Bonds and Love In Interspecies Relationships

Love, attachement, care and solidarity are often understood as fundamentally human experiences. However, growing sociological research shows that meaningful emotional and intimate relationships frequently extend beyond the boundaries of the human species. This session invites sociologists from around the world to explore the diverse forms of bonds that emerge between humans and companion animals, farm animals, working animals, and wildlife. We welcome theoretical, methodological, and empirical contributions addressing, but not limited to, the following themes:

• Formation, maintenance, and transformation of interspecies relationships;
• Attachment, bonding, and emotional reciprocity between humans and animals;
• Interspecies intimacy, affection, and love;
• Human–animal communication and mutual understanding;
• Expressions, representations, and visualizations of love across species boundaries;
• Multispecies care, caregiving practices, and emotional labor;
• Animals as family members, companions, friends, or significant others;
• More-than-human relationships and multispecies communities;
• Animal agency and co-creation of social relationships;
• Mourning, loss, grief, and remembrance in interspecies relationships;
• Social, cultural, and moral norms shaping human–animal bonds;
• Power, inequality, and ambivalence in relationships with animals;
• The role of animals in identity formation, belonging, and social networks;
• Methodological and ethical challenges in researching interspecies relationships.

The session aims to advance sociological discussions on solidarity, love, intimacy, and sociality beyond the human realm, while fostering dialogue among scholars working in human–animal studies, sociology of emotions, family sociology, multispecies studies, and related fields.