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An animal without an animal within: investigating the identities of pet keeping
Örebro universitet, Institutionen för humaniora, utbildnings- och samhällsvetenskap. (HumAnimal Group)ORCID-id: 0000-0001-9902-1191
2013 (engelsk)Doktoravhandling, med artikler (Annet vitenskapelig)
Abstract [en]

If the human is an animal without an animal within—a creature that has transcended the animal condition—what is a pet? This creature balancing on the border between nature and culture, simultaneously included in and excluded from a human “we”, is the focus of this thesis. The thesis analyzes the discourses and normative frameworks structuring the meaning of pets in people’s lives. By extension, it analyzes how the boundary between “human” and “animal” is produced, negotiated, and challenged in the relationship between pet and owner.

Each of this thesis’ four constituent studies focuses on an aspect of personal relationships between humans and pets: pets as figures for philosophical thinking, the dual role of pets as commodities and companions, the grief for lost pets, and the power issues at play in the everyday life of pet and owner. Drawing on Michel Foucault’s genealogical approach, crossbred with Donna Haraway’s material-semiotic perspective, the analysis exposes the powers allowing pets to occupy these various positions.

The thesis demonstrates that pets occupy a special position as boundary creatures in the lives of humans, allowing humans to play with and thus reproduce dichotomies inherent to the contemporary Western worldview, such as human/animal, person/nonperson, subject/object, and friend/commodity. However, pets’ conceptual transgressions may also challenge this worldview. On the one hand, pets are bought and sold as commodities, but on the other, they are widely included in the human sphere as friends or family members. This paradoxical position is accentuated in the construction of a more-than-human home, and it is also visible when pets pass away. This thesis argues that pets, these anomalous creatures, may help humans understand that there are no humans or animals within, only relations between them. Based on this argument, this thesis develops a sociological approach for analyzing the production of humanity and animality in relations between humans and other animals.

sted, utgiver, år, opplag, sider
Örebro: Örebro universitet , 2013. , s. 119
Serie
Örebro Studies in Sociology, ISSN 1650-2531 ; 17
Emneord [en]
animal studies, animality, anomalies, companion animals, Michel Foucault, Donna Haraway, human-animal studies, materialsemiotics, pets, posthumanism
HSV kategori
Forskningsprogram
Sociologi
Identifikatorer
URN: urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-261597Libris ID: 14228898ISBN: 978-91-7668-971-4 (tryckt)OAI: oai:DiVA.org:uu-261597DiVA, id: diva2:850676
Disputas
2013-11-15, HSF, Hörsal F, Forumhuset, 13:15 (svensk)
Opponent
Veileder
Tilgjengelig fra: 2013-06-04 Laget: 2015-09-02 Sist oppdatert: 2015-09-02

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