[H-verkko] CFP: Urban Animals: Human–Animal Relations in 20th Century Urban Societies

[agricola at utu.fi]

Agricolan artikkelipyyntöihin on lähetetty uusi ilmoitus:
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Urban Animals: Human–Animal Relations in 20th Century Urban Societies
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Session S21: Urban Animals: Human-Animal Relations in 20th Century Urban
Societies

(Reinterpreting cities.13th International Conference on Urban History. Helsinki,
August 24-27. 2016)

Deadline: October 31, 2015

The relationship between humans and animals in economic, ecological and ethical
terms is one of the most crucial questions in the contemporary world. Yet,
animals have been largely excluded from societal research. The absence of
animals in mainstream historical and cultural research has restricted our
understanding of the complexity of society, the lived environment and modernity.
Currently new materialism, posthumanism and the burgeoning “animal turn” are
problematizing and criticizing anthropocentrism and beginning to make animals
visible in societal research.

This session focuses on the question of how urban societies have been and
continue to be shaped by human-animal interactions. The aim is to go beyond the
oversimplified polarity of human agency and animal subordination by examining
the complex coexistence of humans and animals and their reciprocal actions.
Human–animal relations include both regionally and culturally specific
practices and conditions as well as global dimensions. Thus, the session will
promote a wide perspective and any particular case study should be located
within the broader transnational context.

Human-animal relations have undergone significant changes since the nineteenth
century. Intensive industrial farming and urbanisation have distanced most
people from farm animals and from wild animals familiar in rural environments.
Urban society has simultaneously witnessed the intensification of other
human-animal relations, for example those between humans and pets. Cities are
also inhabited by numerous animals which are “wild” even though many of them
use anthropogenic food sources. Some of these may be valued and may even become
targets for biodiversity conservation efforts, while others are considered
vermin. The aim of this session is to create a multidisciplinary comparative
discussion that includes studies of all of these different aspects of animals in
urban settings, in order to highlight the multiplicity and diversity of urban
animals. The session will focus on the 20th century.

Potential themes include:
– methodological and theoretical questions regarding how human-animal
relations can be studied, particularly in urban settings
– problematizing anthropocentrism
– pets in urban consumer society
– townspeople and the wilderness (e.g. hunting)
– tensions between people and animals in the city
– urban biodiversity conservation
– animals as food sources

Session organisers:

Susanna Lidström, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden, the Scripps
Institution of Oceanography, University of California

Taina Syrjämaa, European and World History, University of Turku, Finland

 

Paper proposal

Abstracts of paper proposals should not exceed 300 words.

Deadline for paper proposals submission: October 31, 2015
Notification of paper acceptance: December 15, 2015

Important: Paper proposals and full texts can only by submitted online, via the
EAUH2016 website https://eauh2016.net/. Proposals and texts sent by post or
email will not be considered.

Paper submission

The session organisers will decide on the contents of their session and will
make the final selection of papers. The authors of the accepted paper proposals
will be invited to submit the full text (max. 5000 words). The papers will be
made available to all participants of the conference in a restricted web area.

Deadline for full text submissions: August 15, 2016

 

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Ilmoituksen lähetti: Taina Syrjämaa <taisyr at utu.fi>
Ilmoitus vanhentuu: 1.11.2015
Lisätietoja WWW-osoitteesta: http://eauh2016.net/