Techno-herds and cyborg-shepherds in the age of spectacularized bucolism: What lies behind the postcard
2022
Estrada Bonell, Ferran | Vaccaro, Ismael
This paper focuses on what shepherds must do to ensure that their herds can peacefully graze on the upper meadows of the Catalan Pyrenees. These days, this image, a classic icon of bucolic traditional rurality, cannot happen unless the shepherds are in permanent contact with public administration officials to confirm their compliance with a plethora of strict policies relating to their animals. These policies span a number of fields, including sanitation (vaccinations and tests), animal welfare, insurance, supervised mobility and production processes, environmental impact and subsidies, and have led to very strict supervision and control of animals and their caretakers. In other words, the herd is the result of a cautious combination of technologies of power that track every single animal and the shepherds themselves. The herd, the epitome of the spectacularized patrimonial economy that currently predominates in these mountains, is, in Haraway's words, a cyborg. The symbol of an area and an economy that revolves around the allegedly harmonious coexistence of nature, culture and tradition is, in fact, a compliant techno-hybrid.
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