“It takes two to tango” -en intervjustudie om människors uppfattningar om och attityder till domesticerade djur i Sverige

Sammanfattning: The relation between humans and animals has been through the course of history a controversial matter. The understandings regarding this issue are today various, however, this essay analyses only a few of them and primarily six types of understandings by using a post-humanist theoretical framework. The purpose of this essay is, therefore, to achieve a broader understanding of how animals’ subjectivity is related to human subjectivity, by analyzing six different points of view concerning the relationship between human beings and animals. The central question of the essay examines how these points of views differ from the Cartesian dualism, and how the relation to an animal can be understood as a “becoming-with,” i.e., a form of co-existence between animals and humankind. By further analyzing these different understandings a pattern is shown. The more an individual sees the relationship to animals as expoitative the more he feels the need to distance himself from the animals.