Cosmoecological Sheep and the Arts of Living on a Damaged Planet

Summary

This paper documents a contemporary revival of pastoral transhumance in southern France, where young urban-background shepherds and their naive flocks engage in mutual learning to restore both ecological function and traditional herding knowledge. Rather than treating herding as conventional livestock economics, the authors frame it as an art of ecological recuperation and a practice of 'alter-politics' in which humans and animals co-produce new forms of coexistence and cosmoecological connection on environmentally damaged land.

Regional applicability

Whilst this study is geographically located in southern France, the underlying themes of pastoral knowledge recovery, transhumance-based land restoration, and rewilding of confined livestock are relevant to UK debates around regenerative grazing, upland pastoral management, and the revival of traditional shepherding. However, UK ecological conditions, policy frameworks (especially post-Brexit agricultural subsidies and welfare regulations), and land tenure differ significantly, requiring contextual adaptation of the philosophical and practical insights.

Key measures

Qualitative documentation of shepherd–sheep co-learning, transhumance adoption, behavioural and ecological transformation

Outcomes reported

The paper describes how urban-background shepherds and naive sheep co-learn herding practices and transhumance, transforming both animal behaviour and ecological conditions through seasonal pastoral movement. It frames these practices as ecological recuperation and the development of new modes of coexistence on damaged land.

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