Animal Citizenship

Are UK Assistance Dogs Performing Acts of Citizenship?

People

Researcher

• Isabel Stanley

Background

This project is an original exploration into whether UK assistance dogs (ADs) are performing ‘Acts of Citizenship’ (as defined by Isin and Nielsen, 2008). If so, the implication is they provide a unique, unexplored case to test how animals could be integrated into political communities as formal citizens, with the protection accompanying this status. ‘Acts of Citizenship’ are acts performed by individuals to make a rights claim and disrupt political norms by circumnavigating a system supressing the claim (Isin and Nielsen, 2008).

ADs are specially trained to support a disabled human partner with specific tasks. Non-humans are not recognised as citizens by the UK government, but ADs exercise greater mobility and public access rights than other non-humans, thus simulating element of citizenship. Yet, despite the unique position of ADs in society, their political lives and the potential implications of this for animal rights arguments have not been studied.

This project will be divided into two phases. In phase one, I will construct a framework of important domains to interrogate whether, or how, ADs perform citizenship acts. This framework will underpin phase two: qualitative, semistructured interviews with thirty-two AD partners to address the research questions. I will recruit participants through AD training organisations. This interdisciplinary project sits within Politics, with supervisory support from Biosciences.

References

Isin, E.F. and Nielsen, G.M. (2008) Acts of Citizenship. London and New York: Zed Books.