TY - JOUR
T1 - Tails from Captive Classes
T2 - Interspecies Civic Action at the Contemporary Zoo
AU - Schutten, Madrone Kalil
AU - Shaffer, Emily
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© Schutten and Shaffer.
PY - 2019
Y1 - 2019
N2 - In this case study we rearticulate the contemporary zoo to recognize the agency of captive classes. Contemporary zoos catalog the consequences of humans' ecological choices. We reject the dominant ideologies used to justify captivity (e.g., human safety, rescue, and conservation), in favor of framing zoo'd animals as refugees forced into captivity due to human development and climate change. Through the permeability of zoo exhibit boundaries we analyze resistance from captive, free-living animals, and elemental nature (e.g., water), arguing for a strategic anthropomorphism that privileges intuition as a form of civic action that includes all entities. Moreover, we urge a shift toward a re-imagined model that implicates humans in the plight of the animals kept within zoo walls. This essay provides suggestions for an alternative zoo experience that responds to the resistive communication of more-than-humans.
AB - In this case study we rearticulate the contemporary zoo to recognize the agency of captive classes. Contemporary zoos catalog the consequences of humans' ecological choices. We reject the dominant ideologies used to justify captivity (e.g., human safety, rescue, and conservation), in favor of framing zoo'd animals as refugees forced into captivity due to human development and climate change. Through the permeability of zoo exhibit boundaries we analyze resistance from captive, free-living animals, and elemental nature (e.g., water), arguing for a strategic anthropomorphism that privileges intuition as a form of civic action that includes all entities. Moreover, we urge a shift toward a re-imagined model that implicates humans in the plight of the animals kept within zoo walls. This essay provides suggestions for an alternative zoo experience that responds to the resistive communication of more-than-humans.
KW - alternative symbolics
KW - captive classes
KW - captivity
KW - climate change
KW - climate refugee
KW - extinction
KW - internatural communication
KW - zoo
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85118177190&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85118177190&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3389/fcomm.2019.00035
DO - 10.3389/fcomm.2019.00035
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85118177190
SN - 2297-900X
VL - 4
JO - Frontiers in Communication
JF - Frontiers in Communication
M1 - 00035
ER -