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Contribution short abstract

Focusing on one particular grey squirrel in the UK, my story reflects on an interdisciplinary research project challenging ideas of conservation and care.

Contribution long abstract

Who is targeted for care, ignored or targeted for death in conservation? Who is (un)loved, and by whom? In this story of Theodore, a UK grey squirrel, I use his life and history as a starting point to address some larger questions of conservation, care, politics, companionship and thriving among loved and unloved others.

My intervention reflects on the key questions of how we can re-imagine coexistence, connection and care in more-than-human political ecology? As we face widening environmental and social inequalities and climate breakdown, a research praxis rooted in identifying and addressing drivers of harm, and reflecting on solidarity towards humans and more-than-humans is vital, but is limited both by what and who is seen as 'worthwhile', and how we can see and understand more-than-humans.

Based on an interdisciplinary investigation into coexistence between and among (grey) squirrels and humans, I reflect on drawing on social science, natural science and humanities materials and methods as well as storytelling and visual approaches for research and knowledge exchange to promote solidarity both in what and how I research, but also in what and how I communicate. Such practices of everyday care both resist dominant forces driving conforming, for-profit research and education and personal promotion or gain, and are a vital step of building hope and solidarity in more-than-human political ecology and beyond.