Knowing Insects: Hosts, Vectors and Companions of Science

Beisel, Uli; Kelly, Ann H.; Tousignant, Noémi

doi:10.1080/09505431.2013.776367

Cited by 38 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 46 publications

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“…While the initial focus was on the moments ''when species meet'' (Haraway) or on tracing non-human ''presences'' in urban centres (Hinchliffe et al, 2005), more recent academic work has turned its attention to more troubled forms of multispecies coexistence: focusing on dangerous encounters between humans and wolfs (Buller, 2008), humans and cougars (Collard, 2012), the ''volatile ecologies'' that bind humans, elephants and alcohol together (Barua, 2013), or on ''inhuman nature'' and its disasters (Clark, 2011), such as tsunamis (Tironi and Farías, 2015). But it does not need overtly aggressive animals or exuberant physical forces to create uncomfortable human-nonhuman entanglements, more-than-human relations with more harmless or less visibly aggressive creatures can be ''awkward'' too Beisel et al, 2013). As Nading shows Aedes mosquitoes, humans and the dengue virus are deeply entangled with ''changes in bodies reverberate through landscapes, and vice versa'' (Nading, 2014: 10).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Markets and Mutations: mosquito nets and the politics of disentanglement in global health

Beisel

2015

Geoforum

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Markets and Mutations: mosquito nets and the politics of disentanglement in global health

Beisel

2015

Geoforum

Self Cite

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“…In this paper, following Uli Beisel and her colleagues, we will “permit insects to be our guides and our provocation” (Beisel et al., , p. 34). We begin by examining the life cycle of the hoverfly Pocota personata as a portal into saproxylic geographies and the cultural and ecological significance of old trees.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The fly that tried to save the world: Saproxylic geographies and other‐than‐human ecologies

Gandy

2019

Trans Inst British Geog

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The discovery of a rare fly in a North London cemetery marks my entry point into a wider reflection on the value and significance of urban biodiversity. Using different indices of ecological endangerment, along with a critical reading of new materialist insights, this paper explores the cultural, political, and scientific significance of saproxylic (rotten wood) invertebrate communities in an urban context. The paper brings the fields of urban ecology and post‐humanism into closer dialogue to illuminate aspects to urban nature that have not been systematically explored within existing analytical frameworks. We consider a series of intersecting worlds, both human and non‐human, as part of a glimpse into saproxylic dimensions to urban nature under a putative transition to a new geo‐environmental epoch.

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“…Human-insect and human-plant connections garner relatively little attention in political ecology and animal geography (Ginn 2014;Head and Atchison 2009). Yet, these relations can inform how public commons and private spaces are designed and managed (Beisel et al 2013;Shaw et al 2010;Whatmore 2006). Insects and their functional roles in the biosphere are woven into critical debates about food production, agricultural security, and human health.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Honey Bees and Colony Collapse Disorder: A Pluralistic Reframing

Watson

Stallins

2016

Geography Compass

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Scientific narratives surrounding colony collapse disorder (CCD) are often played against one another. However, oppositional knowledge politics do not neatly segregate the materiality and causal properties of the ecological phenomena they represent. Thus the challenge with CCD is not just to describe the partisan character of how knowledge about it is socially produced. It is also about how to integrate these politics through their less antagonistic material ecologies. We review three dominant discourses underlying CCD and honey bee decline and present a synthesis that conveys how their socially embedded perceptions about ecological causality are more compatible. We invoke a theoretical framework from complexity theory to demonstrate how multiple kinds of ecological causality, from the identifiable and addressable to the more emergent and unpredictable, can align under conflicting policy positions. We argue that this continuum of ecological explanations is a more conciliatory framework for responding to CCD. It provides an alternative to the antagonistic politics that tend to reify and defend either a restrictive search for a singular cause, a paralyzing documentation of all possible permutations of CCD, or a return to a utopian agrarian past. Relating how ecological knowledge is socially produced can illuminate stakeholder positions and strategies. But it is also constructive to map out how the ecological suppositions underlying them relate and inform one under.

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Knowing Insects: Hosts, Vectors and Companions of Science

Cited by 38 publications

References 46 publications

Markets and Mutations: mosquito nets and the politics of disentanglement in global health

Markets and Mutations: mosquito nets and the politics of disentanglement in global health

The fly that tried to save the world: Saproxylic geographies and other‐than‐human ecologies

Honey Bees and Colony Collapse Disorder: A Pluralistic Reframing

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