2024/07/13 by Helen Wadham, Katherine Dashper · 1 citation
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Social Sciences · #Geographies of human-animal interactions #Human-Animal Interaction Studies
paper · pdf · doi:10.1080/09669582.2024.2374361
openalex publication_date 2024/07/13 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30
Existing understandings of decent work—and the wider 2030 Agenda—are profoundly anthropocentric. This paper explores how focusing on interspecies relations subverts our ideas about decent work and its implications for more sustainable approaches to tourism. Specifically, we bring insights from slow philosophy to bear on fieldwork focused on the shared labour of people and horses involved in forestry and trekking in the UK. Horses emerge as co-workers and epistemological partners, shaping the ways we think about and experience decent work and unsettling people’s ideas about space, place and time. The rhythms and needs of these animal workers challenge apparently unassailable characteristics of contemporary working life, enabling us to develop a less human-centred and more energising imaginary for the future.