Paper short abstract:

This paper focuses on more-than-human encounters and their implications for articulating the urban in the Global South. Drawing upon etho-geographical research, the paper front-stages the ways in which they have bearings upon everyday life, the ecologies of urban health and governance.

Paper long abstract:

This paper focuses on more-than-human encounters and their implications for articulating the urban in the Global South. Drawing upon etho-geographical research (Barua & Sinha, 2017) on macaques and people in New Delhi, the paper front-stages three modalities of such encounters and ways in which they have bearings upon everyday life, the ecologies of health and governance (Jadhav et al., 2015). The first pertains to cultural practice: the role of religion and empathy in rendering the urban as a space for primates to flourish.The second entails urban ethology: how macaques perceive encounters with people and adapt to the complex city, with and against the grain of design. The third indexes contestations: how frictions between people and macaques are products of both corporeal encounters and external actions by the state, with implications for the wellbeing of both. A short conclusion discusses the wider import of this work for rethinking political ecologies of health and urbanization.

Barua M and Sinha A. 2017. Animating the urban: an ethological and geographical conversation.Social & Cultural Geography,DOI: 10.1080/14649365.2017.1409908

Jadhav S, Jain S, Kannuri N, Bayetti C and Barua M. 2015. Ecologies of suffering: mental health in India.Economic & Political Weekly,50,12-15