Animal Edutainment in a Neoliberal Era: Politics, Pedagogy, and Practice in the Contemporary Aquarium

Animal Edutainment in a Neoliberal Era is a multispecies ethnographic monograph that explores pedagogy and practice at a Southern California aquarium, demonstrating how neoliberal ideologies interact at various scales to shape aquarium decision-making and practice. It challenges the anthropocentrism of contemporary informal educational approaches and suggests that imaginative ways forward will require a paradigm shift in regarding the role of animals in education.

Format: Hardback
Length: 170 pages
Publication date: 12 April 2021
Publisher: Peter Lang Publishing Inc

Animal Edutainment in a Neoliberal Era is a comprehensive and meticulously researched multispecies ethnographic monograph that delves into the realm of pedagogy and practice within a Southern California aquarium, which houses and showcases over 10,000 animals. Through extensive interviews with aquarium staff and visitors, as well as firsthand fieldwork engaging with and observing human-animal interactions, the book showcases the intricate ways in which aquarium animals are politically utilized in teaching and learning processes. By integrating insights from anthropology, critical geography, environmental education, and political ecology, Teresa Lloro crafts a three-pronged political ecology of education lens, illuminating how neoliberal ideologies intersect at various scales (local, regional, national, and global) to profoundly influence aquarium decision-making and practices. Recognizing that neoliberalism involves the enrollment of humans and other animals in teaching and learning in novel and often poorly understood ways, this study challenges the anthropocentrism of contemporary informal educational approaches, suggesting that innovative solutions will necessitate a paradigm shift in our understanding of the role of animals in education.

Weight: 424g
Dimension: 216 x 235 x 20 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781433147210
Edition number: New ed