Leiden University Student Repository

Gorzelańczyk, Julia (2024)

Pets and Pests: Commodification, Usefulness and the Status of Nonhumans in Cities

Bachelor thesis | Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology (BSc)

The nature-culture dichotomy in Western cities, has negative effects on the acceptance of nonhumans in those spaces, because it perpetuates the boundary between humans and animals. This is further reinforced by notions of human mastery and superiority, stemming from the Anthropocene. Those concepts, instead of acknowledging multispecies entanglements, influence the categorisation and hierarchisation of nonhumans between pets and pests, based on how they serve and profit humans. This thesis explores these dynamics and answers the research question: ‘How do ideas of human mastery influence notions of nonhuman animal usefulness in Western modernist urban centres?

Nonhuman, multispecies relationships, nature-culture divide, human mastery, Anthropocene, cities, urban centres

Author

Gorzelańczyk, Julia

Faculty

Faculty of Social & Behavioural Sciences

Specialisation

Sustainability

Supervisors

Miriam Waltz

ECTS Credits

180

Language

en