Shared Lives of Humans and Animals : Animal Agency in the Global North

Animals are conscious beings that form their own perspective regarding the lifeworlds in which they exist, and according to which they act in relation to their species and other animals. In recent decades a thorough transformation in societal research has taken place, as many groups that were previously perceived as being passive or subjugated objects have become active subjects. This fundamental reassessment, first promoted by feminist and radical studies, has subsequently been followed by spatial and material turns that have brought non-human agency to the fore. In human-animal relations, despite a power imbalance, animals are not mere objects but act as agents. They shape our material world and our encounters with them influence the way we think about the world and ourselves. This book focuses on animal agency and interactions between humans and animals. It explores the reciprocity of human-animal relations and the capacity of animals to act and shape human societies. The chapters draw on examples from the Global North to explore how human life in modernity has been and is shaped by the sentience, autonomy, and physicality of various animals, particularly in landscapes where communities and wild animals exist in close proximity. It offers a timely contribution to animal studies, environmental geography, environmental history, and social science and humanities studies of the environment more broadly. Cover -- Half Title -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Table of Contents -- List of illustrations -- Figures -- Tables -- List of contributors -- Acknowledgements -- Introduction -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Part I: Co-Living Individuals -- Chapter 1: Whose Agency? Humans and Dogs in Training -- Introduction -- Dogs and Agency: A Theoretical Background -- Data and Methodology -- Dog Sports as Context -- In Search of Agency: Humans and Dogs in Cooperation -- The Animality of the Agency: "A Dog Is a Dog"--Conclusions: The Tensions in Agency -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Research Materials -- Literature -- Chapter 2: Human and Non-Human Agency in Icelandic Film: Of Horses and Men -- Introduction -- Animal Agency and Representation in Film and the Media -- Human and Non-Human Performance in Of Horses and Men -- Human Folly and Equine Vision -- Non-Human Agency and the Icelandic Landscape -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Chapter 3: Horses as Co-Constructors of Knowledge in Contemporary Finnish Equestrian Culture -- Tacit Knowledge and Horses -- Interaction and Interpretation -- Reading the Horse -- The Horse Constructing Expertise -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Research Materials -- Literature -- Chapter 4: Living with Horses: Horse Agency in Human-Horse Cohabitation in Nineteenth-Century Finnish Swidden Culture -- Introduction -- The Research Material -- The Horse in the Worldview of Swidden Cultivators -- Horses Living inside the House -- Horses' Agency -- Changing Conceptions about Domestic Animals at the Turn of the Century -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Ethnographic and Folklore Materials -- Literature -- Chapter 5: Spectacles of Modern Companionship: Men, Dogs and Early Finnish Dog Shows -- Introduction -- Sharing Agency and History -- Protagonists in Helsinki -- At the Exhibition -- Conclusion -- Acknowledgemtent Whose agency? : humans and dog training / Leena Koski and Pia Bäcklund -- Human and non-human agency in Icelandic film : of horses and men / Stella Hockenhull -- Horses as co-constructors of knowledge in contemporary Finnish equestrian culture / Nora Schuurman -- Living with horses : horse agency in human-horse cohabitation in nineteenth-century Finnish Swidden culture / Riitta-Marja Leinonen -- Spectacles of modern companionship : men, dogs and early Finnish dog shows / Taina Syrjämaa -- Case study of a changing human-animal relationship : wild rabbits in Britain since the nineteenth century to the onset of myxomatosis / John Martin -- Does a dead wild animal have agency? : the white-tailed eagle as a catalyst for an ideational revolution in Finland / Tuomas Räsänen -- Cosmological changes : shifts in human-fish relationships in Alaska's Bering Strait Region / Julie Raymond-Yakoubian & Vernae Angnaboogok -- The Baltic herring as agents in the socio-ecological system in Rymättylä fisheries / Kirsi Sonck-Rautio -- Rangifer tarandus in textual service : positioning reindeer as an agent in a human/non-human interactional context in three texts / Jukka Nyyssönen -- Anthropogenic food sources in the co-existence of humans with liminal animals in northern environments : representations from National Geographic Magazine / Linda Kalof, Cameron Whitley, Stephen Vrla, and Jessica Bell Rizzolo -- Changing narratives of human-large carnivore encounters in nineteenth-century Sweden / Karin Dirke -- The wise salmon that returned home / Outi Autti -- The co-living of humans and wolves in the greater Yellowstone ecosystem / J. Dwight Hines -- Epilogue / Harriet Ritvo