Want to create an interactive transcript for this episode?
Podcast: New Books in Sociology
Episode: James K. Beggan, "How Our Love of Dogs Creates Social Conflict" (Lexington Books, 2022)
Description: For the last twenty-thousand years, dogs and people have shared a unique bond in the animal kingdom. In How Our Love of Dogs Creates Social Conflict (Lexington Books, 2022), Dr. James K. Beggan uses symbolic interaction to examine the meaning that dogs have for people as friends and family members. Although many animal rights advocates express dismay over the subordinate status ownership implies, the author argues that ownership creates a powerful psychological connection that makes it easier for people to imbue dogs with humanlike characteristics.Dr. Beggan outlines how dogs’ sensitivity to inequity, in combination with a high degr...