Un(Knowing) Animals: Critical Anthropomorphism in theory, method and practice.

在过去的十年里，人们对其他生物的思维体验产生了浓厚的兴趣。这在流行的纪录片、新形式的狗训练、新的社会运动以及新的法律和政治议程中都可以看到。这些知识是如何产生的，它的历史和哲学是什么，它是如何传播的，它是如何影响我们与非人类动物的关系的：亲密的，本体论的和政治的？简而言之，我们如何知道我们自认为对其他动物的了解？我的博士论文位于人类与动物关系社会学（HAR）这个不断发展的领域，我认为动物行为专业知识在世界上很活跃，吸引了许多利益相关者。它被要求为某些做法辩护，它动员政治运动，改变亲密关系，产生道德范畴，改变消费习惯。它也可能受到压制、否认和质疑。值得注意的是，它的实验招募了真实的、活着的非人类个体，他们为知识的形成做出了贡献。大多数关于动物的专业知识都是在客观主义的科学框架下产生的。然而，该奖学金将探索新兴形式的专业“批判性拟人化”专业知识的社会学意义。批判拟人化是一种允许对动物进行定性、“常识性”解释的方法，同时通过某些技术对这些解释进行批判性检查。这是一种越来越流行的社会学方法论思想（如Irvine， 2004）。然而，在对该领域的独特贡献中，该奖学金产生的出版物将探索批判拟人化实际实践中固有的理论和方法紧张关系。这是基于人种志调查：a)一种叫做定性行为评估的动物福利方法，在实验室老鼠身上使用；b)在“马辅助个人发展”网站上教授马的行为。这些出版物将强调移情参与和对动物的“客观”超然并不是相反的方法，正如文献中经常假设的那样，而是经常相互依赖的。他们将展示对动物的过度认同是如何将它们的差异性殖民化的，而不是尊重它们。他们将质疑将马视为持续对人类有反应的“猎物动物”的话语框架，并将展示客观主义科学中对观察者的情感和注意力状态的方法论盲点。它们将引发方法论上的辩论，并传播有用的新概念。这一学术影响将得到另外两个目标的补充，这将促进方法创新和公众相关性。首先，在金史密斯方法实验室的支持下，该项目将开发和试点一个为期三天的多物种人种学跨学科研讨会，包括观察人类与动物的相互作用。通过戏剧练习，感官方法和视频工作，它将询问社会学家在多大程度上可以了解我们研究地点的非人类动物的经验；或者他们是否仍然遥不可及。它将是跨学科的、协作的和反思的，将邀请动物学专家的方法与艺术和社会学方法相结合；并将邀请受邀的学者和学生在整个过程中贡献他们对方法论的思考。汇报的感想将在我的网站www.unknowinganimals.com（编辑中）公布。其次，该奖学金将以“拟人化”为主题，以实地考察为基础，创作一部短剧（15-30分钟）。通过金匠学院的关键生态学研究流制作，这将以一种可访问的方式吸引公众参与我的研究问题；并将人类与动物之间的亲密关系与更广泛的社会和政治问题联系起来。一位金匠艺术学院的学生将帮助制作两个简单的动物木偶，并将被拍摄下来。

The last decade has seen a flourishing of interest in the minded experiences of other creatures. This is visible in popular documentaries, new forms of dog training, new social movements and new legal and political agendas. How is such knowledge produced, what is its history and philosophy, how is it circulated, and how does it affect our relationship with nonhuman animals: intimately, ontologically and politically? In short, how do we know what we think we know about other animals?Situated in the growing field of the sociology of Human-Animal Relations, (HAR), my PhD thesis argued that animal behaviour expertise is active in the world, enrolling many stakeholders. It is called upon to justify certain practices, it mobilises political movements, changes intimate relationships, produces moral categories and changes consumption habits. It may also be suppressed, denied, and contested. Notably, its experiments enrol real, live nonhuman individuals who contribute to the formation of knowledge.Most professional knowledge about animals is produced under objectivist scientific frameworks. However, this Fellowship will explore the sociological significance of emerging forms of professional, "critically anthropomorphic" expertise. Critical anthropomorphism is an approach which permits qualitative, 'common-sense' interpretations of animals, whilst placing critical checks on those interpretations through certain techniques. This is an increasingly popular methodological idea in sociology (eg Irvine, 2004). However, in a unique contribution to the field, the publications arising from this Fellowship will explore the theoretical and methodological tensions inherent in critical anthropomorphism's actual practice. This is based on ethnographic investigation of a) an animal welfare methodology called Qualitative Behaviour Assessment, used here with laboratory mice and b) the teaching of horse behaviour in an "equine-assisted personal-development" site.The publications will highlight how empathetic engagment and 'objective' detachment with animals are not opposing approaches, as is often assumed in the literature, but are often co-dependent. They will show how over-identification with animals can colonise their otherness, rather than respect them. They will problematise the discursive framing of horses as continually human-responsive 'prey-animals', and will demonstrate the methodological blind-spots in objectivist science towards the emotional and attentional states of observers. They will spark methodological debate, and disseminate useful new concepts.This academic impact will be complemented by two other objectives, which will foster methodological innovation and public relevance.Firstly, supported by Goldsmiths' Methods Lab, the project will develop and pilot a three-day interdisciplinary workshop in multi-species ethnography, involving observations of human-animal interactions. Using theatre exercises, sensory methods and video work, it will ask to what extent sociologists can know anything about the experiences of nonhuman animals in our research sites; or whether they remain out of reach. It will be interdisciplinary, collaborative, and reflective, combining approaches from an invited zoological expert with artistic and sociological methods; and will ask invited scholars and students to contribute their methodological reflections throughout. Reflections from a debrief will be publicised on my website www.unknowinganimals.com (under edit).Secondly, the Fellowship will develop a short one-act play (15-30 mins), based on fieldwork vignettes, on the subject of "anthropomorphism". Produced through the Critical Ecologies research stream at Goldsmiths, this will engage members of the public in my research questions in an accessible way; and draw links between human-animal intimacies and wider social and political questions. A Goldsmiths arts student will help develop two simple animal puppets, and it will be filmed.