‘At home, he’s a pet, at work he’s a colleague and my right arm’: Police dogs and the emerging posthumanist agenda.

CHARLES KNIGHT, Kate Sang

Research output: Contribution to journalArticle (journal)peer-review

9 Citations (Scopus)
61 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Increased attention is being paid to non-human animals, inspired in part by Human-Animal Studies and theoretical frameworks which reveal the fragility of human/animal dualism. Via application of posthumanist performativity, we explore the recruitment and careers of police dogs via organisational analysis.

It reveals a complex process of a dog becoming a police dog. Police dogs are placed within a speciesist hierarchy where they hold a position of ‘good’ non-human animals, rather than instrumental tools of the organization. However, this position is tenuous, with dogs’ retirement often resulting in death. The paper concludes by arguing that posthumanist frameworks can be used to decentre the human subject. Contributions of our work include empirical insights on the use of non-human animals in policing coupled with theoretical application of posthumanism to intersubjectivity in organisations
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)355-371
Number of pages17
JournalCulture and Organization
Volume26
Issue number5-6
Early online date30 May 2019
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Nov 2020

Keywords

  • Non-human animals
  • organisational politics
  • Policing
  • Police dogs
  • organisational actors
  • policing
  • posthumanism
  • police dogs
  • performativity

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of '‘At home, he’s a pet, at work he’s a colleague and my right arm’: Police dogs and the emerging posthumanist agenda.'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this