Nora Schuurman

University of Turku | UTU · School of History, Culture and Art Studies

This paper proposes a change in the conceptualisation of home, as part of a wider paradigmatic transformation in the understandings of the boundaries between humans and animals, and nature and culture. A new concept of multispecies homescapes is suggested, building on recent work on human–animal relationships as well as writings on the home in huma...

In this paper we discuss the intertwining of care with learning to know and become with the other in interspecies relationships. Drawing on interviews at horse rescue yards (England), we ask: How does an animal come to be known? What does it mean to care with an animal well? How does animal agency shape the practicing of response-able care? Caring...

This article explores online performances of adoptability of homeless dogs in transnational animal rescue and rehoming practices in Finland, based on an analysis of the websites of Finnish animal rescue charities, as well as interviews with volunteers at these charities. Drawing on recent work on concepts such as home, care, encounter value, and no...

In this interdisciplinary article, we examine multispecies homes in modernizing Finnish society. We focus on two illustrative phases of pet culture: cats and dogs in bourgeois and rural homes from the late 19th century to the early 20th century as well as international dog rescue in the early 21st century. We make visible and analyze the continuiti...

Mounted police units around the world have entered social media, with the aim of bringing the police closer to the public. In this paper, I analyze the Facebook page of the mounted police in the city of Helsinki, the capital of Finland. I ask how equine agency, animal work, interspecies care, and the relational networks of memory are interpreted, c...

The aim of this essay is to address the challenges and problems in communicating with horses and interpreting their communication in everyday handling and training situations. We seek ways to learn more about equine communication and agency in the prevention of cruelty against animals and in enhancing animal welfare. We ask how it would be possible...

The ways in which the end of life of an animal is understood and undertaken depend on the category of the animal and its position in relation to humans. In this paper, we explore how transformations in human–animal relationality, including practices and cultural conceptions about animals become apparent in the norms and practices regarding the kill...

The transnational practices of rescuing and rehoming unwanted animals with the help of specific animal ‘rescue’ organisations have become more widespread in the 2010s. These practices can be considered manifestations of a response to the perceived problems in dog breeding. They can also be understood in terms of interspecies care, a process compris...

Studying relationships with animals in childhood illustrates cultural conceptions of animals as well as those about children and childhood. Similarly, childhood experiences related to animal death demonstrate associated rituals, practices, and conceptions. This chapter scrutinizes the memories of animal death in childhood, based on data comprising...

This paper investigates how animal aging and ill-health are managed, spaced, interpreted, and experienced within a horse–human relationship. It does so by exploring the active construction of ‘retirement’ as a legitimate category within the life course of an animal. The analysis is concentrated around the emergent spaces of horse retirement yards....

Horses have multiple roles as companions and as commodities that are bought and sold, often transnationally, in markets where they are valued according to their ability to respond to the demands of contemporary equestrianism. In this chapter, I explore the interpretations of animals in the international trade in equines across Europe. The focus is...

Abstrakti Tutkin artikkelissa kertomuksia lapsuudenaikaisista kokemuksista ja muistoista, jotka koskevat lähei-sen eläimen kuolemaa. Jäljitän näistä kertomuksista kulttuurisia skriptejä, jotka määrittävät eläinten kuoleman käytäntöjä sekä eläinten kuoleman suremista. Kysyn, miten sekä lapsuudessa että eläimiin suhtautumisessa tapahtuneet muutokset...

In contemporary pet-keeping culture, the death of an animal is managed by the veterinary profession. The situation of euthanising the pet at the clinic is not an easy one for the owner of the animal, who has to manage the emotions involved in the death of a pet, while at the same time worrying about animal welfare in euthanasia. In this paper I exp...

Facing the death of an animal in the family The status of animals as family members is becoming established in Western societies. Human–animal relationships have been increasingly studied in the social and cultural sciences during the past years, but there is not much research on the death of animals, especially pets. The practices and conceptions...

In recent years, animals have entered the focus of the social and cultural sciences, resulting in the emergence of the new field of human–animal studies. This book investigates the relationships between humans and animals, paying particular attention to the role of affect, space, and animal subjectivity in diverse human–animal encounters. Written b...

This paper explores how the human-animal relationship is used to inform the construction of expertise about how best to manage relationships with animals. It pays particular attention to how the material practices of horse training can be understood as performative of human-animal relationships, animality, and the boundary between humans and animal...

Practices involving horses have become increasingly popular in the spheres of sport and leisure throughout the Western world, and the trade in selling horses has expanded. The horse is characteristically understood as a commodity to be bought and sold several times during its lifetime. What is new in selling horses, however, is the significance of...

In contemporary equestrian culture, individual human–horse relationships are often based on communication, knowing each other, and doing things together. Through shared experiences and activities in everyday life, the relationship can be seen as a process of becoming with the significant other, in which both human and horse are eventually transform...

In eco-national discourses, animals and other nonhumans are represented as national through their position as native breeds or species. In this article, we investigate the definition of the animal as a representative of a ‘national breed’ and its support to nation-building. This article is a case-study of the contemporary representation of the Finn...

Keeping equines for leisure purposes has become increasingly popular. Along with the wider concern for animal welfare, the question of equine welfare has attracted increasing attention. The purpose of this article is to ask what is understood by equine welfare and how it is perceived in contemporary Finnish equine industry and culture. The main foc...

The role of the horse has changed significantly in Scandinavia as a consequence of the modernization and urbanization processes. At the same time the conceptions of horses have changed from work and hierarchy related servant and workmate to anthropomorphic and scientific animal conceptions. Consequently, the goal of the farmers, to get the work don...

Yhteiskunnan eläinsuhteen muuttuessa on seuraeläinten merkitys vapaa-ajassa korostunut. Osana tätä ilmiötä voidaan myös nähdä hevosen roolin muuttuminen työtä tekevästä eläimestä yhä suositummaksi urheilu- ja harrastustoveriksi. Uudelle hevossuhteelle on tyypillistä kaupunkilaisten aktiivinen hakeutuminen hevosten pariin vapaa-ajallaan ja pyrkimys...