ABSTRACT
This chapter connects the question of the common world to the question of the common good. By including all manner of lifeforms, forces, and entities it is clear that a common worlds framework extends a commitment to inclusion beyond human diversity. The chapter traces the ways in which the lives of children and animals are materially, semiotically, and ecologically entangled and mutually constitutive. Within western romantic traditions, there is widespread belief that children have a natural affinity with animals. The chapter stresses that it is only certain kinds of child–animal exchanges and interactions that might illuminate how common world ethics are practised. It chooses methods that help to trace the discursive, fleshy, and mortal entanglements of children and animals in situated common worlds and to reflect upon the productive tensions of child–animal relations. The chapter presents an overview of this book. It lays out the foundations for our thinking about the common worlds of children and animals.
