Abstract
This thesis presents my doctoral research that set out to explore the power relations involved in human and nonhuman animal entanglements within the context of leisure practices. Consequently, the work is situated in what has been dubbed the ‘animal’ turn of the leisure field. Such a turn draws attention to the fact that humancentrism in thinking often has detrimental consequences for more-than-human individuals and species in leisure phenomena and beyond. This replicates disciplinary steps across the social sciences and humanities that have themselves tackled humancentrism and shifted attention towards advocating for better treatment of the nonhuman.
My research is closely associated with academic debates of posthumanism, and, hence, this concept has a central focus in this thesis. I discuss how I first encountered posthumanism during my scholarly journey and how it, along with postmodernism and poststructuralism, has influenced my work. These conversations are incorporated into discussions of how open-minded and flexible exploratory research has shaped me as a researcher and my practice. Indeed, my doctorate has been built on my exploration of the topic above, namely, the power relations involved in human and nonhuman animal entanglements within the context of leisure practices. In this PhD, I have explored historical and contemporary leisure practices using both archived social history and present-day observations.
My work engages with an animalcentrism concept, offering a possible alternative to humancentrism in research and society. In this thesis, the engagement is presented across twelve chapters, nine of which are the research components of my doctoral work. This includes illuminating the historical and contemporary human power over the nonhuman world. The thesis presents how humancentric acts diminish the entangled nature of the world. Yet, being animalcentric in approach also brings the view of the nonhuman power that is present in these entanglements, which the work in this thesis highlights. Overall, this work offers theoretical and methodological contributions to the leisure field. Furthermore, my doctoral explorations allow me to comment on a reimagined way of being human that can be central to a posthuman world concerned with just and fair coexistence between species and individuals.