Valuing Wildness in Animals: Elephants

This was the first of a series of six workshops intended to foster an interdisciplinary investigation of the following question: ‘How is wildness in animals valued?’ As an inherently contested concept, wildness provides a particularly useful basis for considering the biological, topological, spatial, cultural, moral, and economic relationships between human and non-human animals. Each workshop in the series will focus on a different species, each raising a range of issues relevant to our general topic.

Dr Jamie Lorimer (Department of Geography, King’s College, London), whose research centres on the Asian elephant, gave a fascinating talk about the conservation and rewilding of a species that has often occupied a place between the wild and the domesticated in human culture. He also considered the place of touch (specifically with regard to human-elephant companionship) in contemporary environmentalism. Dr Lorimer’s talk was followed by a buffet lunch and interdisciplinary discussion.

Jamie Lorimer's Presentation can be downloaded here.

 For more information about this project, please contact the project lead, Karen Edwards