Nora Schuurman
Biographic Data
| ID | 91027 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Nora Schuurman |
| GIVEN NAMES | Nora |
| FAMILY NAME | Schuurman |
| SIGNATURE | SCHUURMAN N |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Turku |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-0835-5223 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 20 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 97 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 19 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2012 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
Becoming known: Practicing equine rescue and rehabilitation as a response-able ethic of interspecies care
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 well for a rescue horse is centred upon establishing an intimate knowledge of horses as individuals …
Negotiating care and control: Pet euthanasia as phronetic action
The lives and deaths of animals living with humans have become increasingly medicalised, and the life of a pet usually ends with euthanasia conducted by a veterinarian. In this paper, I explore how pet euthanasia is understood as a good death in interactions between vets and pet guardians in veterinary practice, provided as an act of care for old and seriously ill or injured animals. Drawing from interviews with vets in Finland, I discuss the way…
Multispecies homescapes
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 human geography. Multispecies homescapes are approached as imaginary spaces, including experiences of sh…
"Editors' introduction to the special issue "Privilege, vulnerability and care: Interspecies dynamics in rural landscapes
Interspecies care, knowledge and ownership: Children’s equestrian cultures in Sweden and Finland
Riding became a widespread leisure activity for children in Sweden and Finland during the post-war decades through the emergence of riding schools.Drawing on books and comics published in Sweden and Finland from the 1960s to the present, together with interviews and observations at contemporary Swedish riding schools, we approach this development with a geographical, historical and sociological focus.We ask how children's equestrian cultures were…
Imagining Home: Performing Adoptability in Transnational Canine Rescue and Rehoming
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 nonhuman charisma, I explore how homeless dogs in other countries are portrayed online for the purpose…
Shared Spaces, Practices And Mobilities: Pet–Human Life in Modern Finnish Homes
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 continuities in pet–human relationality and petness by focusing on everyday practices, spaces and mobilities. …
Encounters with a canine other: Performing Domestication in Transnational Animal Rescue and Rehoming
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 comprising relational encounters and communications between humans and animals, interpretations of 'animali…
Animal work, memory, and interspecies care: Police Horses in Multispecies Urban Imaginaries
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, communicated, and performed on social media, contributing to the co-production of urban imaginaries. …
From pest to pet. Liminality, domestication and animal agency in the killing of rats and cats
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 killing of animals. We focus here on rats and cats, species whose position in society has always been li…
Aging animal bodies: Horse Retirement Yards as Relational Spaces of Liminality, Dwelling and Negotiation
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. Conceptualising retirement yards as liminal spaces of transition and transformation, particular cons…
A good time to die: Horse retirement yards as shared spaces of interspecies care and accomplishment
Performing good death at the veterinary clinic: Experiences of pet euthanasia in Finland
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 explore the performances of good death in pet euthanasia. Drawing on pet owners’ experiences, I scrutin…
Affect, Space and Animals
Performing Expertise in Human-Animal Relationships: Performative Instability and the Role of Counterperformance
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 animals. Drawing on an analysis of commercial videos of natural horsemanship, the paper shows how acts of …
Blogging situated emotions in human–horse relationships
Eco-National Discourse and the Case of the Finnhorse
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 Finnhorse as a 'national breed' in the context of Finnish discourses of national identity. The materials…
I Throw Them Out of Here: The Horse Trade as Phronetic Action
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 the emotional dimension of owning a horse. The purpose of my research was to scrutinize the ways in …
Conceptions of Equine Welfare in Finnish Horse Magazines
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 focus is on the conceptions of equine welfare used in justifying certain practices in caring for or han…
The Death of the Horse: Transforming Conceptions and Practices in Finland
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 done and keep the horse and equipment fit to perform, has been replaced by the goal of leisure horse ow…
Aging animal bodies: Horse Retirement Yards as Relational Spaces of Liminality, Dwelling and Negotiation
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. Conceptualising retirement yards as liminal spaces of transition and transformation, particular cons…
Performing Expertise in Human-Animal Relationships: Performative Instability and the Role of Counterperformance
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 animals. Drawing on an analysis of commercial videos of natural horsemanship, the paper shows how acts of …
Encounters with a canine other: Performing Domestication in Transnational Animal Rescue and Rehoming
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 comprising relational encounters and communications between humans and animals, interpretations of 'animali…
A good time to die: Horse retirement yards as shared spaces of interspecies care and accomplishment
Blogging situated emotions in human–horse relationships
Performing good death at the veterinary clinic: Experiences of pet euthanasia in Finland
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 explore the performances of good death in pet euthanasia. Drawing on pet owners’ experiences, I scrutin…
Animal work, memory, and interspecies care: Police Horses in Multispecies Urban Imaginaries
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, communicated, and performed on social media, contributing to the co-production of urban imaginaries. …
Multispecies homescapes
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 human geography. Multispecies homescapes are approached as imaginary spaces, including experiences of sh…
The Death of the Horse: Transforming Conceptions and Practices in Finland
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 done and keep the horse and equipment fit to perform, has been replaced by the goal of leisure horse ow…
Imagining Home: Performing Adoptability in Transnational Canine Rescue and Rehoming
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 nonhuman charisma, I explore how homeless dogs in other countries are portrayed online for the purpose…
Shared Spaces, Practices And Mobilities: Pet–Human Life in Modern Finnish Homes
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 continuities in pet–human relationality and petness by focusing on everyday practices, spaces and mobilities. …
From pest to pet. Liminality, domestication and animal agency in the killing of rats and cats
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 killing of animals. We focus here on rats and cats, species whose position in society has always been li…
Eco-National Discourse and the Case of the Finnhorse
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 Finnhorse as a 'national breed' in the context of Finnish discourses of national identity. The materials…
Negotiating care and control: Pet euthanasia as phronetic action
The lives and deaths of animals living with humans have become increasingly medicalised, and the life of a pet usually ends with euthanasia conducted by a veterinarian. In this paper, I explore how pet euthanasia is understood as a good death in interactions between vets and pet guardians in veterinary practice, provided as an act of care for old and seriously ill or injured animals. Drawing from interviews with vets in Finland, I discuss the way…
Interspecies care, knowledge and ownership: Children’s equestrian cultures in Sweden and Finland
Riding became a widespread leisure activity for children in Sweden and Finland during the post-war decades through the emergence of riding schools.Drawing on books and comics published in Sweden and Finland from the 1960s to the present, together with interviews and observations at contemporary Swedish riding schools, we approach this development with a geographical, historical and sociological focus.We ask how children's equestrian cultures were…
I Throw Them Out of Here: The Horse Trade as Phronetic Action
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 the emotional dimension of owning a horse. The purpose of my research was to scrutinize the ways in …
Conceptions of Equine Welfare in Finnish Horse Magazines
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 focus is on the conceptions of equine welfare used in justifying certain practices in caring for or han…
The Death of the Horse: Transforming Conceptions and Practices in Finland
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 done and keep the horse and equipment fit to perform, has been replaced by the goal of leisure horse ow…
Conceptions of Equine Welfare in Finnish Horse Magazines
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 focus is on the conceptions of equine welfare used in justifying certain practices in caring for or han…
Blogging situated emotions in human–horse relationships
Eco-National Discourse and the Case of the Finnhorse
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 Finnhorse as a 'national breed' in the context of Finnish discourses of national identity. The materials…
I Throw Them Out of Here: The Horse Trade as Phronetic Action
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 the emotional dimension of owning a horse. The purpose of my research was to scrutinize the ways in …
Affect, Space and Animals
Performing Expertise in Human-Animal Relationships: Performative Instability and the Role of Counterperformance
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 animals. Drawing on an analysis of commercial videos of natural horsemanship, the paper shows how acts of …
Performing good death at the veterinary clinic: Experiences of pet euthanasia in Finland
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 explore the performances of good death in pet euthanasia. Drawing on pet owners’ experiences, I scrutin…
A good time to die: Horse retirement yards as shared spaces of interspecies care and accomplishment
Aging animal bodies: Horse Retirement Yards as Relational Spaces of Liminality, Dwelling and Negotiation
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. Conceptualising retirement yards as liminal spaces of transition and transformation, particular cons…
From pest to pet. Liminality, domestication and animal agency in the killing of rats and cats
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 killing of animals. We focus here on rats and cats, species whose position in society has always been li…
Shared Spaces, Practices And Mobilities: Pet–Human Life in Modern Finnish Homes
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 continuities in pet–human relationality and petness by focusing on everyday practices, spaces and mobilities. …
Encounters with a canine other: Performing Domestication in Transnational Animal Rescue and Rehoming
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 comprising relational encounters and communications between humans and animals, interpretations of 'animali…
Animal work, memory, and interspecies care: Police Horses in Multispecies Urban Imaginaries
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, communicated, and performed on social media, contributing to the co-production of urban imaginaries. …
Imagining Home: Performing Adoptability in Transnational Canine Rescue and Rehoming
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 nonhuman charisma, I explore how homeless dogs in other countries are portrayed online for the purpose…
Interspecies care, knowledge and ownership: Children’s equestrian cultures in Sweden and Finland
Riding became a widespread leisure activity for children in Sweden and Finland during the post-war decades through the emergence of riding schools.Drawing on books and comics published in Sweden and Finland from the 1960s to the present, together with interviews and observations at contemporary Swedish riding schools, we approach this development with a geographical, historical and sociological focus.We ask how children's equestrian cultures were…
Becoming known: Practicing equine rescue and rehabilitation as a response-able ethic of interspecies care
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 well for a rescue horse is centred upon establishing an intimate knowledge of horses as individuals …
Negotiating care and control: Pet euthanasia as phronetic action
The lives and deaths of animals living with humans have become increasingly medicalised, and the life of a pet usually ends with euthanasia conducted by a veterinarian. In this paper, I explore how pet euthanasia is understood as a good death in interactions between vets and pet guardians in veterinary practice, provided as an act of care for old and seriously ill or injured animals. Drawing from interviews with vets in Finland, I discuss the way…
Multispecies homescapes
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 human geography. Multispecies homescapes are approached as imaginary spaces, including experiences of sh…
"Editors' introduction to the special issue "Privilege, vulnerability and care: Interspecies dynamics in rural landscapes
Geographies of human-animal interactions (15 works) · Sociology (15 works) · Human-Animal Interaction Studies (12 works) · Psychology (11 works) · Social science (10 works) · Biology (8 works) · Computer Science (8 works) · Political science (7 works) · Animal welfare (6 works) · Ecology (6 works)