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Conservation and Invasive Alien Species: Violent Love

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The Palgrave International Handbook of Animal Abuse Studies

Abstract

This chapter examines the abuse towards animals involved in the conservationist management of invasive alien species (IAS). It explores how the conservationist space of care becomes infused with discourses and practices that harm the very object of conservationist care—nonhuman nature. After outlining the prevalence and problematic nature of dominant approaches to IAS, the chapter draws on a Foucauldian analytical framework and literatures on the social construction of nature to explain and challenge the violent practices of care entailed in the management of those animals that are classified as IAS. The chapter concludes by arguing that the emphasis on collectivities of nonhuman life, such as biodiversity, and the invisibilisation of individual organisms allows for the displacement of responsibility from the human to the nonhuman and the abusive control that results.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    And many plants.

  2. 2.

    For example, cane toads, introduced to control cane beetles in Australia, went onto become ‘invasive’.

  3. 3.

    By contrast, biocentrism refers to the attribution of intrinsic value to individual living organisms.

  4. 4.

    For exceptions see newly emerging literatures on compassionate conservation (Ramp and Bekoff 2015; Paquet and Darimont 2010)

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom

    Krithika Srinivasan

  2. Azim Premji University, Bangalore, India

    Rajesh Kasturirangan

Authors
  1. Krithika Srinivasan
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  2. Rajesh Kasturirangan
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Correspondence to Krithika Srinivasan .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Criminology, University of South Wales , Pontypridd, United Kingdom

    Jennifer Maher

  2. Centre for Criminology, University of South Wales , Pontypridd, United Kingdom

    Harriet Pierpoint

  3. Criminology Department, University of Southern Maine, Portland, Maine, USA

    Piers Beirne

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Srinivasan, K., Kasturirangan, R. (2017). Conservation and Invasive Alien Species: Violent Love. In: Maher, J., Pierpoint, H., Beirne, P. (eds) The Palgrave International Handbook of Animal Abuse Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-43183-7_20

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-43183-7_20

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