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Special Section: Understanding political ecologies of wildlife conservation through non-human lives. Eds. S Banerjee, J. Margulies, P. Velasco Santos

Loved (lions/red squirrels) and unloved others (spotted hyenas/grey squirrels): Spectacles and more-than-human gazes as part of a political ecology of responsibility

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  • Loved (lions/red squirrels) and unloved others (spotted hyenas/grey squirrels): Spectacles and more-than-human gazes as part of a political ecology of responsibility

    Special Section: Understanding political ecologies of wildlife conservation through non-human lives. Eds. S Banerjee, J. Margulies, P. Velasco Santos

    Loved (lions/red squirrels) and unloved others (spotted hyenas/grey squirrels): Spectacles and more-than-human gazes as part of a political ecology of responsibility

    Authors

Abstract

Conservation generally benefits from spectacles of protecting 'loved others', i.e., those inspiring a human desire for their continued existence, rather than 'unloved others', i.e., those disregarded, disliked or targeted for death. We juxtapose conservation dynamics related to unloved others with much-loved others: spotted hyenas (Crocuta crocuta) and lions (Panthera leo) in Tanzania, and grey squirrels (Sciurus carolinensis) and red squirrels (Sciurus vulgaris) in the United Kingdom. We build a conceptual lens of gazes at micro (local), meso (collective) and macro (global) levels to go beyond spectacles of nature towards being attentive to more-than-human histories and needs amid broader questions of what is (deemed to be) nature. Through methodological and empirical vignettes drawing on academic and policy documents, Twitter pictures, observation and local knowledges, we interrogate human and more-than-human world-making related to our loved and unloved species. We argue that utilizing different natural and social science data together offers a chance to come closer to understanding these loved and unloved others from human and more-than-human vantage points, though anthropocentric bias remains. We find that engaging with diverse data can help to nuance the loved-unloved binary and challenge static, monolithic understandings of animals, while looking at loved and unloved others and acknowledging their reciprocal gazes through diverse methods can build more transformative attitudes towards more-than-humans especially at the micro-level. Finally, we place these dynamics in the context of a political ecology of responsibility, which emphasizes the importance of structural power imbalances and human responsibilities structuring human-wildlife interactions.

Keywords: conservation, spectacles of nature, political ecology of responsibility, more-than-human perspectives

How to Cite:

Krauss, J. E., Mabele, M. B. & Kiwango, W. A., (2026) “Loved (lions/red squirrels) and unloved others (spotted hyenas/grey squirrels): Spectacles and more-than-human gazes as part of a political ecology of responsibility”, Journal of Political Ecology 33(1): 6442. doi: https://doi.org/10.2458/jpe.6442

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Funding

Name
Belmont Forum, Economic and Social Research Council.
Funding ID
ES/S007792/1
Name
Belmont Forum, International Science Council
Funding ID
ISSC-T2S2018-949

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Published on
2026-02-12

Peer Reviewed