I♡My Dog

Abstract

Virtually all political theory and ethical systems presuppose the primacy of human beings. Abstract human beings have rights, privileges, legal standing, and—it is said—claims to our sympathy. Many political debates, therefore, center on questions of where these lines are to be drawn. But many humans do not behave this way. People, for example, may expend far more love, time, money, and energy on their pets’ well-being than on abstract humans. If the choice is between an operation to save their dog’s life, or saving a human life through the United Nations, for example, most will choose the former, even if put in such stark terms. This essay argues that people’s love for their dogs transcends the human/animal barrier, that this love overturns assumptions about the role of abstraction in our lives, and that such attunement can be understood only via new formulations of the roles of ethics and philosophy.

Mediated animal geographies: symbolism, manipulation and the imaginary in advertising

“…Animals such as the wolf, for example, feature in literature as symbols of domestication, the so-called 'triumph of humanity' (Ferguson, 2004), but also as symbols of extermination and more recently resistance (Emel, 1995). Parallels can be made between the deliberate extermination of the wolf and the Native American; issues of race, gender and power brought to light (seen in the film Dances with Wolves, which carries this specific subtext, see Bowden, 1991).…”

“…A common theme throughout all the advertisements that have dogs in them is the fealty (Ferguson, 2004), emotional and above all physical closeness that they have to humans. Dogs are most commonly thought of as pets in the Western world, and this opens to them a privileged position in the animal hierarchy, and their social, emotional, conceptual and physical placement within human societies means they are able (in some cases) to overcome the binary of nature/culture.…”

“…Pets are commonly thought of as any animal (domesticated or tamed) that is kept as favourite or treated to indulgence (Shell, 1986). The fealty of such pets like dogs in particular, means that they become representative of the highest human aspiration, close to us both physically and emotionally (Ferguson, 2004). This recognition means that human -nonhuman relations are not separate from but rather articulated through relations between humans.…”

“…Using examples of pets not only as animals but as 'dwarfs', children, women and plants, Tuan (1984) argues that dominance and affection are inextricably related. The love articulated in human -pet relations does not represent a raising of animals to human status but rather a shaping of the interactions that occur between a moral nonhuman being (pet) and its guardian (Ferguson, 2004).…”

On a Governmentality Analytics of the ‘Deliberative Turn’: Material Conditions, Rationalities and the Deliberating Subject

“…Indeed, such critiques form part of substantial debate about the clash between democratic theory and the reality of political life (see Ferguson, 2004), in terms of the true extent of the 'democratic deficit' and how political research often focuses on institutionalised mechanisms of participation rather than self-governing or spontaneous ones. A governmentality analytics, rather than forcing one to choose one side of this seemingly endless theory versus empirics debate, instead explores the multiple knowledges, ideas, discourses and technologies that the deliberative turn draws upon in laying out a very specific societal agenda.…”