A posthuman analysis of wildlife security

At the core of the study is the development of the wildlife security assemblage, which closely analyses the relationship between security and wildlife conservation in the region and questions the dominant anthropocentrism that not only impacts upon ethical conservation practices, but also speaks to a wider need to address problematic interspecies relations that impinge upon our abilities to coexist with nonhuman nature.

This thesis uses predominantly ethnographic research methods, and reflects the movement towards multispecies ethnography when engaging with the politics of the interspecies encounter. It includes extensive field work in the region of South Africa whereby I engaged with many people and places that constituted what I came to understand as the wildlife security assemblage in order to make sense of the complexity of this interspecies security issue.