Tag Archives: methodology

Creating space and time for an affective anthrozoology – developing The Affective Café

How might we resolve what we find difficult, complex or uncomfortable during our research as anthrozoologists?  

This is a question that members of the Exeter Anthrozoology as Symbiotic Ethics (EASE) working group at the University of Exeter have been pondering since before the group was established, and the emotional impact of foregrounding the ethical was one of the motivating factors influencing the formation of EASE. Our approach to Anthrozoology is grounded in symbiotic ethics and as such we are deeply concerned with the ways in which we might ethically navigate our own and others’ emotional landscapes during the pursuit of both trans-species research and trans-species co-existence.
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Tracking down the trackers

I am part-way through collecting data for a project looking at ethics and welfare in wildlife marking and monitoring (leg rings, satellite trackers etc.). The use of ‘tagging’ in wildlife research is increasingly common and is seen by many to be essential for studying at risk species, particularly those which migrate across human borders. However, tagging may result in welfare consequences for individual animals. My aim is to focus attention on the individual, in a field where the primary purpose is protection of whole species. Click the title to keep reading.

Guiding Emotions: Interspecies, Qualitative Research During a Pandemic

A few months into 2020, governments internationally introduced varying degrees of lockdowns and social distancing to combat the spread of the SAR-CoV-2 virus (Gollwitzer et al. 2020). Seemingly overnight, PhD candidates were faced with entirely redesigning their data collection process, navigating through a cloud of urgency and uncertainty (Roy and Uekusa, 2020: 384). I wish to discuss some of the challenges of conducting virtual, symbiotic ethics research in pandemic environments and, without wishing to sound distasteful, some potential “silver linings” found in doing so. I began a PhD in anthrozoology in January of 2020, which defines the emotional labour of guide dogs and their instructors at Irish Guide Dogs for the Blind (also known as GDMIs). When referring to emotional labour, I refer to the management of feelings to portray professional demeanours in work-related interactions (Hochschild, 1979; 1983). This became a challenge, as I am living in Germany with interlocutors based in Ireland. Research concerning trans-species work, as well as emotion management, is often explored through participant observation. Therefore, this research, an intersection of both, found itself in a unique position when placed under travel restrictions and social distancing measures. The pandemic ushered forward questions of how multispecies ethnographies can be approached in posthuman, pandemic, and post-pandemic environments.
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Not the Last Pandemic

One researcher, one culture, one year. That is the traditional ideal for good ethnography (Randall et al., 2007). But how do you spend time in another culture when you can’t even leave your living room? When the COVID-19 pandemic struck I was preparing to travel to Kenya. Not for a year and not to write the traditional ethnography, but to conduct research for the new type of ethnography, a multispecies ethnography of a conservation encounter (Kiik, 2018; Moore, 2017). My research focuses on the ways that malignant catarrhal fever (a disease of wildebeest) affects Maasai livelihoods and conservation efforts. My time in Kenya would have revolved around interviewing local Maasai herders about their experiences with the disease and observing wildebeest (Connochaetes taurinus) to determine if Maasai persecution of them is changing their behavior, as is the case with other animals in human areas (Kioko et al., 2015; Ogutu et al., 2005; Schuette et al., 2013). However, when travel became impossible the staple methodologies behind my research also became impossible. In fact, the staple methodology, fieldwork, behind all anthropological research became impossible. So, what should we do? Should we sit in our ivory tower twiddling our thumbs and wait for the pandemic to pass? Should we then resume business as usual? What happens when the next pandemic strikes, as it certainly will? 
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