Lexington Books
Pages: 280
978-0-7391-3456-6 • eBook • June 2010 • $98.50 • (£76.00)
Ralph R. Acampora is currently an associate professor at Hofstra University. He has previously authored Corporal Compassion: Animal Ethics and Philosophy of Body and co-edited A Nietzchean Bestiary: Becoming Animal Beyond Docile and Brutal with Christa Davis Acampora.
Chapter 1 Introduction - Off the Ark: Restoring Biophilia
Chapter 2 Chapter 1 - Zoos as Welfare Arks? Reflections on an Ethical Course for Zoos
Chapter 3 Chapter 2 - Nooz: Ending the Exploitation of Zoos
Chapter 4 Chapter 3 - Through a Frame Darkly: A Phenomenological Critique of Zoos
Chapter 5 Chapter 4 - Beyond Zoos: Marianne Moore and Albrecht Dürer
Chapter 6 Chapter 5 - Respectful Stewardship of a Hybrid Nature: The Role of Concrete Encounters
Chapter 7 Chapter 6 - Whale and Human Agency in World-Making: Decolonizing Whale-Human Encounters
Chapter 8 Chapter 7 - Boring a Wormhole in the Zoological Ark
Chapter 9 Chapter 8 - Open Door Policy: Humanity's Relinquishment of "Right to Sight" and the Emergence of Feral Culture
Chapter 10 Chapter 9 - Earth Trusts: A Quality Vision for Animals?
Chapter 11 Chapter 10 - From Zoo to Zoöpolis: Effectively Enacting Eden
Chapter 12 Chapter 11 - Zoöpolis
Chapter 13 Chapter 12 - Inventionist Ethology: Sustainable Designs for Reawakening Human-Animal Interactivity
Chapter 14 Afterword - Following Zootopian Visions
This diverse collection takes reflections on zoos to new and interesting places. It is a welcome contribution to the growing literature on animal studies.
— Dale Jamieson, New York University, Professor of Environmental Studies and Philosophy
Zoos, and the ways in which their non-consenting confined residents are kept, raise important questions about how these animals should be treated. This impressive collection of essays is a significant contribution to the growing global concern about the well-being of animals in zoos, dealing with many important questions, such as whether zoos should exist at all and what possible educational benefits can be derived from zoos.
— Marc Bekoff, author of Canine Confidential: Why Dogs Do What They Do and Dogs Demystified: An A-to-Z Guide to All Things Canine
The purposes of zoos have been intensely scrutinized in recent decades. Conservation and education are the most commonly given reasons; however, simple entertainment is all too often their actual function. Where others have argued for the improvement of zoos by providing more natural enclosures and enrichment opportunities for animals, this volume questions the very existence of zoos. The work often has a very obvious animal rights perspective. Chapter contributors are generally philosophers and geographers. They make quite thought-provoking and compelling arguments. They document very well some of the pressing ethical concerns associated with keeping animals in captivity, as well as suggesting alternatives to zoos....Useful for presenting an alternative... viewpoint. Summing Up: Recommended.
— Choice Reviews
[Metamorphoses of the Zoo: Animal Encounter after Noah] twelve chapters (plus an afterword) are remarkably diverse in voice and content, ranging from scientific contestation of the actual role of zoos in conservation and of prevailing inhumane practices to a phenomenological exploration of new relationships we might develop with both captive and wild animals, to creative proposals for radically altering if not upending the human subject/nonhuman object presumption that underlines the typical zoo encounter. ... [A] good read. . . , one that exercises the mind with respect to alternative possibilities.
— Environmental Ethics