Anthrozoology in Practice (AIP) 2024
Asia-Norway Environmental Storytelling (ANEST) Network 2024
Accepted Abstract:
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to contest the notion that voicing animal subjectivity in nonfictional discourse can only ever be a fictional enterprise. By focusing on ‘roadkill’ as both conservation crisis and research case study, this paper makes the point that new stories about identity (human and nonhuman) are needed to promote change in the face of overwhelming environmental challenges.
Design/Methodology/Approach – The argument in this paper draws on findings from ethology, psychology, and conservation that attest to animals’ behavior, cognitive ability, and sapience, to demonstrate that centering animal subjectivity in research encourages nonanthropocentric narratives of the roadkill problem and concomitant solutions.
Findings – The findings of this paper make a case for the inclusion of “acts of speaking-for that cross the species boundary” (Herman, 2016), and suggest that embedding this type of narrative technique into research relating to ‘roadkill’ has the potential to generate (epistemological) insights about alternative validities that can promote affirmative discourse (Macgilchrist, 2021).
Practical implications – If we accept that the human-centered stories we tell are largely responsible for the environmental crisis the planet faces today, then giving voice to the subjectivity of animals might yield new ways of worlding that better equip the planet to face environmental challenges now and in the future. Although rarely considered legitimate in academic discourse, by fostering empathy for nonhuman ways of being in the world, narrating stories of nonhuman animals might expand the kinds of decisions humans can make, and, in turn, the kinds of futures these decisions make possible.
As far as ‘roadkill’ is concerned, telling the story of habitually road-killed animals’ lives connects them to people, things and events in a way that stands to garner political support, positive action, and behavioral change.