De-centring the human in multispecies ethnographies

Much has been written about the need to bridge the theory/practice divide by bringing them together in the ‘praxis’ of teaching. For researchers inspired by posthumanist theorizations, the task of bridging the theory/practice divide is particularly challenging because it is accompanied by the additional need to
resist the nature/culture divide that keeps our human species ‘hyper-separated’ from all ‘earth others’ in the name of ‘human exceptionalism’ (Plumwood, 2002). The foundational nature/culture divide of Western humanism provides the structuring logic for our human-centric practices, and the challenge of
decentring the human within the decidedly humanist practice of social science research cannot be underestimated. The challenge is compounded when this research is ‘applied’ in ‘the field’ – or, to put it another way, when it is enacted in the world beyond the academy. It seems much easier to theorize
about decentring the human than to walk the walk and find congruent, innovative ways to ‘put new concepts to the test’ (Lorimer, 2010, p. 238).