This book presents an in-depth, qualitative exploration of the practice of horse-riding by “disabled” and “non-disabled” riders and their horses. Situated as part of an “affective turn” within human geography, creative and original use is made of poststructuralist theory to bring together animal studies and disability studies in order to decentre the human as we think about the social. Eighteen months of multi-sited performance ethnography “on the hoof” were conducted with riders recruited from local riding schools, an internet forum and three Riding for the Disabled Association (RDA) groups. The study employed various methods, including diary-keeping, participant observation and video-recording of riding activities, in order to capture moments of horse-human relating. Through these methods, the embodied expressions of horses are taken seriously as demonstrative of their individual thoughts and intentions.

Horses, Power and Place explores the evolution of humanity’s relationship with horses, from early domestication through to the use of the horse as a draught animal, an agricultural, industrial and military asset, and an animal of sport and leisure. Taking an historical approach, and using Britain as a case study, this is the first book-length exploration of the horse in the more-than-human geography of a nation. It traces the role and implications of horse-based mobility for the evolution of settlement structure, urban morphology and the rural landscape. It maps the growth and various uses of horses to the point of ‘peak horse’ in the early twentieth century before considering the contemporary place of the horse in twenty-first century economy and society. It assesses the role of the horse in the formation of places within Britain and in the formation of the nation. The book reflects on the implications of this historical and contemporary equine geography for animal geographies and animal studies. It argues for the study of animals in general in how places are made, not just by humans. Written in a clear and accessible style, this book will be essential reading for students and scholars of animal geography and animal studies more widely.

This original and insightful book explores how horses can be considered as social actors within shared interspecies networks. It examines what we know about how horses understand us and how we perceive them, as well as the implications of actively recognising other animals as actors within shared social lives. This book explores how interspecies relationships work, using a variety of examples to demonstrate how horses and people build social lives. Considering horses as social actors presents new possibilities for improving the quality of animal lives, the human condition and human-horse relations.

This interdisciplinary collection provides a set of innovative and inventive approaches to the use of video as a research method. Building on the development of visual methods across the social sciences, it highlights a range of possibilities for making and working with video data. The collection showcases different video methods, including video diaries, video go-alongs, time-lapse video, mobile devices, multi-angle video recording, video ethnography, and ethnographic documentary. Each method is presented through a case study, showing how it can be used in practice. The authors offer pragmatic advice and discuss practical issues, including equipment, techniques and skills, analysis, and presentation. They also show how video methods can be used in a range of different contexts – at train stations, on bicycles, in schools, outdoors, and in museums – to investigate worlds that are visible, audible, tangible, and in motion. In doing so, they illuminate the theoretical possibilities that video methods offer for researching the body, identity, everyday life, affect, time, and space.

This book is intended primarily for serious students of geography but it will also appeal to the general reader. For this reason technical terms have been used as sparingly as is consistent with correct meaning. Wherever the subject matter permits, the author emphasizes geographical growth and shows the interaction of geographical environment and the human activity and institutions. When originally published in the 1960s China was beginning to change with breathtaking rapidity. These changes are presented here against geographical and historical background. Knowledge of the environmental facts is essential to an appreciation of the political, economic, and social problems that have faced the Chinese people.

The book examines the power of young people’s social relationships in schools to transform, or more often, to continue, differences that pervade societies: mind-body-emotional diff erences or Special Educational Needs and Disability, gender, poverty, race/ethnicity, sexuality and their intersections. The book details extensive qualitative research with young people, foregrounding their accounts. In challenging educators and others to engage with young people’s own agencies and to make space for their socialities, the concepts of embodied social and emotional capital and young people as contextual bodies/subjectivities/agencies are developed, emphasising both young people’s agencies and how these are socio-spatially situated, constrained and enabled. The book is most concerned with how and when young people challenge and change enduring differences. The concept of ‘immersive geographies’ outlines the potential of change inherent in the repeated coming together of the same people in space, doing similar things that are, however, always provisional and always with the potential to be done diff erently. Examples of when diff erence is transformed are presented. The book marks a major interdisciplinary contribution to geographies and social studies of children, youth and education, child development, social work, social policy and education studies. Furthermore, it is of appeal to anyone interested in young people, social reproduction and sociality: from educators, policy makers, youth workers and social workers to parents.

In recent years, animals have entered the focus of the social and cultural sciences, resulting in the emergence of the new field of human–animal studies. This book investigates the relationships between humans and animals, paying particular attention to the role of affect, space, and animal subjectivity in diverse human–animal encounters. Written by a team of international scholars, contributions explore current debates concerning animal representation, performativity, and relationality in various texts and practices. Part I explores how animals are framed as affective, through four case studies that deal with climate change, human–bovine relationships, and human–horse interaction in different contemporary and historical contexts. Part II expands on the issue of relationality and locates encounters within place, mapping the different spaces where human–animal encounters take place. Part III then examines the construction of animal subjectivity and agency to emphasize the way in which animals are conscious and sentient beings capable of experiencing feelings, emotions, and intentions, and active agents whose actions have meaning for the animals themselves. This book highlights the importance of the ways in which affect enables animal agency and subjectivity to emerge in encounters between humans and animals in different contexts, leading to different configurations. It contributes not only to debates concerning the role of animals in society but also to the epistemological development of the field of human–animal studies.

Exploring the innovative and thriving field of animal geographies, this Research Agenda analyses how humans think about, place, and engage with animals. Chapters explore how animals shape human identities and social dynamics, as well as how broader processes influence the circumstances and experiences of animals.

This innovative volume approaches the intriguing relationship between humans and horses in 21st-century Anglophone fiction and autobiography from the perspectives of affect and politics. It addresses the strong emotional power attached to the human-horse bond, and contextualizes horse narratives within debates concerning identity and its politics. The in-depth analysis deals with topics such as the intertwinement of humans and animals, healing, mourning, and nostalgia in horse narratives, and the formation of gendered and national identities. The volume pays particular attention to life writing by Susan Richards, Rupert Isaacson, and Buck Brannaman, fiction by Gillian Mears and Jane Smiley, and Follyfoot fanfiction. Because of its focus on narratives telling of today’s human-horse encounters and its explicit attention to diverse textual forms, this book represents a unique contribution to the study of human-horse encounters in contemporary writing, and will be of particular use to scholars working in human-animal studies, Anglophone literature, and American studies.

This ground-breaking book provides fascinating insights into the fast-emerging body of research that explores the relationship between sport, theology and disability within a social justice framework. In the shadow of two major sport-faith events that fore-fronted the theology of disability sport, the Vatican’s international conference—Sport at the Service of Humanity and the Inaugural Global Congress on Sports and Christianity York St John University, UK, at which Dr Brian Brock led a thematic strand on the topic—this book provides a foundation for further research and practice. This text is a timely and important synthesis of ideas that have emerged in two previously distinct areas of research: (i) ‘disability sport’ and (ii) the ‘theology of disability’. Examples of subjects addressed in this text include: elite physical disability sport—Paralympics; intellectual disability sport—Special Olympics; equestrian sport; church, sport and disability, and; theologies of embodiment, competition and mercy. This book, written by leaders in their respective fields, begins a critical conversation on these topics, and many others, for both researchers and practitioners. The chapters originally published in the Journal of Disability and Religion and Quest.