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Living as a Bird
Vinciane Despret
Translated by Helen Morrison
polity
Originally published in French as Habiter en oiseau © Actes Sud, France, 2019
This English edition © Polity Press, 2022
Epigraph from Nous sommes à la lisière by Caroline Lamarche © Gallimard 2019. Reprinted with kind permission of Gallimard.
Polity Press
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All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purpose of criticism and review, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.
ISBN-13: 978-1-5095-4728-9
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Despret, Vinciane, author. | Morrison, Helen (Langauge translator), translator.
Title: Living as a bird / Vinciane Despret ; translated by Helen Morrison.
Other titles: Habiter en oiseau. English
Description: Cambridge ; Medford, MA : Polity Press, [2021] | “Originally published in French as Habiter en oiseau © Actes Sud, France, 2019.” | Includes bibliographical references.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021016407 (print) | LCCN 2021016408 (ebook) | ISBN 9781509547265 (hardback) | ISBN 9781509547272 (paperback) | ISBN 9781509547289 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Birds--Territoriality. | Birds--Behavior. | Birds--Research. | Territoriality (Zoology)--Philosophy.
Classification: LCC QL678 .D4713 2021 (print) | LCC QL678 (ebook) | DDC 598--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021016407 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021016408
The publisher has used its best endeavours to ensure that the URLs for external websites referred to in this book are correct and active at the time of going to press. However, the publisher has no responsibility for the websites and can make no guarantee that a site will remain live or that the content is or will remain appropriate.
Every effort has been made to trace all copyright holders, but if any have been overlooked the publisher will be pleased to include any necessary credits in any subsequent reprint or edition.
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Dedication
For Donna Haraway, Bruno Latour and Isabelle Stengers
Acknowledgements
My thanks to:
Alexandra Elbakyan, whose tireless work in sharing and making available countless scientific articles made this research possible.
Stéphane Durand, who gave me the idea for this book, encouraged, supported, commented on and read my work with extraordinary generosity.
Baptiste Morizot, who gave the book its title, its momentum and many more invaluable things besides.
Marcos Matteos Dias for the melodic breathing.
Thibault De Meyer for everything he shares with me, for his notes which so pertinently understand and help others understand what matters, for his emails and his generous rereading.
Maud Hagelstein, not only for reading the manuscript with such extraordinary attention but especially for her enthusiasm and support, so precious in that perilous moment when you find yourself wondering if you should even have written it.
Isabelle Stengers, from the very beginning to the very last lines.
All the people who agreed to discuss my research and who often made me see things in an unexpected light: Serge Gutwirth and his team of researchers