"They treat you like an animal': Reimagining ethical working lives through the human/animal boundary

Managing and Assessing Transition Innovation Network

Thursday, January 16, 2025
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LEST, Salle Côté Jardin

On the 16th of January, in the MATIN seminar, we will have the pleasure to listen to Kate Dashper (Leeds Beckett University) on "'They treat you like an animal': Reimagining ethical working lives through the human/animal boundary"

 

Abstract

Work and organisations are considered to be predominantly human domains, and the labour of other animals in the service of human needs is often unrecognised and unvalued. The human/animal boundary reflects the anthropocentrism of understandings of work and to be treated ‘like an animal’ usually conjures up images of degradation and mistreatment. However, the human/animal boundary is not fixed and absolute, and may sometimes provide space to create alternative ways of valuing work and the people and animals who perform it. Drawing on a multispecies ethnography of work between humans and horses in forestry and trekking tourism in the UK, the human/animal boundary is positioned as an opportunity to reimagine more compassionate and ethical approaches to work for human and animal workers. Through focusing on the productive potential of some of the exclusions inherent in the human/animal boundary, to be treated ‘like an animal’ can be reconstituted as an aspiration for ethical organisations.

 

 Biography

Professor Kate Dashper is Director of Postgraduate Research Degrees in the Carnegie School of Sport at Leeds Beckett University, UK. Her research combines expertise in gender studies and human-animal studies. Focusing specifically on equestrian sport and leisure, she examines how humans and nonhumans work and play together, and the interspecies relationships that can develop through joint action and interaction. She has published widely on these topics, including the research monograph Human-animal relationships in equestrian sport and leisure (Routledge, 2017) and edited collection Humans, horses and events Management CABI, 2022).

 

Join us at the LEST or here

Zoom link:
https://univ-amu-fr.zoom.us/j/88686700868?pwd=MxEPju9VrumgSDeqUX6XYTFE7UEVpW.1

ID: 886 8670 0868
Code: 616478

 

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