Sharing Spaces: Technology, Mediation, and Human-Animal Relationships

Sharing Spaces is a compelling edited volume of twelve essays framed by an introduction from editors Finn Arne Jørgensen and Dolly Jørgensen and concluded with an epilogue by Jenny Leigh Smith. Birthed from a working paper session at the Nordic Center at Fudan University in Shanghai, China, the collection brings together scholars in environmental studies and environmental history, with a strong emphasis on multispecies studies.In their introduction, Jørgensen and Jørgensen define “sharing” as a form of ongoing human-animal entanglement, drawing on Bruno Latour, Zoe Todd, and Donna Haraway to argue that these relationships are inextricable from human history. They also explore “space” through cultural geography, referencing Doreen Massey, Edward Soja, and Henri Lefebvre, and they integrate insights from animal geography. They introduce “mediation” through Latour's technomediation, showing how technologies—from gazing ponds to digital streaming—shape human-animal interactions. These frameworks set the stage for the essays that follow, which span continents and centuries.Nicole Welk-Joerger opens the volume with a look at late nineteenth-century US agricultural science. Welk-Joerger's essay explores how calorimetry was used to optimize cattle feeding, revealing how sociopolitical anxiety about food supply led to the quantification of bovine bodies, but not without test bovines demonstrating “both original emphasis resistance and original emphasis compliance to confinement” (Welk-Joerger 2024: 18). Tatuya Mitsuda follows with a study of colonial Qingdao, where German and later Japanese authorities imposed new meat production protocols, particularly for cattle. These systems displaced local practices and reshaped urban infrastructure to align with colonial ideals of hygiene and order in both human and animal realms.Aurore Dumont's chapter on Inner Mongolia explores how nomadic pastoralists blend Indigenous and modern technologies. Dumont introduces the concepts of “autochthonous skills” and “allochthonous technology” to argue for a hybrid, adaptive approach to livestock management. As someone who has studied pastoralist change in the Tibetan regions of western China in the same era Dumont discusses here, I found the chapter intriguing not just because of its apolitical nature but also in its pragmatic embrace of how colonizing technologies can become indigenized and not just resisted.Chapters 4 and 5 shift to Sweden's hunting culture. Karin Dirke analyzes the hunting magazine Jägaren to trace evolving ethics around hunting and animal welfare that are shaped by print media and firearm modernization. Finn Arne Jørgensen then explores how GPS-collared dogs are integrated into traditional moose hunting, showing how hunters interpret canine-produced data alongside historically embodied cultural practices in a coproduction of knowledge.Heta Lähdesmäki's chapter on wolf conservation continues the theme of canine GPS tracking and the coproduction of knowledge. As with domestic hunting dogs, wolves are aware of their collars in their peregrinations, and the data they produce is shaped by their unpredictable movements. Lähdesmäki explores the ethical implications of this research, including how visibility can make wolves targets for opposition to what they stand for, such as conservation and regulation. Tuomas Räsänen's essay on white-tailed eagles along the Baltic coast examines how conservation technologies such as feeding programs and artificial nests helped redirect eagle migration patterns away from human conflict zones. Drawing on World Wildlife Fund archives, Räsänen shows how human intervention and changes in attitudes become tools for species recovery.Ellen Arnold's chapter takes a more whimsical turn, exploring the cultural fascination with Admiral Byrd's nineteenth-century Antarctic expeditions. Arnold traces how Byrd's media presence intersected with the US Postal Service, culminating in a (facetious) AP bulletin offer to sell penguins after their appearance at the 1939 World's Fair. “Wanted: good homes for 20 penguins,” a November 7th, 1939, blurb from the Washington Post began with “Will make fine pets, learn tricks, and follow you around” (Arnold 2024: 117). Arnold highlights how animals became entangled in narratives of exploration and consumerism while trying to literally survive a dramatic change in ecological conditions.Dolly Jørgensen's chapter on aquariums examines how display technologies—from ponds to plexiglass to webcams—shape public perceptions of aquatic life. Jørgensen concludes with the idea that, unlike edited wildlife documentaries, today's webcams suggest unmediated access to wildlife but are still in lineage with layers of technological framing that have evolved since the creation of aquariums. Charity Edwards and Amelia Hine continue the theme of mediated visibility in their chapter on deep-sea mining. Using the example of southern elephant seals equipped with tracking devices, they explore how animals help access otherwise unreachable ocean depths. Through speculative fiction and illustration, they argue that some things might be more connected than we initially think, such as seals and autonomous vehicles as well as remote ocean floors and urban centers.Riin Magnus's chapter returns to domestic animals, comparing guide dogs with mobility aids like canes and GPS devices. Drawing on semiotic theory and Estonian research, Magnus explores how humans unevenly coattune to devices and dogs in navigating an otherwise sightless social world. Concepción Cortés Zulueta closes the volume with a critique of animal and wildlife media. Cortés Zulueta's concept of the “PPP” (picture, pet, play) dynamic shows how cameras and screens distort intimacy and distance between humans and animals, creating a deceptive sense of connection that can have harmful consequences for all species. After reading this chapter, I will never watch social media reels or nature documentaries the same way again.In the epilogue, Jenny Leigh Smith synthesizes the volume's themes through the lenses of “entanglement” and “visibility.” Drawing on thinkers such as James Scott, John Berger, Donna Haraway, and even Einstein's reflections on quantum entanglement, Smith traces how technologies of tracking, measurement, and spectacle shape our shared spaces with animals. From calorimetry to conservation, from hunting dogs to penguins, the essays reveal how animals and humans are coconstituted through technologies that both connect and divide—and have never been without each other.