Project description
Conflict between cat ethics and biodiversity conservation
Cats are cherished pets since they were first domesticated to help address rodent and cockroach infestations more than 9 000 years ago. However, cats also pose a threat to biodiversity, especially on islands. With the support of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the FELIMAC project will study human-cat relations in urban, rural and natural milieux in the Macaronesian archipelago. It will explore the forces behind this conflict, examine the relationship between governance and perceptions of cats, and aim to better understand and analyse cat colony structure and management. The project will use the findings to develop an adaptable governance framework that balances cat care ethics with endangered species protection.
Objective
As we confront unprecedented socio-ecological challenges, cats—cherished pets, devastating predators and rural mousers—occupy a central place in growing tensions between biodiversity conservation and animal welfare, particularly acute in islands. Drawing on multidisciplinary scholarship within Human–Animal Studies (HAS), FELIMAC asks: How do cats with outdoor access mediate conflicts between biodiversity conservation and animal welfare in insular settings amid rural–urban divides, environmental knowledge crises and ethical dilemmas? By addressing this question, FELIMAC moves beyond the apparent clash between environmental and animal care ethics through an ethnography of human–cat relations across urban, rural and natural milieux in the Macaronesian archipelagos of Madeira and the Azores.
The project is structured around four objectives: (1) to theorise how multiple human and nonhuman temporalities underpin cat-biodiversity conflicts and inform identity narratives (national/insular) through native/alien classifications; (2) to explain how the dual pet/pest framing of cats unsettles governance practices across diverse contexts; (3) to develop a gender-aware analysis of feline colony management that challenges the cat lady stereotype; and (4) to design a participatory multispecies governance framework that integrates endangered species protection with cat care ethics beyond one-size-fits-all solutions.
In doing so, FELIMAC will advance a groundbreaking temporal turn in HAS, combining environmental anthropology, political ecology, anthropology of time and feminist studies. Through innovative participatory methods such as deep mapping, it will generate a transformative governance model attentive to temporalities, knowledge politics and care emotions shaping human–cat relations.
Finally, FELIMAC will realise my ambition to become a leading scholar in the environmental social sciences by providing a high-profile international postdoctoral experience at CRIA.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
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CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- social sciences sociology governance
- natural sciences biological sciences ecology
- social sciences sociology anthropology
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Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
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Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
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Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
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(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2025-PF
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1649 026 LISBOA
Portugal
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