1st Edition

Equine Cultures in Transition Ethical Questions

    268 Pages
    by Routledge

    268 Pages
    by Routledge



    Societal views on animals are rapidly changing and have become more diversified: can we use them for our own pleasure, and how should we understand animal agency? These questions, asked both in theoretical discourses and different practices, are also relevant for our understanding of horses and the human–horse relation.



    Equine Cultures in Transition stands as the first volume to bring together ethical questions of the new field of human–horse studies. For instance: what sort of ethics should be developed in relation to the horse today: an egalitarian ethics or an ethics that builds upon asymmetrical relations? How can we understand the horse as a social actor and as someone who, just like the human being, becomes through interspecies relations? Through which methods can we give the horse a stronger voice and better understand its becoming? These questions are not addressed from a medical or ethological perspective focused on natural behaviour, but rather from human acknowledgement of the horse as a sensing, feeling, acting, and relational being; and as a part of interspecies societies and relations.



    Providing an introductory yet theoretically advanced and broad view of the field of post humanism and human animal studies, Equine Cultures in Transition will appeal to students and researchers interested in fields such as human–animal studies, political sociology, animals and ethics, animal behaviour, anthropology, and sociology of culture. It may also appeal to riders and other practitioners within different horse traditions.



    Introduction: subjectivity and ethical questions in an equestrian world in transformation



    JonnaBornemark



    Part I



    Horses at work



    1 Horses’ labour and work-lives: new intellectual and ethical directions



    KendraCoulter



    2 Working cowhorses in multispecies encounters



    AndreaPetitt



    3 Who is the horse? Horse assisted therapy as a possibility for understanding horses



    PetraAndersson



    4 Martha Nussbaum’s capability approach and equine assisted therapy: an analysis for both humans and horses



    HenrikLerner and GunillaSilfverberg



    Part II



    Leadership, power, and training methodology



    5 Put the horse in place: on communicative practices in horse–human relationships



    AnitaMaurstad



    6 Power, ethics, and animal rights



    Paul Patton



    7 Between behaviourism, posthumanism, and animal rights theory: negative and positive reinforcement in liberty dressage



    UllaEkström von Essen and JonnaBornemark



    Part III



    Problematic practices?



    8 He loves to race – or does he? Ethics and welfare in racing



    IrisBergmann



    9 Descriptive Falsterbo Moments – or the art of equestrian photography made popular



    Crispin PareliusJohannessen



    10 Dressage dilemmas: ethics where sport and art collide



    Kirrilly Thompson



    11 wriding



    Marie Fahlin



    Part IV



    Negotiations in contemporary dressage



    12 Riders’ understanding of the role of their horse in sports dressage



    MariZetterqvistBlokhuisand PetraAndersson



    13 A bifocal perspective on the riding school: on Lévinas and equine faces



    David Redmalm



    14 What do trainers teach their riders about horses and riding? An interaction analysis study of sports dressage training



    Charlotte Lundgren



     



    Part V



    Horse keeping



    15 Interpreting animals in spaces of cohabitance: narration and the role of animal agency at horse livery yards



    NoraSchuurman and Alex Franklin



    16 Perspectives on horse keeping and welfare in peri-urban landscapes



    MonicaHammer, Madeleine Bonow, and Mona Petersson



    Index

    Biography

    Jonna Bornemark is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the Centre for Studies in Practical Knowledge, Södertörn University, Sweden.



    Petra Andersson is a researcher in Practical Philosophy at University of Gothenburg, Sweden.



    Ulla Ekström von Essen is Associate Professor in History of Ideas at the Centre for Studies in Practical Knowledge at Södertörn University, Sweden.

    "The studies presented in the book are long-awaited. It is the first volume bringing together ethical questions of interspecies relationships in several contexts...this volume brings together advanced new theoretical frameworks, inspiring empirical studies and compelling methodological suggestions challenging, stimulating and provoking our understanding of humans, horses and their practices and relationships." - Susanna Hedenborg, Malmö University