N Taylor
Biographic Data
| ID | 5888 |
|---|---|
| NAME | N Taylor |
| GIVEN NAMES | N |
| FAMILY NAME | Taylor |
| SIGNATURE | TAYLOR N |
| AFFILIATIONS | Flinders University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-3736-1443 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 67 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 336 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 67 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1984 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 9 |
Posthuman Visual Methods in Multispecies Ethnographies
This article examines 360-degree cameras as tools that advance posthuman methods utilized during multispecies ethnographic fieldwork. In Finnish Lapland, we recorded immersive footage with a 360-degree camera during 19 go-along interviews with humans, and observations of their Siberian and Alaskan huskies working in sled dog tourism contexts. We conceptualize the 360-degree camera as a field companion and a human-technological enhancement that ca…
Love, loss and animals
What are you doing to me?”
Too often when we think about agency, we think only about human actors.Increasingly, studies of animalhuman relationships have explored the agency of animals who live alongside humans.This paper explores the agency of animals during interviews with trans young people and their families.A focus on the agency of animals is important in this context, given the unique meanings often attributed to animals by trans young people, who often experience th…
“There’s Something to Remind You that Everything Is Okay”
While animals have long been a focus in therapeutic spaces for young people via approaches such as animal-assisted therapies, there is a sense in which such approaches overlook the broader contribution that animals play by being present in young people’s lives. In this article, we explore how the presence of animals (both physical and psychological) in interactions with healthcare professionals may hold specific meaning for trans young people liv…
The Role of Animals in Buffering Against Cisgenderism in and Beyond Family Contexts for Trans Young People Living in Australia
Purpose The purpose of the study reported in this paper was to explore the role of animals in buffering against cisgenderist violence experienced by trans young people. Method Interviews were conducted with 17 Australian trans young people and one of their parents who spoke with us about their relationships with their animals living in the home, including in terms of animals providing a protective function against the negative effects of cisgende…
Barbaric, Feral, or Moral? Stereotypical Dairy Farmer and Vegan Discourses on the Business of Animal Consumption
The business of meat eating and other forms of animal consumption has been globally institutionalized, with most governments such as those in Aotearoa New Zealand and Australia, providing large subsidies to ensure their continued viability. This transfer of public funds continues in spite of extensive evidence of animal agricultures environmental impact with justifications on the protection of rural and regional jobs—especially for traditional, n…
Animals in Disaster Social Work
Disasters do not just affect humans. And humans do not only live with, care for or interact with other humans. In this conceptual article, we explain how animals are relevant to green and disaster social work. Power, oppression and politics are our themes. We start the discussion by defining disasters and providing examples of how three categories of animals are affected by disasters, including in the current COVID-19 pandemic. They are: companio…
War, Heroes and Sacrifice
The precarity and violation that has resulted from decades of neoliberal reforms have been made clear in the global COVID-19 pandemic, particularly in terms of access to healthcare and financial inequality. However, ideological discourses of individual heroics have been rapidly deployed, to patch up the damage done to neoliberal rhetoric. In this paper, we argue a critical sociological lens reveals something important about this violence of neoli…
Service provider recognition of the significance of animal companionship among trans and cisgender women of diverse sexualities
Extensive literature reveals the many health benefits animal companions can bring to the humans who live with them. However, much of this work has taken place with heterosexual and cisgender populations. To address this gap, we conducted qualitative interviews with 19 trans and cisgender women of diverse sexualities in Australia who reported having significant relationships with animal companions. In this article, we explore the benefits of healt…
Narrative feminist research interviewing with ‘inconvenient groups’ about sensitive topics
This article has been written for qualitative researchers inclined towards in-person, narrative interviewing with members of groups designated ‘inconvenient’ or ‘hard to reach’, about sensitive or controversial topics. The aim is to critically reflect on narrative research interviewing practices we have undertaken in Australia with (1) women who had recently survived domestic violence and had relocated with ‘their animal companions’; and (2) dair…
Being together really helped
This article explores the intersections of human and animal lives in the context of violence and marginalisation. It draws on two studies, the first involving a sub-sample of 23 open-ended survey responses completed by transgender and non-binary (TNB) people taken from a larger study exploring the intersections of animal- and human-directed violence, and the second involving eight interviews with TNB people focused on the meaning of animal compan…
Why isn’t my professor Māori? A snapshot of the academic workfWhy isn’t my professor Māori? A snapshot of the academic workforce in New Zealand universitiesorce in New Zealand universities
This article provides insights into the ethnicity of academics employed by Aotearoa New Zealand's eight universities, with a particular focus on Mori academics. We show that, despite values espoused by universities in terms of diversity and within their equity policies regarding Mori staff, there has been no progress in increasing the Mori academic workforce. Mori academics were severely under-represented at universities between 2012 and 2017, co…
Domestic violence and companion animals in the context of LGBT people’s relationships
The link between domestic violence and animal abuse has now been well established, indicating that where there is one form of abuse, there is often the other. Research on this link, however, has almost exclusively focused on heterosexual cisgender people’s relationships. Lacking, then, is an exploration of the possibly unique links between domestic violence and animal abuse in the context of lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans (LGBT) people’s relati…
Managing the Borders
In the context of animal mass deaths we learn that neither life nor death, nor connectivity nor kinship, nor earth’s own empathy, nor a living creature’s sweet desire to flourish with others is saf
Understanding animal (ab)use
While the last two decades have witnessed considerable growth in green criminology, the positioning of nonhuman animals within the field remains unclear and contested. This article provides an analysis of green criminological work—published since the 1998 special issue of Theoretical Criminology—that addresses harms and crime perpetrated against nonhuman animals. We assess trends in the quantity of the work over time and how the treatment of nonh…
People of Diverse Genders and/or Sexualities Caring For and Protecting Animal Companions in the Context of Domestic Violence
This article reports on a thematic analysis of open-ended questions about how humans respond to violence directed toward animals in the context of violent human relationships, derived from an Australian-U.K. survey of people of diverse genders and/or sexualities. From the 137 responses, three major themes were identified: (a) animals are an important source of support, (b) humans actively protect animal companions, and (c) witnessing animal abuse…
Resisting sexism and speciesism in the social sciences
Visual methods offer social scientists some promising possibilities for valuing the work of women and animals in domestic homes and formal organizations, such as schools, hospitals, residential care facilities and other workplaces. In this article, we consider how visual methods might be used to ‘put women and animals in the frame’. We draw data and inspiration from our What is it About Animals study [2015–2016], which involved an online call for…
A sociology of multi-species relations
For an Emancipatory Animal Sociology
Sociologists have contributed to the development of the animal studies field in recent decades. However, many of these ventures have been anthropocentric, stopping short of sociological calls for animal liberation despite the fact that critical sociological concepts are often the (unspoken) antecedents of such work. Here, we present a systematic review of peer-reviewed sociological articles on human-animal relationships since 1979. Our analysis i…
People of Diverse Genders and/or Sexualities and Their Animal Companions
A significant body of research in the field of human-animal studies has focused on animals who live alongside humans within the home, with such animals often considered family members. To date, however, this research has focused almost exclusively on the experiences of heterosexual cisgender people, overlooking other diverse genders and/or sexualities. This article seeks to address this gap by reporting on findings from a study of 503 people livi…
Arts-Based Methods
Barone and Eisner (1997) have pointed out that visual, auditory and arts-based approaches have become more popular and acceptable within the ethnographic community. At the same time, the range of techniques on offer to ethnographers has vastly expanded, particularly as the use of websites and audio-visual recording devices have become increasingly user-friendly, affordable and commonplace (Hine, 2000; Pink, 2013, 2015). We have highlighted some o…
Conclusion
In this book, we have argued that social scientists interested in the relational ties that connect humans and animals must attempt to include other species in their work. We have noted that capturing animals’ perspectives can, and probably will, be difficult and sometimes impossible, but that this should not be taken as reason enough to simply omit them. The omission of other creatures from social science is to silence them. We have argued agains…
Introduction
The idea for this book arose some years ago after we had completed our first joint monograph together, Animals at Work (Hamilton & Taylor, 2013). In it, we presented a series of ethnographic vignettes of people working with animals in some capacity or other, from those in caring occupations, such as sanctuary volunteers, to those at the opposite end of the spectrum working in abattoirs. We spent many hours, days and, in fact, years interviewing p…
Listening for the Voices of Animals
The previous chapter presented an historical overview of ethnography in order to contextualise our argument that it offers a set of ideas, principles and practical approaches to the study of social life that we think make an ideal starting point for developing new posthuman or multi-species methods. In this chapter, we continue building our argument that such methods are needed by considering why we should listen to—and for—the voices of other an…
Ethnography after Humanism
1. Introduction -- An ecology of ethnographic methods -- Part 1: Foundations -- 1. Why ethnography? -- 2. Listening for the voices of animals -- 3. What can ethnography be? -- Part 2: Field-work -- 4. Visual methods -- 5. Sensory methods -- 6. Arts-based methods -- 7. Hybrids of method -- 8. People writing for animals -- 9. Conclusion: Beyond humanism and into the field
Ethnography after Humanism
This book argues that qualitative methods, ethnography included, have tended to focus on the human at the cost of understanding humans and animals in relation, and that ethnography should evolve to ac
Empathy and attitudes to animals
There is increasing support for the idea that human attitudes to animals may be indicative of human–human empathy. This has implications for the treatment of empathy deficits and related anti-social behaviors. The purpose of the present study was to explicitly investigate links between human–human empathy and attitudes to animals. The Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) and Animal Attitude Scale (AAS) were administered to 194 undergraduate Socio…
Ethnography in evolution
PurposeTraditionally, ethnography has been well placed to take account of the messy and complex processes that produce workplace cultures. Likewise, it has always taken interest in the objects, materials and symbolic artifacts that help furnish those organizational cultures. Yet researchers face a particular challenge when the organization in question includes animals. The purpose of this paper is to ask: How do we take account of such others? Ar…
Never an It
This paper argues that sociology should begin to turn its attention to human-animal interaction and that one particularly effective way to do so is to adopt a phenomenological approach. This approach sees the personality, and thus the personhood of animals, as intersubjectively and reflexively created. Based on ethnographic data collected over three years in animal sanctuaries this paper assesses how animal sanctuary workers labour collectively t…
Teaching Kindness
Although the popularity of Humane Education Programs (HEP) as a method of teaching compassion and caring for all living beings is increasing, there is a need for rigorous, methodologically sound research evaluating the efficacy of HEP. Recent calls for the inclusion of HEP within broader humanistic, environmental, and social justice frameworks underline the importance of HEP beyond a simple “treatment of animals” model. Lack of methodological rig…
War, Heroes and Sacrifice
The precarity and violation that has resulted from decades of neoliberal reforms have been made clear in the global COVID-19 pandemic, particularly in terms of access to healthcare and financial inequality. However, ideological discourses of individual heroics have been rapidly deployed, to patch up the damage done to neoliberal rhetoric. In this paper, we argue a critical sociological lens reveals something important about this violence of neoli…
Resisting sexism and speciesism in the social sciences
Visual methods offer social scientists some promising possibilities for valuing the work of women and animals in domestic homes and formal organizations, such as schools, hospitals, residential care facilities and other workplaces. In this article, we consider how visual methods might be used to ‘put women and animals in the frame’. We draw data and inspiration from our What is it About Animals study [2015–2016], which involved an online call for…
Quantity Does Not Always Mean Quality
Qualitative methods are important to gain a deep understanding of complex problems and poorly researched areas. They can be particularly useful to help explain underlying conservation problems. However, the significance in choosing and justifying appropriate methodological frameworks in conservation studies should be given more attention to ensure data are collected and analysed appropriately. We explain when, why, and how qualitative methods sho…
Understanding animal (ab)use
While the last two decades have witnessed considerable growth in green criminology, the positioning of nonhuman animals within the field remains unclear and contested. This article provides an analysis of green criminological work—published since the 1998 special issue of Theoretical Criminology—that addresses harms and crime perpetrated against nonhuman animals. We assess trends in the quantity of the work over time and how the treatment of nonh…
For an Emancipatory Animal Sociology
Sociologists have contributed to the development of the animal studies field in recent decades. However, many of these ventures have been anthropocentric, stopping short of sociological calls for animal liberation despite the fact that critical sociological concepts are often the (unspoken) antecedents of such work. Here, we present a systematic review of peer-reviewed sociological articles on human-animal relationships since 1979. Our analysis i…
Understanding Animal Abuse
2013). Understanding Animal Abuse: A Sociological Analysis. Anthrozoos: Vol. 26, No. 3, pp. 469-470
Animal Shelter Emotion Management
Based on participant observation this article investigates the role and function of emotion management in an animal shelter. Disavowing traditional approaches which confirm the epistemic privilege of researchers, this article instead, takes the in situ, performative aspect of emotion displays as its evidence base. After discussing the methodological implications of such a stand, this article argues that one of the primary functions of emotion tal…
Social Work, Animal-Assisted Therapies and Ethical Considerations
Animals are increasingly being used in a range of social work settings and extant research demonstrates they can offer a wide range of benefits to humans. With other professions, social work is oriented towards caring for people but does not officially recognise (non-human) animals. Given the rise in animal-related interventions and emergence of veterinary social work, we argue that this needs to change. We recognise that obstacles to change incl…
Being together really helped
This article explores the intersections of human and animal lives in the context of violence and marginalisation. It draws on two studies, the first involving a sub-sample of 23 open-ended survey responses completed by transgender and non-binary (TNB) people taken from a larger study exploring the intersections of animal- and human-directed violence, and the second involving eight interviews with TNB people focused on the meaning of animal compan…
Managing the Borders
In the context of animal mass deaths we learn that neither life nor death, nor connectivity nor kinship, nor earth’s own empathy, nor a living creature’s sweet desire to flourish with others is saf
People of Diverse Genders and/or Sexualities Caring For and Protecting Animal Companions in the Context of Domestic Violence
This article reports on a thematic analysis of open-ended questions about how humans respond to violence directed toward animals in the context of violent human relationships, derived from an Australian-U.K. survey of people of diverse genders and/or sexualities. From the 137 responses, three major themes were identified: (a) animals are an important source of support, (b) humans actively protect animal companions, and (c) witnessing animal abuse…
A Different Cut? Comparing Attitudes toward Animals and Propensity for Aggression within Two Primary Industry Cohorts—Farmers and Meatworkers
Previous research has examined a range of demographic variables that have been shown to influence an individual’s attitude toward, and in turn their treatment of, animals. Little is known, however, about the effect of certain occupations upon these attitudes. The current study examines attitudes toward animals and the propensity for aggression within a sample of farmers and meatworkers in Queensland, Australia. Recent findings and publicity aroun…
The Role of Animals in Buffering Against Cisgenderism in and Beyond Family Contexts for Trans Young People Living in Australia
Purpose The purpose of the study reported in this paper was to explore the role of animals in buffering against cisgenderist violence experienced by trans young people. Method Interviews were conducted with 17 Australian trans young people and one of their parents who spoke with us about their relationships with their animals living in the home, including in terms of animals providing a protective function against the negative effects of cisgende…
Domestic Violence Service Providers’ Capacity for Supporting Transgender Women
Previous research has consistently found that transgender women experience high levels of domestic violence and abuse (DVA). Yet, to date, no studies have explored the efficacy of training workshops aimed at increasing the capacity of service providers to meet the needs of transgender women. This paper reports on findings from one such workshop developed and run in South Australia. Workshop participants (n = 25) from three domestic violence servi…
Carnivores, Colonization, and Conflict
Nonhuman carnivores have historically been demonized, lethally controlled, and extirpated throughout many parts of the world—indeed, they bear the brunt of this in some places still today. To understand why this is still occurring, it is important to appreciate the historical events that have shaped and led to this situation. We use a qualitative case study in Namibia that draws on an archival review and eight months of ethnography to describe th…
Narrative feminist research interviewing with ‘inconvenient groups’ about sensitive topics
This article has been written for qualitative researchers inclined towards in-person, narrative interviewing with members of groups designated ‘inconvenient’ or ‘hard to reach’, about sensitive or controversial topics. The aim is to critically reflect on narrative research interviewing practices we have undertaken in Australia with (1) women who had recently survived domestic violence and had relocated with ‘their animal companions’; and (2) dair…
People of Diverse Genders and/or Sexualities and Their Animal Companions
A significant body of research in the field of human-animal studies has focused on animals who live alongside humans within the home, with such animals often considered family members. To date, however, this research has focused almost exclusively on the experiences of heterosexual cisgender people, overlooking other diverse genders and/or sexualities. This article seeks to address this gap by reporting on findings from a study of 503 people livi…
Criminology and Human-Animal Violence Research
Throwing the Baby out with the Bathwater
The prevalence of animals in society, and recognition of the multiplicity of roles they play in human social life, has invoked significant interest from certain subsections of the social sciences. However, research in this area, to date, tends to be at an empirical and inherently psychological level. It is the contention of the current article that we need to redress this imbalance if we are to create a legitimate space wherein sociology can be u…
Pups and Babes
Anecdotal reports suggest that people may be affected more by media coverage of animal rather than human-related abuse. Findings of the extant research regarding this apparent effect are mixed and omit certain key variables that may drive differential reactions to abuse disclosure. The goal of the current study was therefore to examine whether differences exist between individuals' emotional responses and pro-social behavior (reporting abuse) wit…
A Critique of Materialist Critiques of Procedural Planning Theory
In this article, I take issue with some recent ‘materialist’ critiques of procedural planning theory (PPT). I describe what PPT is and, also, what it is not and does not pretend to be. In particular, I stress that PPT puts forward a conceptual theory of (functionally) rational planning, and not an empirical or a substantive normative theory of planning. It is the failure of many recent ‘materialist’ critics of PPT to appreciate the distinction be…
Empathy and attitudes to animals
There is increasing support for the idea that human attitudes to animals may be indicative of human–human empathy. This has implications for the treatment of empathy deficits and related anti-social behaviors. The purpose of the present study was to explicitly investigate links between human–human empathy and attitudes to animals. The Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) and Animal Attitude Scale (AAS) were administered to 194 undergraduate Socio…
Never an It
This paper argues that sociology should begin to turn its attention to human-animal interaction and that one particularly effective way to do so is to adopt a phenomenological approach. This approach sees the personality, and thus the personhood of animals, as intersubjectively and reflexively created. Based on ethnographic data collected over three years in animal sanctuaries this paper assesses how animal sanctuary workers labour collectively t…
Throwing the Baby out with the Bathwater
The prevalence of animals in society, and recognition of the multiplicity of roles they play in human social life, has invoked significant interest from certain subsections of the social sciences. However, research in this area, to date, tends to be at an empirical and inherently psychological level. It is the contention of the current article that we need to redress this imbalance if we are to create a legitimate space wherein sociology can be u…
Teaching Kindness
Although the popularity of Humane Education Programs (HEP) as a method of teaching compassion and caring for all living beings is increasing, there is a need for rigorous, methodologically sound research evaluating the efficacy of HEP. Recent calls for the inclusion of HEP within broader humanistic, environmental, and social justice frameworks underline the importance of HEP beyond a simple “treatment of animals” model. Lack of methodological rig…
Animal Shelter Emotion Management
Based on participant observation this article investigates the role and function of emotion management in an animal shelter. Disavowing traditional approaches which confirm the epistemic privilege of researchers, this article instead, takes the in situ, performative aspect of emotion displays as its evidence base. After discussing the methodological implications of such a stand, this article argues that one of the primary functions of emotion tal…
Preliminary Material
Index
Introduction
This chapter is an exercise in conceptual cartography. Its purpose is to help contribute clarity and order to the myriad forms that human-animal interactions can take, to the wide diversity of academic disciplines involved in the study of those interactions, and to the many sites where active intervention on behalf of abused animals occurs. The discussion is not 'theoretical' as such, but undertakes the more modest, pretheoretical task of constru…
Anthropomorphism And The Animal Subject
In this chapter, the author argues that anthropomorphism is unavoidable given that humans interpret the natural world and other animals through their own embodied materiality. The central premise of this chapter is that there is a need to create spaces where one can see and record what it is that humans and non-humans do when they interact, not presume the very phenomena one claims to be investigating in the first place. This involves adopting a …
Can Sociology Contribute To The Emancipation Of Animals
This chapter demonstrates the ways in which the centaur metaphor conveys the transformative and generative nature of the rider-horse relationship. In so doing, it suggests that there is an inherent centaurability in the rider-horse relationship. To discuss these generative and transformative dimensions of the human-horse relationship and the centaur metaphor, the chapter engages with a broad literature spanning human-automobile relations, perform…
Criminology and Human-Animal Violence Research
Animals, Mess, Method
This chapter presents an argument that extends from the epistemological realm into the methodological as post-humanists point out that methods are not only implicated in this but are the main way in which this 'purification' is achieved. It focuses to trace and identify these political methods and analyse their purpose and their consequences. One of the major reasons animals are excluded, or written out of the social sciences, is through a proces…
Every Twelve Seconds
2012). Every Twelve Seconds: Industrialized Slaughter and the Politics of Sight Timothy Pachirat. Anthrozoos: Vol. 25, No. 3, pp. 388-390
Ethnography in evolution
PurposeTraditionally, ethnography has been well placed to take account of the messy and complex processes that produce workplace cultures. Likewise, it has always taken interest in the objects, materials and symbolic artifacts that help furnish those organizational cultures. Yet researchers face a particular challenge when the organization in question includes animals. The purpose of this paper is to ask: How do we take account of such others? Ar…
Chapter Eight Ethnography and Animals
Chapter Two Why Work with Animals?
Chapter Three Farm Animal, Vets and the Transformation of ‘Muck’
Chapter Six Wildlife Presenters, Performance and the Animal ‘Actor’
Chapter One Humans and Other Animals
Chapter Four Slaughter Workers and the Making of Meat
Chapter Five Shelter Workers and the Construction of ‘Animal Personhood’
Chapter Seven Small Animal Vets and the Crafting of Intimacy
A Different Cut? Comparing Attitudes toward Animals and Propensity for Aggression within Two Primary Industry Cohorts—Farmers and Meatworkers
Previous research has examined a range of demographic variables that have been shown to influence an individual’s attitude toward, and in turn their treatment of, animals. Little is known, however, about the effect of certain occupations upon these attitudes. The current study examines attitudes toward animals and the propensity for aggression within a sample of farmers and meatworkers in Queensland, Australia. Recent findings and publicity aroun…
Understanding Animal Abuse
2013). Understanding Animal Abuse: A Sociological Analysis. Anthrozoos: Vol. 26, No. 3, pp. 469-470
Sociology (46 works) · Geographies of human-animal interactions (39 works) · Psychology (29 works) · Political science (27 works) · Human-Animal Interaction Studies (26 works) · Epistemology (20 works) · Social science (18 works) · Anthropology (16 works) · Law (16 works) · Aesthetics (13 works)