Paper short abstract:

This paper reports on an ethnographic study in Greyhound racing and rescue communities. Through analysis of community representations of self and other, I consider the tense relationships between people and how they navigate their relationships with non/humans of these interspecies communities.

Paper long abstract:

This paper considers the political contestation and ensuing tense relationships between people who consider greyhounds to symbolise a distinctive aspect of their life and their construction of selfhood. I report on an unfolding ethnographic study with the Greyhound racing communities in NSW, in which I explore how identities, communities and boundaries of belonging are created and negotiated through inter-species relations.

Initial analysis of the ethnographic material raises questions about attributions of stigmatised personality traits, such as stupidity and irrationality, to people who live alongside animals in multi-species communities. While both communities of greyhound racing and rescue rally around the symbol of 'the greyhound', community members have vastly different notions about 'who' the greyhound is. These differing interpretations and community discourses around the Greyhound as a symbol lead to politically tense divisions and interactions. In my research, I explore not only how the dogs themselves are treated as a result of these different imaginings, but also how the people involved navigate their relationships with one another. These differing constructions of what constitutes value within a self, both nonhuman and human, are an essential part of understanding the conflict that occurs between the communities of greyhound racing and greyhound rescue in New South Wales, Australia.