Transform Zoé in Bíos: Democracy, Representation and Animals

The anthropocentric gap whereby sets a radical difference between man and other animals not only justified the mistreatment and abuse of the last ones by the first ones, but has served as an excuse to exclude different human groups of the policy community (bios). This segregationist movement has bee...

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Bibliographic Details
Author: Zapata Clavería, Miguel
Format: article
Status:Published version
Publication Date:2017
Country:México
Institution:UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL AUTÓNOMA DE MÉXICO
Repository:Acta Sociológica
Language:Spanish
OAI Identifier:oai:ojs.pkp.sfu.ca:article/58961
Online Access:https://www.revistas.unam.mx/index.php/ras/article/view/58961
Access Level:Open access
Keyword:Animals
bíos
democracy
biopolitics
representation
zoé.
Animales
biopolítica
democracia
representación
animais
política
representação
zoé
Description
Summary:The anthropocentric gap whereby sets a radical difference between man and other animals not only justified the mistreatment and abuse of the last ones by the first ones, but has served as an excuse to exclude different human groups of the policy community (bios). This segregationist movement has been driven from two areas: the racist science that rank different population according to their distance or proximity to the beasts; and those biopolitical projects that reduce individuals to their biological condition (zoe) stripping of speech and rights. The present work will be positioned against this ostracism and defend a conception of democracy that, incorporating mechanisms from political and scientific representation, would integrate in the political sphere voiceless beings. A democracy of this type would stop considering the discourse competence as a necessary condition for political representation and would give voice to human and nonhuman animals who do not possess or have lost the ability to express their own interests linguistically.