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Knocking on the door of Human-Animal Studies: the value of work in interdisciplinary perspective

Abstract

We argue that human-animal studies (HAS) literature is essential for theorizing work because it fosters a reflexive questioning of humanist power and a more sophisticated understanding of the co-dependency and co-creativity between the species. We highlight that the neglect of nonhuman animals in organization studies stems from a preoccupation with contemporary industrialization, human forms of rationality, and the mechanisms of capital exchange. Drawing upon the example of sheep and shepherding, we illustrate how a flexible approach to studying the value and worth of work is made possible by attending to other-than-human activity and value co-creation. We conclude by suggesting that the concept of work and its value needs a more species-inclusive approach to foster a less reductively anthropocentric canon of interdisciplinary scholarship in the field.

Acceptance Date Jan 6, 2018
Publication Date Oct 5, 2018
Publicly Available Date Mar 28, 2024
Journal Society and Animals
Print ISSN 1063-1119
Publisher Brill Academic Publishers
Pages 347-366
DOI https://doi.org/10.1163/15685306-12341525
Keywords work, worth, value, sheep and shepherds, HAS, organisation studies, labor process theory, new materialism
Publisher URL http://doi.org/10.1163/15685306-12341525

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