Wild Cares: on Hedgehogs, Killing and Kindness
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Wild Cares: On Hedgehogs, Killing and Kindness Laura McLauchlan A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy School of Social Sciences Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences December 2018 1 2 3 COPYRIGHT STATEMENT ‘I hereby grant the University of New South Wales or its agents the right to archive and to make available my thesis or dissertation in whole or part in the University libraries in all forms of media, now or here after known, subject to the provisions of the Copyright Act 1968. I retain all proprietary rights, such as patent rights. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis or dissertation. I also authorise University Microfilms to use the 350 word abstract of my thesis in Dissertation Abstract International (this is applicable to doctoral theses only). I have either used no substantial portions of copyright material in my thesis or I have obtained permission to use copyright material; where permission has not been granted I have applied/will apply for a partial restriction of the digital copy of my thesis or dissertation.' Signed ……………………………………………........................... Date ……………………………………………........................... AUTHENTICITY STATEMENT ‘I certify that the Library deposit digital copy is a direct equivalent of the final officially approved version of my thesis. No emendation of content has occurred and if there are any minor variations in formatting, they are the result of the conversion to digital format.’ Signed ……………………………………………........................... Date ……………………………………………........................... 4 Contents Acknowledgements ......................................................................................................................... 8 List of Figures ................................................................................................................................. 10 Introduction: On coming to care ...................................................................................................... 12 Aims: Considering care ................................................................................................................. 13 Keeping the cares together: Attachment and care ..................................................................... 16 Fieldwork approaches ................................................................................................................... 18 Anthropocene cares ....................................................................................................................... 22 Material Considerations ............................................................................................................ 25 Thesis Structure .............................................................................................................................. 26 Chapter 1: Feral considerations: Shadowy cares and unsettled storying in hedgehog- human worlds ............................................................................................................................. 27 Chapter 2: Wild Cares and crafts of unmastery in a multispecies city ............................... 28 Chapter 3: Wild disciplines and careful distances of hedgehog rehabilitation ................. 29 Chapter 4: Sadness and the noir of urban hedgehog conservation .................................... 29 Chapter 5: Well-aligned cares: Making and undoing conservation common sense ........ 30 Chapter 6: Utopian (de)fences .................................................................................................. 31 Chapter 1. Feral considerations: Shadowy cares and unsettled storying in hedgehog-human worlds .................................................................................................................................................. 33 1. Storied welcomes and colonial distances ........................................................................... 36 2. Backyard bodies ..................................................................................................................... 46 3. Changing hedgehog worlds ................................................................................................. 62 Discussion: Shadowy cares ........................................................................................................... 70 Transitions: Welcome cares ............................................................................................................. 74 Chapter 2. Wild cares and crafts of unmastery in a multispecies city ........................................ 77 1. Bristol, Green Capital: Urban wildlife accommodations .................................................. 79 Making together and waiting alone ........................................................................................ 94 Care as attentive tinkering ...................................................................................................... 101 Discussion: Expert cares and the politics of rambling love ................................................... 111 Chapter 3. Wild disciplines and careful distances of hedgehog rehabilitation ....................... 114 1. Hedgehog rehabilitation in the South West UK .............................................................. 116 2. Wild cares: The labours of keeping critters wild ............................................................. 118 5 Straining against connection: ‘Fucking cuddlers’ ................................................................ 122 Umwelt distances ..................................................................................................................... 125 3. Revolutions forestalled: shame and quarantines of care ................................................ 130 Radical cares ............................................................................................................................. 134 4. Keeping on: Wild sustainable cares .................................................................................. 138 Forceful cuteness and keeping one’s cares together ........................................................... 139 Getting care-free: Sustainable detachments ......................................................................... 144 Discussion: Care smuggling and quarantines of care ......................................................... 149 Chapter 4. Sadness and the noir of urban hedgehog conservation .......................................... 153 Introduction .................................................................................................................................. 154 1. Hedgehog champions and the Anthropocene noir. ........................................................ 156 2. Neighbourly deaths and isolated cares ............................................................................. 164 3. The sadness of (dis)connection .......................................................................................... 171 Banned sadness ........................................................................................................................ 178 4. The bearable lightness of becoming .................................................................................. 183 Discussion: Care formations and implicated cares ................................................................. 188 Chapter 5. Well-aligned cares: Making and undoing conservation common sense .............. 191 1. Wellington: Aotearoa/New Zealand’s natural capital .................................................... 193 2. Feeling Strange: Alien affects at the Pest Fest .................................................................. 197 3. Coming to care and coming to kill .................................................................................... 206 Undoing cares ........................................................................................................................... 209 4. Estranged loves and well-aligned cares ............................................................................ 214 Deadly Articulations ................................................................................................................ 217 Well-aligned cares .................................................................................................................... 220 5. Presence and Absence: Technologies of making-killable ............................................... 224 Discussion: Caring for cares ....................................................................................................... 230 Interlude: Wondering on affinity ................................................................................................... 233 Chapter 6: Utopian (de)fences ........................................................................................................ 243 1: Or, how I came to love the fence ............................................................................................ 245 2: Beyond the sanctuary: Zealandia as concrete utopia .......................................................... 249 Worldly Utopias ....................................................................................................................... 253 3. Fenced hopes and the shifting social licence to kill............................................................. 257 4. Tragic gaps ...............................................................................................................................