Human-nature relations – historical and ecological perspectives

Our relationship to animals and nature goes back millions of years: prey – hunter & gatherers – predators – domestication – postdomestic era. With the advent of modernity emerged the idea of detachment from nature, but we have (again) started to understand our dependence on it. The motivation of this topic raises from climate change and biodiversity crisis.

We study e.g. animal agency, socio-ecological systems, and multispecies networks:

• What characteristics of the marine animals affect the relationships?
• How can such knowledge help improve the scientific and general public understanding of the link between our human well-being and biodiversity?

Examples of research projects

• Culture of Unsustainability : Animal Industries and the Exploitation of Animals in Finland since the Late Nineteenth Century (UnSus)
• Humans and Ticks in the Anthropocene (HUTI)
• Undersökning av länken mellan biodiversitet och människans välmående

Contacts: Anna Törnroos (anna.m.tornroos@abo.fi ) and Otto Latva (otto.latva@utu.fi)