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The Agency of Dolphins: Towards Inter-species Embassies as Sites of Engagement with ‘Significant Otherness’
Journal article   Peer reviewed

The Agency of Dolphins: Towards Inter-species Embassies as Sites of Engagement with ‘Significant Otherness’

Clark S Taylor and Jennifer Carter
Geographical Research, Vol.51(1), pp.1-10
2013
url
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-5871.2012.00753.xView
Published Version

Abstract

agency dolphins ambassador inter-species etiquette animal geography embassy
Cetacean-human interaction, at sites where free-ranging dolphins approach humans, is occurring more than ever before. Management policies and strategies, and their underlying research, intended to protect both dolphins and humans during these interactive events, affect the quality and nature of interactivity. The agency of the dolphins, and its representation in management schemes, is analysed using Critical Discourse Analysis of selected texts from the discourse of Dolphin-Human Interaction Management (DHIM). Analysis suggests a prevailing discourse of protectionism but also reveals the possibility for a new kind of management scheme based upon an acceptance of the 'significant otherness' of non-human species. This can be achieved by means of inter-species etiquette, acknowledging the choices made by non-humans to interact with humans. An inter-species etiquette, coupled with multi-species education (education across species boundaries, designed and delivered so as to enable mutually beneficial interaction), offers those non-human animals widely referred to as 'ambassadors' safe places in which to be encountered. This new form of inter-species interaction space is named an 'embassy'.

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