The text is sorted into chapters thematically. The sociohistoric context is the lack of government funding to universities since the 1970's, and is conceptually framed by the corporization of educational institutions.
The cover is a custodian walking down a campus hallway with their back turned and holding a broom. It tells me that custodians and the work they do are significant to the text but not really anything else.
The ideas around knowledge seem particularly interesting. What knowledge matters? Who holds it? How is knowledge related to power?
This outline gave me a very clear picture of what this text is about, who the main actors are, and the theoretical framing of the text. The civic engagement part was the only thing that seemed unclear to me and the role it plays in the text.
This outline relays the text in a very clear, understandable way. If I were to Re-Relay I would probably summarize some of the answers a little more where I felt too much information was given for just a brief outline, particularly the question on the author's assumptions that shaped the inquiry.
The text is described to be Multispecies care in India's central himalayas. Essentially Govindrajan is concerned with the interspecies interaction bewteen human and non-human animals and they must coexist. Additionally, she is concerned with the cultural empahisis or result for being associated with animals and the connotations they bring.
The text seems to be designed as an interspecies ethngraphy. It focuses on the meso level farmers and owner of the animals in Kumaon and how their community is both being percieved and acted upon by outside forces such as NGO's and the goverment because of the perception created by animals. It appears to be an elightening text focused on bring to light the practices of groups like PFA and provide why this group of people are the exact opposite of what these groups believe.
The cover I feel is more straight forward ( but I am sure to be wrong). It features a small child chasing goats, a literally intimate interaction with animals which serves to capture the milieu of the text. I do wonder why this photo was taken and say why not a person milking a goat, I believe it is because that sort of picture would display a power dynamic very different than the seemingly symbiotic and natural relationship shared between the child and goats. It in away shows the quoatidianess of the interactions.
I believe what most drew me in the text is the basic premise of exploring an interaction between human and non-human animals. It seemed strange at first but often in order study humans it seems you study everything around it, and in this case animals were that non-human obect.
The sketch suggest the circulation between acedemics and animal rights activist and I agree with this. Additionally, the sketch says possibly turning the text into a poem. film, or play could yeild similar results. I agree with this, and would push for a film, however there is a strange sybiotic relationship between human and animal and could even see this performing in a visual novel video game or a top down co-op play. While there is concerning issues of making field work a game or "playable" there has been a rising interest to tell stories through video games.
