Who is the weak? : a critical examination of the construction of 'weak' and 'strong' interests from the case of dog protection in chinese society
- Mobilizations in defence of ‘companion animals’ have become major sites of contestation in Chinese society in recent years. They often reject the existing ambiguity between the use of these animals as pets and as meat, demanding unambiguous respect for and protection of dogs. However, in a society where inequalities are as significant as in China, where the level of poverty, sickness, and environmental and industrial tragedies appears overwhelming, one may ask how pets’ destinies have become such a symbolic focus and source of occasional fury – for both Chinese and foreign audiences. Taking this question seriously, this article aims to examine such mobilizations in China – demanding the protection of dogs – as a starting point to theoretically unwrap the more general problem of how the perception of certain beings as ‘weak’ and as deserving the protection of society is socially constructed, and what the related choices imply. I argue that to better understand these mobilizations to protect dogs, we should not separate the focus of the calls for protection from the social web of relationships and oppositions in which they are entrenched.
Author: | Jean-Baptiste Pettier |
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URN: | urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-427658 |
URL: | https://www.uni-frankfurt.de/64214368/WP-10-2016_Pettier_Online.pdf |
ISSN: | 2190-7080 |
ISSN: | 1869-6872 |
Parent Title (English): | Frankfurt working papers on East Asia ; No. 10 |
Series (Serial Number): | Frankfurt working papers on East Asia (10) |
Publisher: | IZO, Interdisziplinäres Zentrum für Ostasienstudien |
Place of publication: | Frankfurt am Main |
Document Type: | Working Paper |
Language: | English |
Year of Completion: | 2016 |
Year of first Publication: | 2016 |
Publishing Institution: | Universitätsbibliothek Johann Christian Senckenberg |
Release Date: | 2017/02/01 |
Tag: | China; dogs; mobilizations; protection; social justice; victims |
Page Number: | 26 |
HeBIS-PPN: | 400157535 |
Institutes: | Wissenschaftliche Zentren und koordinierte Programme / Interdisziplinäres Zentrum für Ostasienstudien (IZO) |
Dewey Decimal Classification: | 3 Sozialwissenschaften / 30 Sozialwissenschaften, Soziologie / 300 Sozialwissenschaften |
Sammlungen: | Universitätspublikationen |
Licence (German): | Deutsches Urheberrecht |