POLICARPO, Verónica    TERENO, Henrique. Need, dream, “unexpect”: animal companions and multispecies personal communities. []. , 243, pp.340-366.   30--2022. ISSN 0003-2573.  https://doi.org/10.31447/as00032573.2022243.07.

How do animal companions contribute to (re)shape human personal communities, understood as personal networks of meaningful others inhabiting our micro-social worlds? In a research about friendship ties in Portugal, animal companions emerged spontaneously as relevant members of the participants’ personal maps. This article explores this topic by drawing on 30 in-depth interviews with men and women, aged 21 to 65, living in Greater Lisbon, and focusing on one particular angle: the ways animals enter the personal communities they are part of. We highlight three main modalities of entrance: to fulfil a need; to fulfil a dream; and unexpectedly.

: animal companions; multispecies personal communities; personal communities; human-animal relations.

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