Paper short abstract:

What can the waste workers’ knowledge and experiences with rats tell us about more-than-human inequalities? In this paper, the experiences and practices of urban waste workers are elevated to understand the dynamic relationships between humans and rats in the urban space.

Paper long abstract:

What can vernacular practices teach us about human-animal relationships? What can the knowledge and experience of waste workers with rats tell us about more-than-human inequalities?

This paper engages in contesting traditional approaches to knowledge production. Building on insights from postcolonial multispecies ethnographies (Haris, 2022), the paper explores the potential of a community-based approach in more-than-human ethnographies. By challenging traditional epistemologies, it recognises the equal value of local, everyday practices alongside scientific knowledge. Urban waste workers, often overlooked in studies of human-animal relationships, take centre stage, providing crucial perspectives emerging from their encounters with urban rats. Despite the limited attention given to their experiences studying human-animal relationships, their insights can reveal these interactions' complex dynamics. Notably, in Brazil, this group bears a significant burden of rat-borne diseases such as leptospirosis (Clazer et al., 2015), which is transmitted through contact with rats' urine. In addition, waste workers also emerge as key informants on rat behaviour in urban spaces, providing new and situated perspectives on these encounters.

This proposal suggests alternative methods for situating human-animal relationships within their contextual and historical contexts and emphasises the significance of vernacular knowledge and practices. By considering the experience of marginalised occupations, such as waste workers, this proposal engages in a more-than-human and more-than-academic approach, restoring epistemic justice and new ontologies to frame human-animal relationships.