The Econo-techno-social Design of Invasive Animal Management: costs and benefits or beneficiaries and benefactors? |
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| Authors: | Carla Meurk |
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| Institution: | UQ Centre for Clinical Research, Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital, Australia |
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| Abstract: | This paper examines invasive animal management institutions, using theories at the interstices of anthropology and geography, to question current approaches to management based on neoclassical and neoliberal economic rationales. I present an analysis of two feral pig management regimes in Far North Queensland, Australia: (i) bounty systems of payment for feral pig control; and (ii) a community-based feral pig trapping program. I show how these management methods reshape important social and cultural processes through their overlapping technological and economic elements. On the basis of this analysis, I propose a conceptual framework for invasive animal management planning that incorporates a beneficiary–benefactor analysis alongside cost–benefit analyses. I argue that ecological-economic theories of pest management may be usefully enhanced by addressing the links between economic and social behaviours. |
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| Keywords: | Live-catch trapping bounty systems invasive animal management feral pigs economy as social practice applied social science |
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