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Paper short abstract

This paper draws engages with a case study of human-dog-wildlife conflict in a nature reserve of Special Scientific Interest to interrogate conceptions of multispecies relationships as mutualistic partnerships, in doing so it asks how centring antagonisms might advance more-than-human thought.

Paper long abstract

In recent years there has been a dramatic surge in claims that particular human-animal relationships offer win-win wellbeing benefits. Such claims are made both in popular media and sociological research, which routinely draws on frameworks from feminist STS to depict particular human-animal relations as mutually beneficial collaborations. This paper draws upon the case study of hypoallergenic dogs to interrogate conceptions of multispecies relationships as mutualistic partnerships and co-becomings. Drawing on ethnographic observation of a nature reserve and Site of Special Scientific Interest, in which human-dog-wildlife conflicts have come to the fore, alongside documentary analysis of materials from pet-focused NGOs, the paper focuses on two interrelated social challenges, which bring the broader socio-technical contexts of multispecies relationships into relief. Firstly, it focuses on an emerging set of tensions surrounding labour practices associated with the contemporary pet industry, pertaining to dog-walking gig-work and the growth of informal markets to supply popular breeds. Secondly, the paper reflects on how competing understandings of wellbeing (between different groups of people, dogs, and other species) generate social tensions about access to green space. By centring these tensions, and elucidating how competing understandings of wellbeing become (un)resolved in practice, the paper offers a wider intervention into how feminist STS conceives of more-than-human collaboration. In particular, the paper illustrates the need to rethink the relationship between agentic encounters between species and their institutional contexts, by interrogating the socio-economic forces that are implicated in these relations.