This article focuses on embodiment and the centrality of embodied methods to multi-species research. We argue that taking the body as our methodological starting point is essential to researching human–animal relations but that bodies engage with and are engaged by the research process in a multiplicity of ways. In this we follow Vinciane Despret’s analysis of the partial affinities between animal scientists’ bodies and the animals they are researching and suggest that sociology’s distinction between sociology of and sociology with the body glosses over the complexities of inter-corporeal encounters. We explore these questions through a discussion of our multi-species ethnography of dog training cultures in the UK, looking at the training of companion dogs, guide dogs and police dogs. We pay attention to the different forms of embodied engagement that these training cultures make possible for us as researchers and reflect on the place of embodied communication in both the training and research relationship. We consider the disembodied training necessitated by the transition to online classes during the Covid pandemic and the consequences of this for our ability to create partial affinities with the dogs and their humans. We argue that the methodological challenges of our times require that we develop methods that attend to our multi-species world, rather than focusing exclusively on the human, and that bring into being a social reality which is less anthropocentric.

中文翻译：

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去中心化人类：作为具体实践的多物种研究

本文重点讨论体现和体现方法在多物种研究中的中心地位。我们认为，以身体作为方法论的起点对于研究人与动物的关系至关重要，但身体以多种方式参与研究过程并被研究过程所参与。在本文中，我们遵循 Vinciane Despret 对动物科学家的身体和他们正在研究的动物之间的部分亲和力的分析，并提出社会学对身体社会学和与身体的社会学之间的区别掩盖了身体间接触的复杂性。我们通过讨论英国犬类训练文化的多物种民族志来探讨这些问题，研究伴侣犬、导盲犬和警犬的训练。我们关注这些培训文化为我们作为研究人员提供的不同形式的具体参与，并反思具体沟通在培训和研究关系中的地位。我们考虑了在新冠病毒大流行期间转向在线课程所需的无形训练，以及这种训练对我们与狗及其人类建立部分亲和力的能力的影响。我们认为，我们时代的方法论挑战要求我们开发关注多物种世界的方法，而不是仅仅关注人类，并形成一种不那么以人类为中心的社会现实。