De- and repeasantisation through wolves: a political ecology of predator-friendly farming

Abstract

While wolves are often described as 'ecological engineers', this article reframes the image of this predator as a socioecological engineer. Adopting a more-than-human political ecology perspective, I highlight the imbrication of wolf agency with the political economy of farming in co-shaping processes of agrarian change in Tuscany, Italy. A multispecies ethnography elucidates how wolves are simultaneously contributing to and undermining a modernization of sheep husbandry practices in the region. This entanglement of wolf agency in processes of de- and re-peasantization is politically relevant, affecting human-wolf relations and local levels of conflict. Through their return, wolves are necessitating shifts in farming practices and affecting the topology of agricultural landscapes, favoring either an intensification of husbandry regimes (i.e., more sheep raised indoors) or a greater competitiveness of family-led free-ranging farms with a high availability of family labor. Emphasizing this aspect is important to politicize current discussions surrounding coexistence, and supports the rise of practices that are considered to be most socially, culturally, and ecologically valuable. A focus on wolf agency in this case entails 'thinking with' wolves in co-designing alternative (co)existences, providing a more nuanced understanding of socioecological change and human-wolf relations. This article informs critical scholarship on the value of moving beyond dualist lenses while still maintaining a focus on structural processes. These are an important though not unidirectional force of change. Reframing wolves as socioecological engineers calls for further research exploring such entanglements of human and non-human agencies in the coproduction of agrarian change and human-wildlife relations.