- Animal geographies
Animal geographies is an area of study in
geography , studying the spaces and places occupied byanimal s in human culture.An interest in animal geographies emerged in
human geography in the mid 1990s. This was marked by a special edition of the journal "Environment and Planning D: Society and Space" in 1995 and a book byJennifer Wolch andJody Emel called "Animal Geographies: place, politics and identity in the nature-culture borderlands" published in 1998. ["Animal Geographies: place, politics and identity in the nature-culture borderlands" London, Verso, 1998.]This movement was prompted by the basic fact that social life and space is heavily populated by animals of many differing kinds and in many differing ways (e.g. farm animals, pets, wild animals in the city). It was also prompted by
ecofeminist and otherenvironmentalist viewpoints on nature-society relations (including questions ofanimal welfare and rights).This sub-discipline within human geography quickly developed, another landmark being the book "Animal Spaces, Beastly Places: New Geographies of Human-Animal Relations". ["Animal Spaces, Beastly Places: New Geographies of Human-Animal Relations", C. Philo and C. Wilbert (eds.) London: Routledge, 2000.]
Papers regularly come out in a number of geographical journals and in journals such as "Animals and Society".
Animal geographies is now part of a wider idea of
non-human geographies which pays close attention not only to animals but all the things, living and non-living, that help to make up the everyday ‘social’ world and its spaces and places.References
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