scholarly journals Animals and Attachment Theory

2014 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 415-433 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ben Rockett ◽  
Sam Carr

The study of nonhuman animals in the context of attachment theory is steadily growing. This paper sought to pull together recent literature in order to review, summarize, and discuss (a) animals as attachment figures, (b) the conceptualization of attachment quality in human-animal bonds, and (c) the role of animals in assisting the development of human-human attachment.

2014 ◽  
Vol 22 (5) ◽  
pp. 439-458
Author(s):  
Sari Ung-Lanki

This article was designed to give insight into the role of biotechnology in redefining the complex human-animal relations of our times. In particular, it is used to examine accounts of nonhuman animals and animal usage in the context of biotechnology, as covered in the leading scientific journalNature Biotechnology. Data consist of editorials, commentaries, and research news for four years (N= 104), and has been analyzed using discourse analysis. The journal constructs a consistent, yet one-sided, view on animals as they are represented through physico-material, technical and biomedical discourses, as well as discourses on human benefits and manageable risks. The biotechnological epistemology of the animal is positioned at the far end of the subjectification-instrumentalization continuum in our treatment of other animals. It also clashes with simultaneous discussions on animal mind, subjectivity, and moral status. These developments are likely to further intensify the discrepancies in human-animal relations in science and society.


Author(s):  
Melissa Bianchi

      Connecting Haraway’s recent observations about “making kin” to video games, this essay examines how particular elements of the medium might cultivate nuanced considerations for multispecies relations. To fully grasp how video games broadly redefine relations between human and nonhuman animals, we must consider the role of game aesthetics and play mechanics in players’ experience of becoming-with. These elements of games fundamentally shape players’ engagements with the medium and are inextricably linked to their storytelling and production. Moreover, game aesthetics and play mechanics (in conjunction with storytelling) demand that players take specific actions and inhabit distinct roles during play, enabling players to not only think alternative kinships, but also enact making them. To demonstrate these points, I examine the aesthetics and gameplay of two tentacular video games, analyzing how they offer rhetorical models for productively thinking about humans’ relations to nonhuman species. I primarily focus on games that heavily feature cephalopod creatures because this specific animal class is often viewed as a rich site for phenomenological and ontological investigations (including in Haraway’s work). Thus, my research attends to specific video games and their tentacled characters to determine how they challenge players to entertain and enact alternative ontologies and human-animal relationships through play. Resumen      Conectando las observaciones recientes de Haraway sobre "hacer parentesco" con los videojuegos, este ensayo examina cómo elementos particulares del medio pueden cultivar consideraciones matizadas para las relaciones multiespecies. Para comprender plenamente cómo los videojuegos redefinen ampliamente las relaciones entre los animales humanos y los animales no humanos, debemos considerar el papel de la estética del juego y la mecánica del juego en la experiencia de convertirse en jugador. Estos elementos de juegos fundamentalmente conforman los compromisos de los jugadores con el medio y están inextricablemente ligados a su narración y producción. Además, la estética del juego y la mecánica del juego (junto con la narración) exigen que los jugadores tomen acciones específicas y ocupen roles distintos durante el juego, permitiendo a los jugadores no sólo pensar en parentescos alternativao, sino también promulgarlos. Para demostrar estos puntos, examino la estética y la jugabilidad de dos videojuegos tentaculares, analizando cómo ofrecen modelos retóricos para pensar productivamente sobre las relaciones de los humanos con las especies no humanas. Me centro primordialmente en los juegos que caracterizan fuertemente a las criaturas cefalópodas, ya que esta clase específica de animales se ve a menudo como un sitio rico para investigaciones fenomenológicas y ontológicas (incluso en el trabajo de Haraway). Así, mi investigación atiende a videojuegos específicos y sus personajes con tentáculos para determinar cómo desafían a los jugadores a entretener y promulgar ontologías alternativas y relaciones entre humanos y animales a través del juego.


Author(s):  
Margaret Morrison

After reviewing some of the recent literature on non-causal and mathematical explanation, this chapter develops an argument as to why renormalization group (RG) methods should be seen as providing non-causal, yet physical, information about certain kinds of systems/phenomena. The argument centres on the structural character of RG explanations and the relationship between RG and probability theory. These features are crucial for the claim that the non-causal status of RG explanations involves something different from simply ignoring or “averaging over” microphysical details—the kind of explanations common to statistical mechanics. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the role of RG in treating dynamical systems and how that role exemplifies the structural aspects of RG explanations which in turn exemplifies the non-causal features.


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 2333794X2110254
Author(s):  
Madeline Spencer ◽  
Nenagh Kemp ◽  
Vaughan Cruickshank ◽  
Claire Otten ◽  
Rosie Nash

Health literacy is a critically important determinant of health and is influenced by access to supportive social networks and services. Global investment in education throughout the life course is required to support health literacy development. The aim of this review is to characterize the role, responsibilities, and the optimal setting for the emergent role of a Health Literacy Mediator (HLM). A scoping review of recent literature was conducted. The review revealed a lack of consensus on who should be teaching health literacy, and variability in confidence when teaching health literacy. Professionals reported facing barriers such as a lack of time, a lack of knowledge, and recognized that the health literacy needs of children worldwide are not being met. Further research into the role of HLM is required to determine who is best suited to this role and what their responsibilities will be to ensure consistent health literacy education.


Topoi ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catarina Dutilh Novaes

AbstractSince at least the 1980s, the role of adversariality in argumentation has been extensively discussed within different domains. Prima facie, there seem to be two extreme positions on this issue: argumentation should (ideally at least) never be adversarial, as we should always aim for cooperative argumentative engagement; argumentation should be and in fact is always adversarial, given that adversariality (when suitably conceptualized) is an intrinsic property of argumentation. I here defend the view that specific instances of argumentation are (and should be) adversarial or cooperative to different degrees. What determines whether an argumentative situation should be primarily adversarial or primarily cooperative are contextual features and background conditions external to the argumentative situation itself, in particular the extent to which the parties involved have prior conflicting or else convergent interests. To further develop this claim, I consider three teloi that are frequently associated with argumentation: the epistemic telos, the consensus-building telos, and the conflict management telos. I start with a brief discussion of the concepts of adversariality, cooperation, and conflict in general. I then sketch the main lines of the debates in the recent literature on adversariality in argumentation. Next, I discuss the three teloi of argumentation listed above in turn, emphasizing the roles of adversariality and cooperation for each of them.


Philosophy ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 96 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-97
Author(s):  
Hassan Alsharif ◽  
John Symons

AbstractThis paper argues that open-mindedness is a corrective virtue. It serves as a corrective to the epistemic vice of confirmation bias. Specifically, open-mindedness is the epistemically virtuous disposition to resist the negative effects of confirmation bias on our ability to reason well and to evaluate evidence and arguments. As part of the defense and presentation of our account, we explore four discussions of open-mindedness in the recent literature. All four approaches have strengths and shed light on aspects of the virtue of open-mindedness. Each mentions various symptoms of confirmation bias and some explore aspects of the corrective role of open-mindedness. However, ours is the first to explicitly identify open-mindedness as a corrective virtue to the specific epistemic vice of confirmation bias. We show how the corrective account also permits a response to the concern that open-mindedness might not actually count as a virtue.


Author(s):  
Linda Tallberg ◽  
José-Carlos García-Rosell ◽  
Minni Haanpää

AbstractStakeholder theory has largely been anthropocentric in its focus on human actors and interests, failing to recognise the impact of nonhumans in business and organisations. This leads to an incomplete understanding of organisational contexts that include key relationships with nonhuman animals. In addition, the limited scholarly attention paid to nonhumans as stakeholders has mostly been conceptual to date. Therefore, we develop a stakeholder theory with animals illustrated through two ethnographic case studies: an animal shelter and Nordic husky businesses. We focus our feminist reading of Driscoll and Starik’s (J Bus Ethics 49:55–73, 2004) stakeholder attributes for nonhumans and extend this to include affective salience built on embodied affectivity and knowledge, memories, action and care. Findings reveal that nonhuman animals are important actors in practice, affecting organisational operations through human–animal care relationships. In addition to confirming animals are stakeholders, we further contribute to stakeholder theory by offering ways to better listen to nontraditional actors.


2021 ◽  
Vol 94 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rafael Vicuña ◽  
Bernardo González

Abstract Background In this article we would like to touch on the key role played by the microbiota in the maintenance of a sustainable environment in the entire planet. For obvious reasons, this article does not intend to review thoroughly this extremely complex topic, but rather to focus on the main threats that this natural scenario is presently facing. Methods Recent literature survey. Results Despite the relevance of microorganisms have in our planet, the effects of climate change on microbial communities have been scarcely and not systematically addressed in literature. Although the role of microorganisms in emissions of greenhouse gases has received some attention, there are several microbial processes that are affected by climate change with consequences that are presently under assessment. Among them, host-pathogen interactions, the microbiome of built environment, or relations among plants and beneficial microbes. Conclusions Further research is required to advance in knowledge of the effect of climate change on microbial communities. One of the main targets should be a complete evaluation of the global microbial functional diversity and the design of new strategies to cope with limitations in methods to grow microorganisms in the laboratory. These efforts should contribute to raise a general public awareness on the major role played by the microbiota on the various Earth ecosystems.


2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (5-6) ◽  
pp. 670-687
Author(s):  
Anna L. Peterson

Abstract Canine rescue is a growing movement that affects the lives of tens of thousands of nonhuman animals and people every year. Rescue is noteworthy not only for its numbers, but also because it challenges common understandings of animal advocacy. Popular accounts often portray work on behalf of animals as sentimental, individualistic, and apolitical. In fact, work on behalf of animals has always been political, in multiple ways. It is characterized both by internal political tensions, especially between animal rights and welfare positions, and by complex relations to the broader public sphere. I analyze canine rescue, with a focus on pit bull rescue, to show that an important segment of canine rescue movements adopts an explicitly political approach which blurs the divide between rights and welfare, addresses the social context of the human-animal bond, and links animal advocacy to social justice.


2003 ◽  
Vol 135 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Boiteau ◽  
A. Alyokhin ◽  
D.N. Ferro

AbstractThe recent introduction of the concept of refuge areas for the management of the Colorado potato beetle, Leptinotarsa decemlineata (Say) (Coleoptera : Chrysomelidae), on resistant potato highlighted the existence of important gaps in our knowledge and understanding of this pest's movement within and between habitats. The objective of this review is to synthesize the information available for the benefit of crop managers and to identify subject areas in need of additional research. A traditional, somewhat encyclopedic, review of the old and recent literature on research methods, basics of flight and walking, as well as abiotic and biotic conditions for dispersal, revealed a considerable volume of information accumulated since the early 1900s. There is a consensus on the role of abiotic factors on flight and walking, but a better understanding of the biotic factors will be required before the variability of the dispersal response can be fully explained or predicted. Cybernetic models of orientation proposed in the literature were pulled together into a schematic representation of the orientation process in walking L. decemlineata. The model begins the integration of the different conditions and underlying suggested mechanisms responsible for the orientation of the walking beetle. There is remarkably little information on the orientation of potato beetles during flight. Finally, the seasonality of walking and flight dispersal is reviewed in relation to the host habitat and overwintering sites.


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