Transspecies Urban Theory

Wolch, Jennifer; West, Kathleen; Gaines, Thomas

doi:10.1068/d130735

Cited by 143 publications

(38 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…The study of animals has thus been brought into a culture/society framework from which it has long been excluded (see, e.g., Sheehan and Sosna, 1991;Arluke and Sanders, 1996; and contributions to the new journal Society and Animals). The sociological turn to animals has also recently registered in geography where "animal geography" is being integrated into human geography (Philo, 1995;Wolch and Emel, 1997) and urban geography, for example, is being retheorized as a field of "trans-species relations" (Wolch et al, 1995).…”

Section: The "Animal" Turn As Biological Determinism?mentioning

confidence: 99%

A walk on the wild side: a critical geography of domestication

Anderson

1997

Progress in Human Geography

143

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Against a backdrop of growing interest in animal geographies and the genetic engineering of species, this article critically examines the process of animal domestication. To date, the social selection and breeding of animals have received little deconstructive effort from human scientists. The article begins by reviewing earlier schools of geographic thought on domestication, including the work of Carl Sauer, for whom domestication was a transhistorical process of evolution's unfolding. In working away from that perspective, I historicize animal domestication within a narrative politics of ideas about human uniqueness, savagery and civilization through which the process was conceived and conducted from at least classical times. The article thus develops a cultural critique of technologies that have been fundamental to the transformation of landscapes. Integral to the story are concepts of ‘domus’ and ‘agrios’, the ‘bringing in’ of ‘the wild’, and associated notions of containment, fixity, settling and improvement. These ideas, I argue, became threaded into the relations of not only humans and certain animals but also raced and gendered relations in European-derived societies. The article concludes with appeals to the imagining of more animal-inclusive models of social relations; the relaxation of rigid oppositions of civility and wildness; and a ‘human’ Self more conversant with its own wild side, dedomesticated and unbound.

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Section: The "Animal" Turn As Biological Determinism?mentioning

confidence: 99%

A walk on the wild side: a critical geography of domestication

Anderson

1997

Progress in Human Geography

143

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“…Animals never fi gured prominently in urban planning other than in a form of pests, and animal geography has not been widely studied until recently (Wolch 2002;Philo and Wilbert 2000;Wolch, West, and Gaines 1995;Philo 1995). Th e reason is that urban planners and academics alike do not see cities as suitable places for wild animals.…”

Section: Animals and Landscapesmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…In such a landscape matrix, many residents have proximity to wildlife, but not necessarily intimacy with, or a great understanding of, their environment. "Meaningful interaction" with animals is replaced by consumption of a culturally and commercially produced image, reducing animals to objects (Wolch, West, and Gaines 1995).…”

Section: Social Constructions Of Animals and Landscapesdiscourses Andmentioning

confidence: 99%

Wild in the City: Past, Present, and Future

Ilicheva¹

2010

pcg

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Th is paper analyzes human-animal landscapes within an urban setting. I use a historical ecology approach to discuss the formation of (post)modern landscapes in the twenty-fi rst century Los Angeles. Th e historical approach is necessary to make informed decisions for habitat restoration, and to map out human infl uences on natural ecosystems (Egan and Howell 2001). In the process I discuss strategies for a new urban wildlife theory. Confl icts and encounters between humans and non-humans can be more intense and controversial in a city. Because cities are usually seen as human-only landscapes, urban wildlife is more marginalized there than anywhere else. Th is is especially relevant in Los Angeles, a prime example of unchecked growth that brings more urbanites to the periphery and into contact with wild animals. For that reason I maintain that an urban setting is ideal for wildlife conservation and creating more egalitarian human-nonhuman relations and for breaching of traditional boundaries of exclusion. Th e defi nition of urban, in this paper, includes areas within city limits, as well as areas outside: suburbs or urban fringe. With growing urbanization and the spread of built-up areas all over the world, there remains no choice but to create more hospitable conditions for wildlife within the city, if we want to preserve the wellbeing of individual animals or entire species and ecosystems. I am interested in various qualities in urban landscapes that would create these conditions.

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“…I will be working with Wolch, West and Gaines's idea of transpecies urban theories by exploring some possible theoretical interpretations of human/animal power relations in developing and urbanizing areas. 3 In particular, I will draw on broadly Foucauldian ideas about 48 C. PALMER power, attempting to apply and adapt them to considering animals and processes of development and urbanization. This approach utilizes the thought that some effects of development and urbanization on animals can be helpfully explored through a metaphor of colonization, understanding colonization here not as a "once for all" action, but as an "ongoing process of dispossession, negotiation, transformation, and resistance."…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Colonization, urbanization, and animals

Palmer

2003

Philosophy & Geography

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Urbanization and development of green spaces is continuing worldwide. Such development frequently engulfs the habitats of native animals, with a variety of effects on their existence, location and ways of living. This paper attempts to theorize about some of these effects, drawing on aspects of Foucault's discussions of power and using a metaphor of human colonization, where colonization is understood as an "ongoing process of dispossession, negotiation, transformation, and resistance." It argues that a variety of different kinds of human/ animal power relations can exist in urban areas, not all of which are examples of human domination. The paper concludes by raising a number of questions about the implications of these human/animal relations.

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Transspecies Urban Theory

Cited by 143 publications

References 24 publications

A walk on the wild side: a critical geography of domestication

A walk on the wild side: a critical geography of domestication

Wild in the City: Past, Present, and Future

Colonization, urbanization, and animals

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