Once imported to Australia as rodent controllers, cats are now regarded as responsible for a second wave of mammal extinction across the continent. Utilising the Foucauldian concept of biopolitics, we investigate critically the institutional field of cat regulation in Australia, exemplified by the Western Australian Cat Act 2011 and the Federal Environment Minister’s 10-year campaign to eradicate feral cats. Analysis of the biopolitical dispositif of ferality, and its elements of knowledge, subjectivation and objectivation and power processes, illustrates the dispositions through which what might be regarded as felicide has become organisational practice. We propose alternative practices emphasising the productive potentialities of biopolitics.
History
Publication title
Organization
Volume
23
Pagination
387-406
ISSN
1350-5084
Department/School
School of Geography, Planning and Spatial Sciences
Publisher
Sage Publications Ltd
Place of publication
6 Bonhill Street, London, England, Ec2A 4Pu
Rights statement
Copyright 2016 The Authors
Repository Status
Restricted
Socio-economic Objectives
Environmental policy, legislation and standards not elsewhere classified