Sammanfattning

The first rule to poaching is that you do not talk about poaching. If you do, you do so behind a veil of anonymity, using hypotheticals or indirect reported speech that protect you from moral, cultural or legal self-incrimination. In this study of Swedish hunters talking about a phenomenon of illegal killing of protected wolves, we situate such talk in the debate between crime talk as reflecting resistance, reality or everyday venting. We identify four discourses: the discourse of silence; the complicit discourse of protecting poachers; the 'proxy' discourse of talking about peers; and the 'empty' discourse of exaggerating wolf kills as means of political resistance. Our hunters materialize these discourses both by sharing stories that we sort into respective discourses and by providing their meta-level perceptions on what they mean. Specifically we examine whether Swedish hunters' discourses on illegal killing are (1) a means of letting off steam; (2) a reflection of reality; (3) part of a political counter-narrative against wolf conservation; or (4) a way of radicalizing peers exposed to the discourse. We conclude that illegal killing discourses simultaneously reflect reality and constitute it and that hunters' meta-talk reveals most endorse a path-goal folk model of talk and action.

Nyckelord

Discourse; wolves; hunting; everyday resistance; poaching; illegal hunting

Publicerad i

Environmental Sociology
2018, Volym: 4, nummer: 3, sidor: 370-380

SLU författare

• von Essen, Erica

  • Institutionen för stad och land, Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet
    

Globala målen

Främja fredliga och inkluderande samhällen för hållbar utveckling, tillhandahålla tillgång till rättvisa för alla samt bygga upp effektiva, och inkluderande institutioner med ansvarsutkrävande på alla nivåer


UKÄ forskningsämne

Sociologi (exklusive socialt arbete, socialpsykologi och socialantropologi)
Kommunikationsvetenskap


Publikationens identifierare

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/23251042.2017.1408446

Permanent länk till denna sida (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/98594