Investigating the therapeutic benefits of companion animals: Problems and challenges

Authors

  • Adrian Franklin University of Tasmania, Australia
  • Michael Emmison University of Queensland, Australia
  • Donna Haraway University of California, Santa Cruz, USA
  • Max Travers University of Tasmania, Australia

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18778/1733-8077.3.1.04

Keywords:

Animal-human relationship, Health, Methodology, Qualitative research, Ethnography

Abstract

To investigate the health benefits of companion animals in a way that goes beyond finding statistical patterns involves appreciating the philosophical debates about the nature of animal consciousness that engage an inter-disciplinary field of scholarship cutting across the Great Divide of the hard sciences and humanities. It also requires developing a methodology to conduct empirical research which is often viewed as of secondary importance by researchers wishing to make a philosophical case about human beings and modernity. This paper considers the achievements of qualitative sociologists, particularly in the field of post-Meadian symbolic interactionism who have addressed these issues, and discusses ways of extending and deepening this agenda through crossfertilization with similar work in ethnomethodology, conversation analysis and post-humanist sociology in investigating the health benefits of dogs.

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Author Biographies

Adrian Franklin, University of Tasmania, Australia

Adrian Franklin (Professor) trained as an anthropologist in the UK, and has held Professorial positions at the University of Bristol, UK and the University of Oslo (Norway). He is best known for his work on the relationships between humans and the natural world, especially with animals. His books include Animal Nation: The True Story of Animals and Australia; Animals and Modern Cultures, Nature and Social Theory and Tourism. He is currently working on two new books: City Life and A Culture of Fire: Eucalypts, Australians, Fire. Adrian Franklin's work has focused on social and cultural change in modernity, and this includes work on city life, the sociology of nature and environments, our relationships with animals, and the orderings of travel, mobility and tourism.

Michael Emmison, University of Queensland, Australia

Michael Emmison (PhD) is Reader in Sociology, School of Social Sciences, University of Queensland, Australia. His research interests are primarily in the field of language and interaction and he is currently examining the impact of technology (telephone, email and online web counselling) on troubles telling on a national children’s helpline. He is the co-author of Accounting for Tastes (Cambridge University Press, 1999) and Researching the Visual (2000; Sage) and co-editor of Calling for Help: language and social interaction in telephone helplines (2005; Benjamins).

Donna Haraway, University of California, Santa Cruz, USA

Donna Haraway is a Professor in the History of Consciousness Department at the University of California at Santa Cruz, USA where she teaches feminist theory, science studies, and animal studies. Her publications include Primate Visions: Gender, Race, and Nature in the World of Modern Science (1989); Simians, Cyborgs, and Women The Reinvention of Nature (1991); Modest_Witness@Second_Millennium.FemaleMan© Meets OncoMouse™ (1997); The Companion Species Manifesto: Dogs, People, and Significant Otherness (2003); and When Species Meet (forthcoming 2007; University of Minnesota Press,).

Max Travers, University of Tasmania, Australia

Max Travers (PhD) is a Lecturer in sociology in the School of Sociology and Social Work, University of Tasmania. He qualified as a solicitor before completing a doctorate at the University of Manchester examining legal practice from an ethnomethodological perspective. His publications include The Reality of Law (1997), The British Immigration Courts (1999), Qualitative Research Through Case Studies (2001), An Introduction to Law and Social Theory (edited with Reza Banakar, 2002) and The New Bureaucracy: Quality Assurance and Its Critics (2007).

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Published

2007-04-12

How to Cite

Franklin, A., Emmison, M., Haraway, D., & Travers, M. (2007). Investigating the therapeutic benefits of companion animals: Problems and challenges. Qualitative Sociology Review, 3(1), 42–58. https://doi.org/10.18778/1733-8077.3.1.04