Canine connections fieldwork with a dog as research assistant (Article)

Anthropology in Action

Volume 22, Issue 3, Winter 2015, Pages 27-38

Lane, K. 

 

Belfast, United Kingdom

View references (42)

Abstract

My research seeks out muted narratives that struggle to be heard in the contested city of Belfast. My dog is one of my ethnographic methods: dog-walking is rarely a direct journey from A to B and she can ‘authenticate’ my lingering presence in unfamiliar places; she is a gateway to dog-focused communal activities; and her categorisation of people is based on smell, not politics, religion or country of origin. When encountering random strangers with an attractive and friendly dog, her role is obvious: introduction enacted, anthropologist takes over. But does she simply mediate the encounter or does she shape what happens? The relationship between dog and person is reciprocal and the extent to which each actor responds to the other prolongs and moulds the encounter. Can she elicit stories that may not otherwise be told, do more than ‘only connect’? This article draws on actor-network theory and cosmopolitanism. © Berghahn Books and the Association for Anthropology in Action.

Author keywords

Actor-network theory; Ambiguity; Belfast; Cosmopolitanism; Ethnographic method; Interspecies communication

ISSN: 0967201XSource Type: Journal Original language: English

DOI: 10.3167/aia.2015.220304Document Type: Article

Publisher: Berghahn Journals, Ltd

References (42)

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  Lane, K.; United Kingdom email:kll5@st-andrews.ac.uk
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