They treat you like an animal: Navigating entanglements and productive exclusions within the human/animal boundary in organisations

Wadham, Helen ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9980-4409 and Dashper, Kate (2025) They treat you like an animal: Navigating entanglements and productive exclusions within the human/animal boundary in organisations. Organization. ISSN 1350-5084 (In Press)

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Abstract

Work and organisations are considered to be predominantly human domains, and the labour of other animals in the service of human needs is often unrecognised and unvalued. The human/animal boundary reflects the anthropocentrism of understandings of work and to be treated ‘like an animal’ usually conjures up images of degradation and mistreatment. However, the human/animal boundary may sometimes provide space to create alternative ways of valuing work and the people and animals who perform it. Drawing on a multispecies ethnography of work between people and horses in forestry and trekking tourism in the UK, we explore the entanglements between humans and equines through these forms of interspecies work. We suggest that through focusing on the productive potential of some of the exclusions inherent in these entanglements that help sustain the human/animal boundary, to be treated ‘like an animal’ can be reconstituted as an aspiration for more humane working practices.