Pet bylaws and posthumanist health promotion: a case study of urban policy

Abstract

Dog walking enables physical activity and positive social interactions, but uncontrolled dogs as well as dog feces can foster conflict and deter physical activity, for both dog owners and nonowners. This case study shows that previously reported associations with dogs (both positive and negative) can be linked to the wording and the day-to-day implementation of, or incompliance with, local governments’ bylaws on pets. In this example of posthumanist health promotion, the policy goal is to optimize the overall impact on well-being of pet animals. Analytically, the case study draws together insights from actor–network theory, Foucault’s theory of governmentality, Bourdieu’s theory of habitus, and anthrozoology (i.e. the study of human–animal interactions as well as related ideas and norms). Posthumanist health promotion is a theoretically informed approach that can assist in developing policy and implementation strategies, not only on pets but on a range of topics.

Keywords:

• one health
• population health
• healthy cities
• habitus
• actor–network theory
• governmentality

Acknowledgements

This article was prepared while Melanie Rock held a New Investigator in Societal and Cultural Dimensions of Health Award from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research; a Population Health Investigator Award from Alberta Innovates – Health Solutions (funded by the Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research Endowment); and a Visiting Scholar Award from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Institute for Population and Public Health at the Centre for Values, Ethics and the Law in Medicine, School of Public Health, University of Sydney. The park-based field research reported in this article is being funded by an operating grant from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Institute for Population and Public Health, for which Melanie Rock and Gavin McCormack are principal investigators. Chris Degeling, Dawn Rault, Ann Toohey, Judith Green, Kirsten Bell, Lindsay McLaren, Charlene Elliott, Eric Mykhalovskiy, Kate Frohlich, and anonymous reviewers provided helpful comments on previous drafts. Previous drafts also served as the basis for presentations at the University of Toronto, the University of Calgary, a symposium on the Sociology of Public Health at the 2012 Canadian Sociology Association meetings, and the University of Sydney. I am grateful to Joan Eakin, Alan Smart, Eric Mykhalovskiy, Dinesh Wadiwel, and Fiona Probyn-Rapsey for these invitations and for the ensuing discussions.