Sarah BORTOLAMIOL, CNRS, France
Julie URBANIK, Independent, United States
While contemporary animal geography has been developing and expanding over the past two decades, debates about the sub-field (e.g., name, definition, goals) remain situated largely within the North American/UK context and lack cross-cultural discussions. Causes and consequences of Covid-19 led us to think about how animal geography is practiced/understood internationally and the move to virtual platforms during isolation made us realize the amount of animal geography-related research/work we were missing out on.
We conducted the first global survey of the field during September/October of 2021. We invited 263 individuals (either self-identified animal geographers or individuals with an interest in animal geography/animals and place/space) from 38 countries, as well as all members of the Animal Geography Specialty Group, to participate in an online survey. Its goal was threefold: (1) to explore how people around the world define/explain animal geography; (2) to determine whether or not there was enough interest in developing an official international animal geography community; and (3) to understand who does what, where, and how in terms of animal geography.
Here we focus on the first goal by sharing how respondents defined animal. Key definitional themes that emerged include (1) animal versus animals’ geography, (2) animal geography as primarily about human-animal interaction, and (3) animal geography weighted more towards biogeography versus animal geography weighted more towards social theory/human geography. This definitional diversity has resulted in different practices, approaches, and interests.
Regardless of definitional perspectives, it was clear there was abundant interest in the broad topic of humans-nonhumans-place-space and we feel this shows there is ample opportunity to collaborate creatively within our discipline of geography, and with other humanities, social sciences, and life sciences disciplines.
Mots clés : Animal geography|Global survey|Definitions|Collaborations|Community
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