The Internet of Animals: Human-Animals Relationships in the Digital Age

‘The internet is made of cats’ is a half-jokingly made claim. Today, animals of all shapes and sizes inhabit our digital spaces, from the monitoring of wildlife and feral animals to wearable devices and RFID chips for livestock.

In this book, Deborah Lupton explores how digital technologies and datafication are changing our relationships with other animals. Playfully building on the concept of ‘The Internet of Things’, it discusses the complex relationships and feelings that have developed between people and animals online and through the use of digital devices, from the rapid dissemination of images and information about animals on social media to employing animal-like robots as companions and care devices.

It brings together a range of perspectives including sociology, cultural geography, environmental humanities, critical animal studies and internet studies to consider how these new digital technologies are contributing to major changes in human-animal relationships at both the micropolitical and macropolitical levels. As the book shows, while digital devices and media have strengthened people’s relationships to other animals, these technologies can also objectify animals as things for human entertainment, therapy or economic exploitation.

This original and engaging book will be of interest to scholars and students across the social sciences and humanities.