Uncommon Sense
Our world afresh, through the eyes of sociologists.
Brought to you by The Sociological Review, Uncommon Sense is a space for questioning taken-for-granted ideas about society – for imagining better ways of living together and confronting our shared crises. Hosted by Rosie Hancock in Sydney and Alexis Hieu Truong in Ottawa, featuring a different guest each month, Uncommon Sense insists that sociology is for everyone – and that you definitely don’t have to be a sociologist to think like one!
Support our work. Make a one-off or regular donation to help fund future episodes of Uncommon Sense: donorbox.org/uncommon-sense
Uncommon Sense
Nature, with Catherine Oliver
It is increasingly accepted that we cannot take nature for granted. But do we even know what nature is? Catherine Oliver brings her expertise in geography and sociology – plus her love of chickens – to the latest Uncommon Sense to reflect on what’s at stake in how we think of and relate to “nature” – and how we might do better. Along the way, she considers what happens when neoliberalism shapes what “good” nature is – whether in regeneration or meddling with metabolisms.
Alexis and Rosie also ask Catherine: how might the chicken be “thriving” yet also “extinct”? What potential is there in speaking of the “more than” and “beyond” human? And what responsibility do social scientists have for the age-old binaries that split humans from wider nature?
Plus: a celebration of Andrea Arnold’s “Cow”, Margaret Atwood’s “MaddAddam” trilogy and – Alexis’ favourite – “Captain Planet”.
Guest: Catherine Oliver
Hosts: Rosie Hancock, Alexis Hieu Truong
Executive Producer: Alice Bloch
Sound Engineer: David Crackles
Music: Joe Gardner
Artwork: Erin Aniker
Find more about Uncommon Sense at The Sociological Review.
Episode Resources
Catherine, Rosie, Alexis and our producer Alice recommended
- Andrea Arnold’s film “Cow”
- Margaret Atwood’s “MaddAddam” book trilogy
- TV series “Captain Planet and the Planeteers”
- Evia Wylk’s essay collection “Death by Landscape”
From The Sociological Review
- Performing the classification of nature – Claire Waterton
- Daphne the Cat: Reimagining human–animal boundaries on Facebook – Verónica Policarpo
- Unnatural Times? The Social Imaginary and the Future of Nature – Kate Soper
By Catherine Oliver
- Rising with the rooster: How urban chickens are relaxing the pace of life
- Transforming paradise: Neoliberal regeneration and more-than-human urbanism in Birmingham
- The Opposite of Extinction
- Returning to 'The Good Life'? Chickens and Chicken-keeping during Covid-19 in Britain
- Metabolic ruminations with climate cattle: towards a more-than-human metabo-politics (co-authored with Jonathon Turnbull)
Further reading
- “Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save” – Tyson Yunkaporta
- “Toward equality: Including non-human animals in studies of lived religion and nonreligion” – Lori G. Beaman, Lauren Strumos
- “A History of the World in Seven Cheap Things: A Guide to Capitalism, Nature, and the Future of the Planet” – Raj Patel, Jason W. Moore
- “The Chicken Chronicles: A Memoir” – Alice Walker
- “The Chicken Book” – Page Smith, Charles Daniel
Support our work. Make a one-off or regular donation to help fund future episodes of Uncommon Sense: donorbox.org/uncommon-sense
