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Good Boundaries? Growing Multispecies Cultures on the Family Farm

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 July 2025

Julia D. Gibson
Julia D. Gibson*
Affiliation:
Environmental Studies, Antioch University New England, Keene, NH, USA
*
Email: jgibson11@antioch.edu
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Abstract

This paper considers the practical application of the metaphor of “good boundaries” for working towards better interspecies relationships and multispecies cultures. Engaged philosophical methods are employed in the context of the author’s family farm with attentiveness towards both multispecies and colonial politics. The analysis centers interspecies relational dynamics across a spectrum of liminal forms of life on “the property,” in the “homestead,” and under the guise of “stewardship.” The paper concludes that the metaphor of good boundaries helps to generate better multispecies entanglements by (i) growing our capacity for ecological thinking, (ii) directing our attention to moral failure, and, at times, (iii) disrupting anthropocentric colonial ideologies and practices.

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Article
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Hypatia , Volume 40 , Issue 4 , Fall 2025 , pp. 824 - 848
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© The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Hypatia, a Nonprofit Corporation

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