An important role in human neighborship is played by "non-humans" — animals and insects, often acting as intermediaries or obstacles to building neighbourly relations.
Inspired by the ideas of post- and transhumanism that propose to rethink the boundaries between people and other living beings and, more broadly, between culture and nature, in this project we shift the research focus and include non-human beings in the analysis of neighbor relationships. We consider how animals, insects, plants, microbes, viruses, and other things that we usually refer to as 'the natural world', participate in the construction of neighborly relations at different levels: from personal corporality to international relations.
We also investigate existing policies with regard to other living creatures, as well as norms, values, rules, and practices of coexistence of people and their non-human neighbors in the "culture" and "nature" spaces of Russia and Finland. Moreover, we think of non-humans not only as mediators in human relations or as objects of relevant policies, but also as neighbors proper, interaction with which largely formats our life.
The formula "Primus inter pares?" featured in the title of the project goes back to Gilles Deleuze’s idea of the equality of living species. We, social scientists, who study, first of all, human communities, by definition focus our gaze on humans. The project of rethinking neighborship from a solely human to a multi-species affair is an experiment to overcome our own anthropocentrism — and a great adventure.
Dates: "Layer Cake — II" - March 2019 — February 2022
The project is supported by the
KONE Foundation (Finland)