Animal Labor

Do animals work? Is it possible to work with animals without exploiting them? Might animals even be empowered through work? This provocative collection offers original answers to these questions and allows readers to think about human relationships with domestic animals beyond the well-trodden tropes of domination or animal welfare. To study animal work means to look at animals in new ways and to discover in them unsuspected skills and knowledge that open up new ethical and political horizons.

Jocelyne Porcher, born 1956, research director at the INRA (Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique), defended her thesis in 2003. She has published many books on labour relations between humans and animals. Before she worked as a secretary, a dairy sheep farmer, in an industrial pork factory, and as a technician in organic farming. Jean Estebanez, born 1982, defended his thesis in 2010 on the social function of zoos in the world. He is a lecturer in social and cultural geography at the Université Paris-Est Créteil. His recent publications deal with the question of the city's factory with animals and in particular the place that work takes there.