Humans and Animals: Intersecting Lives and Worlds

Abstract

"Relationships between humans and non-human animals are deeply complex and often governed by tensions and paradoxes. Both wild and domestic, metaphorical and real, assistants and adversaries, animals effortlessly bridge cultural and natural spaces and form an integral part of human lives. This volume addresses several currently debated topics in science and culture: How shall we rethink, rebuild and re-envision our relationships with other animals? How do we construct ideas of 'the animal'? How can we negotiate animal interests against our own? In which ways do we make sense-and use-of animals in 'human' cultural spaces? Addressing the non-human animal from the standpoint of various social and cultural constructions from a global and multidisciplinary perspective, the chapters within this volume do not seek to answer these questions, but rather to draw attention to the complexity of the underlying issues and the manifold dimensions of the animal-human bond." © Inter-Disciplinary Press 2016. All rights reserved.