Living as a Bird

Vinciane Despret is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Liège.

• AcknowledgementsFirst chord     CounterpointChapter 1Territories   Counterpoint   Chapter 2    The power to affectCounterpoint      Chapter 3  OverpopulationCounterpoint   Second chord     Counterpoint    Chapter 4   PossessionsCounterpoint   Chapter 5  AggressionCounterpoint   Chapter 6  Polyphonic scoresCounterpoint   PostscriptsA Poetic of Attention – Stéphane DurandGathering up the knowledge which has fallen from the nest – Baptiste MorizotNotes

“fascinating”The Environmental Magazine‘Without forgetting the dangers of violence and extinction, Despret’s writing always makes the world more generous, open, surprising, and generative. Living as a Bird inquires about and engages with “territory” and “territoriality” in exquisite specificity and concrete detail, exploring these birds, these writers and observers of birds, these sounds and calls, these rituals and affects. In the process, this potent little book describes and proposes a polyphonic score. Readers learn how to pay attention, to attend, to tune the senses and to open the imagination. What emerges are bird-rich, science-rich stories that are less deterministic, less self-satisfied with Explanation, more open to manoeuvre, both for birds and for humans who tune themselves to complex avian performances of their becoming in place.’Donna Haraway, Professor Emerita at the University of California, Santa Cruz