Toward a Theory of Nonhuman Species-Being

Abstract

This provocation asks what it could mean to recuperate the concept of species-being from its anthropocentric origins and expand it beyond the human by placing an emergent nonhuman labor literature in dialogue with recent rearticulations of Marx’s work on alienation. There is increasing interest in different modes of nonhuman labor, recognizing how animals are put to work to produce value for capitalism. This provocation advances these debates by asking: If nonhuman animals can be recognized as laboring, and as alienated laborers, can they, like humans, be alienated not just from the activities and products of their labor, but from their species-being? What would it mean to recognize forms of nonhuman species-being in which animals engage in world-making practices on their own terms? Could this reify the bounded notion of species or encourage a recourse to nature as a moral authority? And at a time of significant anthropogenic environmental transformation, are some modes of nonhuman species-being permanently foreclosed? This article explores these questions, tentatively working toward a theory of nonhuman species-being, considering its possibilities and political affordances.