Presentation short abstract

"Awkward animals" question regimes of authority regulating their presence or absence in cities; bring to the fore the contestations, negotiations and subversions already inherent in dominant visions of the urban and animals therein; and inspire new perspectives on urban place-making with animals.

Presentation long abstract

Urban animals are subject to, and sometimes challenge, distinct regimes of authority. These regimes build on, and reproduce, categorisations of animals, for example, as domestic or wild, or as protected or invasive species. They differ from each other concerning legal frameworks, discursive framings of animals and related spatial practices. The regimes of hunting and hygiene largely frame animals as threats to health and ecosystem balance, as surplus and disposable. Such framings are reflected in more or less brutal practices, ranging from egg removals over different ways of making places uninhabitable to killings. Conversely, the protection regime frames protected animals as desirable and necessary for human life. Taken together, these regimes speak of the pursuit of separating healthy life from bodies causing disease. The presence of two specific animal species in Hagen and Wuppertal, wild boars and raccoons – categorised as an invasive species –, as well as evolving debates within and beyond the regimes of authority supposed to regulate them, expose the limits of, and breaks between, these regimes as well as contestations beyond them. This concerns specifically the racoons‘ and wild boars‘ disposability, which is subject to debate within and beyond the regimes of authority regulating their absence or presence in cities. Thus, raccoons and wild boars are “awkward animals” in that they question the regimes and related spatial orderings; bring to the fore the contestations, negotiations and subversions already inherent in dominant visions of the urban and animals therein; and inspire new perspectives on urban place-making with animals.