@lilyvaneeden.bsky.social @drcairns.bsky.social @euanritchie.bsky.social and many others

Open access article: doi.org/10.1111/tran...
Funding: ESRC (UKRI)
#coexistence #wolves #farming #politicalecology

We argue for embracing affirmative biopolitics rather than biopower. Wolves could be valued beyond their services. Local ways of relating to wolves could be better recognised. Structural drivers of interspecies violence need tackling. Multispecies flourishing depends on this. 8/8

Caring for wolves is more complex than simply meaning not killing them. We engage with feminist ethics of care to articulate an approach to caring that is attendant to interspecies violence. Coexistence needs to be made a systemic project. 7/8

Yet, cost-of-living crises and socioeconomic hardships, under neoliberal policies that incentivise competitiveness and economies of scale, make wolf presence and impacts hard to manage locally. This increases the need for wolf culling, undermining coexistence. 6/8

Local ways of relating to wolves are fraught and embroiled. Depredations can be tolerated. Simultaneously, killing wolves can be a hands-on representation of what it might mean to navigate the intricacies of coexistence, rather than being at odds with caring for wolves. 5/8

We show how farmers can value wolves beyond the services they may provide, but based on the necessity of learning to live with other beings – a defining experience of being a farmer. We articulate these local ethical propensities as affirmative biopolitics. 4/8

Wolves are not a uniform category. Their ecological effects are dynamic, not always unfolding as expected. Their assumed economic benefits can be inequitably accessible locally. When wolves are framed by their benefits and these fail to materialise, conflict escalates. 3/8

Current wolf management approaches frame wolves as bringers of ‘ecological balance’ and economic benefits, seeking to foster greater acceptance of and tolerance for wolves, locally. We articulate these approaches as exercises of biopower. 2/8

I led this work in Tuscany, Italy exploring human-wolf relations through ethnography, participant observation and interviews. Wildlife is often associated with services, to promote its conservation. We show the limits of this approach and highlight an alternative. 1/8