From biopower to affirmative biopolitics: A (bio)political ecology of becoming with wolves

Effective, equitable and just strategies for multispecies coexistence are increasingly the focus of research and policy. The critical social sciences, such as political ecology, have been particularly interested in this topic recently, exploring the production of human-wildlife interactions and the resulting (uneven) outcomes for different communities. Within this body of literature, some studies have explored human-wildlife coexistence through Foucauldian lenses of biopower and related governmentalities, which have also been extended through more-than-human analyses. After drawing a distinction between biopower and affirmative biopolitics, whereby the latter concern alternative modes of 'living with' in more-than-human societies, beyond forms of control over (human and non-human) life, this study explores the (alternative) production of subjectivities in the contexts of farmer-wolf coexistence in Tuscany, Italy. The approach adopted entailed a 12-month ethnography and semi-structured interviews. On the one hand, exercises of biopower operationalised through truth and neoliberal governmentalities by conservation actors are met by local forms of resistance and contribute to an exacerbation of human-wolf conflict. On the other hand, local manifestations of affirmative biopolitics, wherein wolves are conceived not as objects or means to an end but as subjects of care, may provide more promising bases for coexistence. Nevertheless, local ethical propensities to coexist with wolves are strained and constrained by wider political economies shaping socioeconomic hardships in the agricultural sector. We emphasise the need for a greater recognition of local manifestations of affirmative biopolitics, going beyond problematic exercises of biopower that reduce wolves to providers of services (e.g., ecological or economic), which they may not necessarily deliver. We link affirmative biopolitics to feminist ethics of care, articulating an approach to navigating interspecies violence that is attentive to human and non-human needs and frames caring for wolves as a systemic project. We encourage future studies to continue exploring affirmative biopolitics.