Worm Politics

This chapter discusses different theoretical perspectives on worm politics in order to shed light on two interrelated questions: how to think with worms, and how to live with worms. It also discusses Jane Bennett's vital materialist view of political worm agency and Bertoni's view of eating as relating, that turns the focus from worm agency to human-worm practices. The chapter argues that while these approaches shed light on worm agency, as well as on human-worm assemblages, they fail to take into account the power relations that shape the relations between nonhuman and human animals, and that shape nonhuman agencies, politically. It then discusses the role of power in human-worm relations in order to examine the social and political mechanisms that structure human relations with worms. The chapter turns the focus to living with worms. It talks about the recent political turn in animal ethics and examines its potential for rethinking political worm-human relations.