Placing Wild Animals in Botswana

Engaging Geography’s Transspecies Spatial Theory

Author(s)

  • Andrea K. Bolla Author
  • Alice J. Hovorka Author

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.52537/humanimalia.10048

Abstract

This paper engages transspecies spatial theory to illuminate the dynamics of human ‘placement’ of animals and resulting human-animal encounters through a case study of wild animals in Kasane, Botswana. It details the ways in which human conceptual imaginings and material fixing of wild animals are mutually constituted and grounded in human wonderment of and economic use value associated with nonhuman animals. Resulting interspecies minglings reinforce such placements through human’s fear-based responses and ‘problem animal’ discourses, ultimately re-placing animals into spaces where-they-belong. This paper highlights specifically geographical perspectives to further explorations of human-animal relations within the realm of critical animal studies.

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Author Biographies

  • Andrea K. Bolla

    Andrea Bolla completed her Masters degree in Geography at the University of Guelph in 2009. Andrea lives in Botswana where she is conducting research on predator-livestock conflict.

  • Alice J. Hovorka

    Alice Hovorka is Associate Professor in Geography at the University of Guelph. Alice’s research focuses broadly on human-environment relations in Southern Africa; she is currently interested in the lives of animals in Botswana.

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Published

2012-02-12

Issue

Section

Articles

How to Cite

Bolla, Andrea, and Alice Hovorka. 2012. “Placing Wild Animals in Botswana: Engaging Geography’s Transspecies Spatial Theory”. Humanimalia 3 (2): 56-82. https://doi.org/10.52537/humanimalia.10048.