Territories and politics of animalities: sanctuaries between vulnerabilities and resistances

Keywords: antispeciesism, sanctuaries, domination, resistance, reflexivity, care
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Sunday
Session Start / End Time: 2/27/2022 03:40 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 2/27/2022 05:00 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 18

Abstract

Territories and politics of animalities: sanctuaries between vulnerabilities and resistances

Within a total liberation framework, Critical Animal Studies integrate animal exploitation with other forms of domination, demonstrating their consubstantiality and interdependence. Critical - or antispeciesist animal geographies are concerned with understanding the spatial dimension of this domination. Regarding how spatial logics are used as a power-device, these geographies of domination are accompanied by geographies of resistance and liberation. Animal agentivities are the core of farmed animal sanctuaries where survivors are both vulnerable and empowered. Sanctuaires map key territories for the antispeciesist resistance made by and with the concerned animals. From slaughterhouses to these shelters, animals learn by themselves and through affective relationships how to live with damaged bodies. Giving space to animals deprived of their own bodies since their birth finally leads to a redefinition of vulnerability and power through new perspectives on space as a tool for empowerment.
These sites of multispecies ethnographies raise ethical and political issues regarding the co-construction of knowledge between farmed animals and their human accomplices through the notion of radical care. The sanctuary draws a living territory - an organic machine made of the links between the animals and the humans who inhabit it. This presentation explores the multiple forms of resistance to oppression that are marked in the bodies of vulnerable individuals. Relationships and care provide sanctuary by redefining autonomy through the power of reparative affects. These fields invite us to opt for deeply affective, emotional, even visceral methodologies.