Multispecies Families in Italy. A Cartography of the New Practicies of Intimacy
Multispecies Families in Italy. A Cartography of the New Practicies of Intimacy
Monday, 7 July 2025: 00:00
Location: ASJE013 (Annex of the Faculty of Legal, Economic, and Social Sciences)
Oral Presentation
In 2023, 65 million pets will live in Italian homes, compared to 59million people (Istat 2023). 4 out of 10 households have at least one animal companion, and the pet-food market is growing at an impressive rate (+13.4% in 2023 alone) (Assalco 2024). There is a growing presence of animals in public spaces (supermarkets, streets and gardens, trains, hotels, beaches) and in the media (dedicated columns in newspapers and social media, pet influencers, advertising). While vegans and groups for animal rights are becoming most popular, the practices of exploiting and killing farm animals have become invisible because they are intolerable to public opinion.
Despite the magnitude of these phenomena, sociological studies on the human-animal relationship in Italy are still very few and almost all devoted to animals as an oppressed category.
The proposed paper recounts the results of the first sociological research conducted between 2022 and 2024 in Italian households to investigate the transformations of intimacy and new lifestyles produced in living with pets. The main body of analysis consists of 135 in-depth interviews with women (99) and men (36), living with at least one dog or cat, of different ages and cultural backgrounds. Added to this are more than 150 photographs of their pets, made available for the occasion. Thematic and interpretive analysis focused on searching (both in the stories and photos) for key words, linguistic contradictions, recurring or emblematic themes, aiming to understand and reconstruct the meanings the interviewees attributed to the perceptions and actions narrated.
The results confirm the widespread tendency for subjectification of the non-human animal and a plurality of new relationships and patterns of cohabitation. Within this framework, the authors construct a cartography of roles of humans and non-humans living together, new practices of intimacy and new situations that characterize the life of multispecies families in Italy.
Despite the magnitude of these phenomena, sociological studies on the human-animal relationship in Italy are still very few and almost all devoted to animals as an oppressed category.
The proposed paper recounts the results of the first sociological research conducted between 2022 and 2024 in Italian households to investigate the transformations of intimacy and new lifestyles produced in living with pets. The main body of analysis consists of 135 in-depth interviews with women (99) and men (36), living with at least one dog or cat, of different ages and cultural backgrounds. Added to this are more than 150 photographs of their pets, made available for the occasion. Thematic and interpretive analysis focused on searching (both in the stories and photos) for key words, linguistic contradictions, recurring or emblematic themes, aiming to understand and reconstruct the meanings the interviewees attributed to the perceptions and actions narrated.
The results confirm the widespread tendency for subjectification of the non-human animal and a plurality of new relationships and patterns of cohabitation. Within this framework, the authors construct a cartography of roles of humans and non-humans living together, new practices of intimacy and new situations that characterize the life of multispecies families in Italy.