Paper short abstract:

The aim of this paper is to explore methodologies for an ethnography that captures the complex relationship to “the-more-than-human” in the Anthropocene era. The presentation will be based on a study of birdwatching and draw on a theoretical model of non-human charisma.

Paper long abstract:

This paper explores methodologies that can be used to capture the multifaceted relations between humans and other animals. I will draw on examples from a multi-sited ethnography approach in my current PhD project about birdwatching in Sweden. The concept of non-human charisma has been proposed as a model to investigate contemporary environmentalism and the complex relations to "the-more-than-human" in the Anthropocene era (Lorimer 2015). Charismatic species often refer to familiar and aesthetically salient organisms that stimulate public affection. However, alongside aesthetic charisma, Jamie Lorimer has suggested two additional types of charisma, one that refers to the material properties of an organism and another that refers to the feelings induced in close multisensory interspecies encounters. The latter is termed "corporeal charisma" and will be a starting point of my presentation.

Birdwatching is an increasing leisure time activity focused on watching and listening to birds in order to identify various species in different environments. In doing so birdwatchers follow seasonal bird migration and breeding. Some birdwatchers visit the same areas frequently throughout their lifetime, and witness recurrent and yet unpredictable environmental changes. In that sense birdwatching is a way of dwelling with and within "the-more-than-human" in the Anthropocene. The purpose of this paper is to discuss methodologies that enable an exploration of this kind of dwelling, through the concept of non-human charisma and a multi-sited fieldwork in diverse places such as commercial bird fairs, social media, nature reserves and industrial ponds.