Skip to main content Skip to main navigation menu Skip to site footer
Research Articles
Submitted: 2019-03-06
Published: 2020-02-06

Animal Agency in Community: A Political Multispecies Ethnography of VINE Sanctuary

Harvard Law School
Queen's University
##plugins.generic.jatsParser.article.authorBio##
×

Sue Donaldson

cluster.

Queen's University
farmed animals sancutary intentional community multispecies ethnography agency social roles social norms

Abstract

Anthropocentric bias and ignorance limit our ability to conceive just ways of living with nonhuman animals, especially farmed animals. We need to learn from animals themselves, in environments where animals retain sufficient agency in their relations with us to allow for a rich and meaningful study of interspecies ethics and the possibilities of just multispecies societies. Using multispecies ethnography and feminist accounts of the self as a springboard, we investigate animal agency in a sanctuary for formerly farmed animals, considering how a careful exploration of dimensions of agency in this setting might inform ideas of interspecies ethics and politics. This innovative extension of multispecies ethnography explores individual and collective dimensions of animals' agency through space and place, through practice and routine, and through social roles and norms, to learn about whether/how animals might want to live with us, and how we can recognize and support their agency through our relationships.

References

  1. Abrell, E. (2016). Saving animals: Everyday practices of care and rescue in the US animal sanctuary movement. (Doctoral dissertation, City University of New York).
  2. Alger, J. & Alger, S. (2003). Cat culture: The social world of a cat shelter. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
  3. Baynes-Rock, M. (2015). Among the bone eaters: Encounters with hyenas in Harar. Philadelphia: Penn State University Press.
  4. Bekoff, M., & Pierce, J. (2009). Wild justice: The moral lives of animals. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
  5. Beldo, L. (2017). Metabolic labor: Broiler chickens and the exploitation of vitality. Environmental Humanities, 9(1), 108–128.
  6. Bicchieri, C., & Muldoon, R. (2011). Social norms. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/social-norms/
  7. Carter, B., & Charles, N. (2013). Animals, agency and resistance. Journal of the Theory of Social Behaviour, 43(3), 322–340.
  8. Caviola, L., Everett, J. A. C., & Faber, N. S. (2018). The moral standing of animals: Towards a psychology of speciesism. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 116(6), 1011–1029.
  9. Chang, D. (2017). Organize and resist with farmed animals: Prefiguring anti-speciesist/anti-anthropocentric cities. M.A. Paper, Department of Political Studies, Queen’s University, Kingston.
  10. Collard, R-C., & Gillespie, K. (2015). Doing critical animal geographies: Future directions. In R-C. Collard, & K. Gillespie (Eds.), Critical animal geographies: Politics, intersections and hierarchies in a multispecies world (pp. 203–212). New York: Routledge.
  11. Côté-Boudreau, F. (2016). Inclusive autonomy: A theory of freedom for everyone. PhD Thesis, Queen’s University.
  12. Donaldson, S., & Kymlicka, W. (2015). Farmed animal sanctuaries: The heart of the movement? Politics and Animals, 1(1), 50–74.
  13. Donaldson, S., & Kymlicka, W. (2016a). Between wildness and domestication: Rethinking categories and boundaries in response to animal agency. In B. Bovenkerk & J. Keulartz (Eds.), Animal ethics in the age of humans: Blurring boundaries in human-animal relationships (pp. 225–242). Cham: Springer.
  14. Donaldson, S., & Kymlicka, W. (2016b). Rethinking membership and participation in an inclusive democracy: Cognitive disability, children, animals. In B. Arneil & N. Hirschmann (Eds.), Disability and political theory (pp. 168–197). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  15. Donaldson, S., & Kymlicka, W. (2018). Freedom as macro agency: Is it important? Is it possible? Is it enough? Presentation at the Canadian Philosophical Association, June 2018.
  16. Encyclopaedia Britannica. (2018). Role. https://www.britannica.com/topic/role
  17. Everett, J. A. C., Caviola, L., Savulescu, J., & Faber, N. S. (2018). Speciesism, generalized prejudice, and perceptions of prejudiced others. Group Processes and Intergroup Relations, 13(1), 3–22.
  18. Francione, G. (2007). Animal rights and domesticated nonhumans. Animal Rights: The Abolitionist Approach. http://www.abolitionistapproach.com/animal-rights-and-domesticated-nonhumans/
  19. Francis, L. P., & Silvers, A. (2007). Liberalism and individually scripted ideas of the good: Meeting the challenge of dependent agency. Social Theory and Practice, 33(2), 311–334.
  20. Fuentes, A. (2010). Naturalcultural encounters in Bali: Monkeys, temples, tourists, and ethnoprimatology. Cultural Anthropology, 25(4), 600–624.
  21. Gieryn T. F. (2000). A space for place in sociology. Annual Review of Sociology, 26, 463–496.
  22. Gillespie, K. (2018). The cow with ear tag #1389. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
  23. Gillespie, K. (2019). For a politicized multispecies ethnography: Reflections on a feminist geographic pedagogical experiment. Politics and Animals, 5, 17–32.
  24. Giroux, V. (2016). Animals do have an interest in liberty. Journal of Animal Ethics, 6(1), 20–43.
  25. Instone, L. (2010). Encountering native grasslands: Matters of concern in an urban park. Australian Humanities Review, 49, 91–117.
  26. Jones, M. (2014). Captivity in the context of a sanctuary for formerly farmed animals. In L. Gruen (Ed.), The ethics of captivity (pp. 90–101). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  27. jones, p. (2011). Fighting cocks: Ecofeminism versus sexualized violence. In L. A. Kemmerer (Ed.), Sister species: Women, animals, and social justice (pp. 45–56). Champaign: University of Illinois Press.
  28. jones, p. (2014). Eros and the mechanisms of eco-defense. In C. J. Adams & L. Gruen (Eds.), Ecofeminism: Feminist intersections with other animals and the earth (pp. 91–104). New York: Bloomsbury Academic.
  29. Kasperbauer, T. J. (2013). Nussbaum and the capacities of animals. Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics, 26(5), 977–997.
  30. Kirksey, S., & Helmreich, S. (2010). The emergence of multispecies ethnography. Cultural Anthropology, 25(4), 545–576.
  31. Kopnina, H. (2017). Beyond multispecies ethnography: Engaging with violence and animal rights in anthropology. Critique of Anthropology, 37(3), 333–357.
  32. Krause, S. (2013). Beyond non-domination: Agency, inequality and the meaning of freedom. Philosophy and Social Criticism, 39(2), 187–208.
  33. Kymlicka, W. & Donaldson, S. (2016). Locating Animals in Political Philosophy. Philosophy Compass, 11(1), 692–701.
  34. Locke, P. (2017). Elephants as persons, affective apprenticeship, and fieldwork with nonhuman informants in Nepal. HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory, 7(1), 353–376.
  35. Loury, G. (2003). The anatomy of racial inequality. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
  36. Mackenzie, C., & Stoljar, N. (Eds.). (2000). Relational autonomy: Feminist perspectives on autonomy, agency, and the social self. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  37. Meijer, E. (2014). Stray philosophy: Human-dog observations on language, freedom and politics. Journal for Critical Animal Studies, 12(4), 105–135.
  38. Mill, J. S. (1859). On Liberty. London: John W. Parker.
  39. Mouffe, C. (2000). The democratic paradox. New York: Verso.
  40. Nedelsky, J. (2011). Law’s relations: A relational theory of self, autonomy, and law. Oxford: OUP.
  41. Noske, B. (1997). Beyond boundaries: Humans and animals. Montreal: Black Rose Books.
  42. Nussbaum, M. (2006). Frontiers of justice: Disability, nationality, species membership. Cambridge MA: The Belknap Press.
  43. Overall, C. (Ed.). (2017). Pets and people: The ethics of our relationship with companion animals. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  44. Pachirat, T. (2018). Sanctuary. In L. Gruen (Ed.), Critical terms for animal studies (pp. 337–355). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
  45. Pacini-Ketchabaw, V., Taylor, A., & Blaise, M. (2016). Decentering the human in multispecies ethnographies. In C. Taylor & C. Hughes (Eds.), Posthuman research practices in education (pp. 149–167). Houndmills, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.
  46. Palmer, C. and Sandøe, P. (2018). Welfare. In L. Gruen (Ed.), Critical terms for animal studies (pp. 424–438). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
  47. Parkinson, J. (2012) Democracy and public space: The physical sites of democratic performance. Oxford, OUP.
  48. Pettit, P. (1997). Republicanism: A theory of freedom and government. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  49. Pettit, P. (2001). A theory of freedom. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  50. Regan, T. (2004). The case for animal rights. Berkeley: University of California Press.
  51. Rollin, B. E. (1995a). Farm animal welfare: Social bioethical and research issues. Ames, IA: Iowa State University Press.
  52. Rollin, B. E. (1995b). The Frankenstein syndrome: Ethical and social issues in the genetic engineering of animals. New York: Cambridge University Press.
  53. Ross, D. (2018). The elephant as a person. https://aeon.co/essays/if-elephants-arent-persons-yet-could-they-be-one-day
  54. Schmidt, A. (2015). Why animals have an interest in liberty. Historical Social Research, 40(4), 92–109.
  55. Scotton, G. (2017). Duties to socialise with domesticated animals: Farmed animal sanctuaries as frontiers of friendship. Animals Studies Journal, 6(2), 86–108.
  56. Sunstein, C. (1996). Social norms and social roles. Columbia Law Review, 96(4), 903–968.
  57. van de Waal, E., Borgeaud, C., & Whiten, A. (2013). Potent social learning and conformity shape a wild primate’s foraging decisions. Science, 340(6131), 483–485.
  58. Van Patter, L. & Blattner, C.E. (2020). Advancing ethical principles for non-invasive, respectful research with animal participants. Society & Animals.
  59. VINE (2017). 2017 at VINE sanctuary. http://blog.bravebirds.org/archives/3177
  60. VINE (2018a). About us. http://vine.bravebirds.org/about-us/
  61. VINE (2018b). Meet the cow who jumped over the moon. http://blog.bravebirds.org/archives/3242
  62. White, R. J. (2015). Following in the footsteps of Élisée Reclus: Disturbing places of inter-species violence that are hidden in plain sight. In A. J. Nocella II, R. J. White, & E. Cudworth (Eds.), Anarchism and animal liberation: Essays on complementary elements of total liberation (pp. 212-231). Jefferson, NC: McFarland and Company Inc., Publishers.
  63. Wilson, T. D. (2002). Strangers to ourselves: Discovering the adaptive unconscious. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
  64. Woods, V. & Hare, B. (2019) Why are there so many books about dogs? New York Times essay, April 29, 2019. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/29/books/review/vanessa-woods-brian-hare-dogs.html
  65. Załuski, W. (2016). The concept of person in the light of evolutionary theory and neuroscience. In T. Pietrzykowski & B. Stancioli (Eds.), New approaches to the personhood in law: Essays in legal philosophy (pp. 35–46). Frankfurt: Peter Lang.