A Research Agenda for Animal Geographies

Elgar Research Agendas outline the future of research in a given area. Leading scholars are given the space to explore their subject in provocative ways, and map out the potential directions of travel. They are relevant but also visionary.

Exploring the innovative and thriving field of animal geographies, this Research Agenda analyses how humans think about, place, and engage with animals. Chapters explore how animals shape human identities and social dynamics, as well as how broader processes influence the circumstances and experiences of animals.

This Research Agenda presents recent forays into theories of power, methodological innovations unearthing animal lifeworlds, and commitments to praxis. It demonstrates opportunities for animal geographies to engage creatively with diverse movements, including industrial farm workers' rights, intersectional feminism, the environmental movement, racial equality, and decolonization. Critical and timely, contributions from top and emerging scholars suggest that it is time to bring the animals outwards into broader geographical dialogue to address pressing contemporary issues such as climate change.

An important read for animal and human geographers, this will be a foundational text for emerging scholars interested in critical perspectives on human-environment relations and societal dynamics. Its grounding in historical evaluation, discussion of scholarly innovation in the field and the opportunities to reflect on the topic in a time of socio-ecological crisis will also be helpful for more established scholars.

“'A Research Agenda for Animal Geographies is a compelling roadmap for future scholarship on the complex connections between people and animals shaped by diverse subjectivities and lifeworlds, and manifest in power relations that demand a multispecies moral landscape and new ways of becoming together.'”

‘Geography is one of the most productive and creative disciplines to engage with the animal turn. This collection of essays, part of the Elgar Research Agenda series, makes plain that the discipline will remain in the vanguard for some time to come. The Editors have assembled an extraordinary diversity of scholars and perspectives, contributing 11 essays presented under three headings: 'Power,' 'Lifeworlds,' and 'Praxis.' These evoke the central themes, methods, and commitments of the contributors, who challenge readers to continue the extraordinary developments and provocations offered here. The sophistication, reflexivity, and commitment of these scholars are a rebuke to assertions that scholarship and activism are mutual anathemas. The works cited for each essay are themselves deeply engaging, and the breadth of scholarship the collection represents is breathtaking.’ -- J W Cox, CHOICE
‘A Research Agenda for Animal Geographies is a compelling roadmap for future scholarship on the complex connections between people and animals shaped by diverse subjectivities and lifeworlds, and manifest in power relations that demand a multispecies moral landscape and new ways of becoming together.' -- Jennifer Wolch, University of California, Berkeley, US

Edited by Alice Hovorka, Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change, York University, Sandra McCubbin, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Government of Canada and Lauren Van Patter, Department of Geography and Planning, Queen’s University, Canada

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