The iceberg of urban rat management: Metabolism, infrastructures and practices of more-than-human urban life

Humans share urban environments with nonhumans, and rats are perhaps the most ubiquitous of our companions. Common but unwanted, rats are “managed” by, for example, lethal methods and the education of citizens. However, these are only the tip of the iceberg of the complex human practices affecting urban rats and their numbers. To understand our relationship with urban rats and to manage the risks associated with cohabiting urban spaces with them, these practices should be analyzed from a wider perspective than the technologies of killing and public outreach. Municipalities are responsible for most of the practices affecting rats, such as waste and wastewater management, hygiene and environmental health. We analyze the more-than-human urban network of rat management in Helsinki region, Finland based on stakeholder interviews. We combine posthumanist theory with interpretive policy analysis. Our results show that different municipal practices, such as waste management, have deeply integrated rat management to the infrastructures and routines of both professionals and citizens, and that urban rats are dependent on the flows of urban metabolism. The everyday routines of citizens and professionals connected to these flows, have big effects on urban rat numbers.