Form and Formlessness: The Spatiocorporeal Politics of the American Kennel Club

Abstract

This paper merges together the growing theoretical interest in nonhumans with longstanding philosophical questions about form in order to assess the political and ethical ramifications of contemporary human engagements with domestic dogs. In particular, this paper explores the organ-izational and legal activities of the American Kennel Club (AKC) to highlight the importance of form in their political engagements and to illustrate some of the unintended consequences these activities produce. Although the AKC attempts to instantiate its own vision of the ideal dog, the organization is incapable of solidifying the character of the domestic dog, for it must contend with other groups (animal welfare groups, dogfighters, governmental agencies, and dogs themselves) which have different visions of the ideal dog. To accentuate and counteract these failings, formlessness is utilized here as a tool and as a normative ethic to reconsider the nature of human–nonhuman relations. Dogs are an ideal subject for such an investigation because they exist in many different forms that are themselves susceptible to considerable change. Yet the specific findings described here should be applicable to a wide range of natural phenomena since the interplay between form and formlessness is generally pervasive throughout the world.

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