The EASE Working Paper Series provides a platform to exhibit the work of students and early career researchers working within the field of anthrozoology who engage with the EASE aims and ethos (either directly, through the adoption of the EASE approach to anthrozoology as symbiotic ethics in their work, or through constructive dialogue with the concept of anthrozoology as symbiotic ethics). The series publishes peer-reviewed collections of papers, including conference proceedings, thematic special issues, as well as a rolling stream of standalone papers. If you would like to propose a special issue or have a paper which speaks to the ethos of anthrozoology as symbiotic ethics, please contact the series editors s.hurn@exeter.ac.uk and e.stone4@exeter.ac.uk.
We also plan to publish a series of thematic issues showcasing the excellent work of students on the MA Anthrozoology programme.
Please refer to the EASE Working Paper Series guidelines when preparing your paper:
Current Issues
EASE Working Paper Series Volume 1: Emerging Voices
EASE Working Paper Series Volume 2: Animal Criminology
Background to EASE and the Working Paper Series
In 2016, the EASE working group was founded at the University of Exeter with the aim of attempting to reframe anthrozoology as symbiotic ethics. The founding members of EASE had observed that the frequently anthropocentric focus of much extant anthrozoological work (e.g. that concerned with promoting interactions with other animals to benefit human health and wellbeing) risked perpetuating varying forms of objectification and instrumentalization of nonhuman others. This was at odds with the multispecies and environmental turns elsewhere in the humanities and social sciences which sought more equitable focus and encouraged academic researchers to foreground the experiences and predicaments of animals other than humans as active stakeholders in multispecies interactions.
In establishing EASE we proposed that the multi-disciplinary field that is anthrozoology might benefit from an ‘ethical intervention’. We seek to bring the ‘science of human-animal relations’ (Bradshaw 2017) into more sustained and productive dialogue with debates around ethics and moral responsibilities which have been explored at length in traditional social science and humanities disciplines, as well as within more recently established fields such as environmental humanities (e.g. Rose et al. 2012) and critical animal studies (e.g. Best 2003; Taylor and Twine 2014) in particular. Indeed, our approach has also been informed by the wider contextual, theoretical and methodological landscapes of our respective ‘home’ disciplines (including anthropology, philosophy, psychology, sociology, and geography). In combination, this led us to argue that only by recognising the complex interplay of factors which influence interactions between individual organisms (including humans) and acknowledging and valuing the individuality of participants in any relationship can we hope to adequately understand and represent the subjects of our research. Moreover, as a result of our personal experiences of living with and caring for other animals, grounded in the (now protected) belief in ethical veganism, we advocate for the importance of behaving in an ethical and sustainable manner in both professional and personal contexts. This approach is exemplified in some of the early work produced by individual founding EASE members (e.g. Hurn 2012; Eason 2019; Gröling 2014; Calvert and Gröling 2013; Badman-King 2021), in addition to our collaborative contribution to the UK government’s Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (EFRA) commons select committee – pre-legislative scrutiny on the UK’s Animal Welfare (Sentencing and Recognition of Sentience) Bill (Hurn et al. 2017).
Consequently, the principal contention of the EASE working group was and continues to be that the recognition of other animals as ethically significant beings is both a necessary part of a sound understanding of human-animal interactions, and a moral imperative. Recognising other animals as ethically significant beings has implications for the way we approach anthrozoology, both as researchers and in the teaching and supervision of students on the MA and PhD programmes in Anthrozoology at the University of Exeter.
In addition to advocating for anthrozoology as an ethical pursuit, the EASE approach to anthrozoology as symbiotic ethics is based on the benefits of qualitative methodologies which can provide depth of knowledge and understanding of the lives of others. We also emphasize the importance of reflexivity, whereby researchers engage in critical scrutiny of their own values, agendas, backgrounds, identities and any other factors which might play a role in the research process – from project design, through to data collection, and analysis of findings.
In summary, our approach to anthrozoology as symbiotic ethics places emphasis on (i) an empathetic ‘living with’ (symbiosis) or alongside other animals. This ‘living with’ can be literal and physical, for example through co-habitation with companion animals, or more indirect, for example through ethical consumerism. When it comes to research, this ‘living with’ equates to an empathetic immersion (as far as practicable) in order to try and understand the lived experiences of other animals; (ii) a respect for other animals as autonomous subjects; (iii) an attempt to grasp, wherever possible, the perspectives of our otherthanhuman as well as those of our human subjects, and (iv) a holistic understanding of the context within which interactions occur. As noted above, such aims are more in line with aspects of philosophical ethology, environmental humanities, and Critical Animal Studies (CAS). However, this is a deviation from the traditional emphasis within anthrozoology on quantitative research methods which more closely emulate the traditional scientific disciplines from which many anthrozoologists originate (e.g. animal behaviour science).
Finally, a fundamental premise of EASE is that (v) academic research concerned with understanding human-animal interactions should have some meaningful, practical application and ultimately improve the lives of ALL its research subjects, not just the human ones. Consequently, we propose that Anthrozoology should be reframed to incorporate and promote what we have termed ‘Symbiotic Ethics’, to acknowledge the inextricable connections we share with other life forms at a time when our collective futures hang precariously in the balance.
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Anthrozoology as Symbiotic Ethics 