Mad Cows and Hounded Deer: Political Representations of Animals in the British Countryside
- 24 July 1998
- journal article
- research article
- Published by SAGE Publications in Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space
- Vol. 30 (7) , 1219-1234
- https://doi.org/10.1068/a301219
Abstract
The author explores the place of animals in rural politics. Recognising that rurality is socially constructed by its participants, he examines how animals are represented in constructs of the rural and in political debates arising from contests between conflicting constructs. In particular, two case studies are discussed—one concerning an attempt to ban staghunting on public-owned land in Somerset; the other concerning the so-called ‘BSE crisis' in Britain in 1996. In both cases representations of animals are mobilised in support of discourses of rurality and nature and particular political objectives. Yet, although animals are central to these debates, they are also voiceless and powerless and remain marginalised from the political process.Keywords
This publication has 20 references indexed in Scilit:
- AN ECONOMIC ANALYSIS OF THE BSE SCAREScottish Journal of Political Economy, 1996
- The impact of BSE on the demand for beef and other meats in Great BritainApplied Economics, 1996
- Studies of English red deer populations subject to hunting-to-houndsPublished by Springer Nature ,1996
- The English National Forest: Local Reactions to Plans for Renegotiated Nature-Society Relations in the CountrysideTransactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 1996
- Lay discourses of the rural: Developments and implications for rural studiesJournal of Rural Studies, 1995
- The importance of ‘the rural’ in the constitution of counterurbanization: Evidence from England in the 1980sSociologia Ruralis, 1994
- Hunting the wild red deer: The social organization and ritual of a ‘rural’ institutionSociologia Ruralis, 1994
- Social Constructions of Nature: A Case Study of Conflicts over the Development of Rainham MarshesTransactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 1994
- Deprivation and lifestyles in rural Wales. —II. Rurality and the cultural dimensionJournal of Rural Studies, 1992
- THE MATTER OF NATUREAntipode, 1989