, lawyers, psychologists, and criminologists. This is the most up-to-date, authoritative, and comprehensive volume on the link between animal abuse and human violence.