S3E2: Pervasive Captivity with Nicolas Delon

In this episode Claudia talks to Nicholas Delon about ‘pervasive captivity’. Moving beyond a conception of captivity as only including those ‘behind bars’, they explore the many ways in which ‘the urban’ might operate to make animals captive by limiting their mobility and autonomy. 

Date recorded: 15 March 2021

Nicolas Delon is Assistant Professor or philosophy and environmental studies at New College of Florida. He specializes in animal ethics, with particular interests in moral status and animal agency. He has published on these topics as well as the ethics of killing animals, urban animals, wild animal suffering, and Nietzsche, among other things. He’s currently working on a book project about animals and the moral community of persons. Check out his website (https://nicolasdelon.com/) or connect with him on Twitter (@NicoDelon) 

Claudia (Towne) Hirtenfelder is the founder and host of The Animal Turn. She is a PhD Candidate in Geography and Planning at Queen’s University and is currently undertaking her own research project looking at the geographical and historical relationships between animals (specifically cows) and cities. Contact Claudia via email (info@theanimalturnpodcast.com) or follow her on Twitter (@ClaudiaFTowne).

Featured:  The Ethics of Captivity and Entangled Empathy by Lori Gruen; The Global Pigeon  and How Pigeons became Rats by Colin Jerolmack;

A.P.P.L.E
Animals in Politics, Law, and Ethics researches how we live in interspecies societies and polities.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to the Episode
• 4:20 About Nicolas
• 9:58 Why should we be talking about urban animals?
• 17:50 What is the concept captivity? What does it mean to be captive?
• 22:09 To what extent are any of us really free to do what we want?
• 30:00 Dogs in cities and their captivity
• 36:00 Speaking about captivity in different ways
• 41:00 An example: Birds in Cities
• 49:00 Quote from Colin Jerolmack (The Global Pigeon)
• 56:44 What are you working on now?
• 1:00:11 The Animal Highlight (Pigeons)
• 1:03:00 Thank yous