The doctoral dissertation in the field of Human Geography will be examined at the Faculty of Social Sciences and Business Studies at Joensuu Campus and online.
What is the topic of your doctoral research? Why is it important to study the topic?
This doctoral research investigates the mobility of domesticated animals on an international scale in an anthropocentric era marked by humans’ significant impact on the environment and the planet. Dissertation focuses on the transportation of companion cats and dogs, as well as sports, leisure, and breeding horses by air as part of civil aviation because the aviation industry enables their fast relocation over long distances around the globe. To explore the close connections between human mobility and the mobility of domesticated animals, this research approaches the international phenomenon with concepts and methods from human-animal studies and animal geography. From this perspective, transporting animals by air encompasses geographical, political, and social entanglements about the mobility of cats, dogs, and horses, their positions, their treatment in industrialized societies, and their relationships with humans.
What are the key findings or observations of your doctoral research?
Firstly, my dissertation highlighted that companion animals and horses experience a wide range of experiences related to transportation and interpreted by humans, which appear entangled with human activities.
Secondly, the research illustrates that humans, companion animals, and horses experience mobility relationally. Humans involved in the transportation of animals, such as agency workers, border veterinarians, flight attendants, customs officers, and caregivers, interact with and relate to the transported companion cats, dogs, and horses. From this perspective, the well-being of horses and companion animals relies on caring and welfare practices, which, in turn, shape humans. These practices can appear embedded in welfare discourses.
Thirdly, the research demonstrated that caring practices and welfare discourses manifest favorable transport conditions for animals. When carrying cats and dogs, caregivers interact with their companion animals during the preparation process and in-cabin transportation by performing caring practices. When carrying horses, welfare practices are highly organized and embedded in welfare discourses.
Lastly, immobility and stillness emerge as an inevitable part of an animal’s mobility. The research has demonstrated that bordering practices construct political borders, physical borders, and the species boundary simultaneously when companion cats and dogs encounter customs officers and veterinarians at airport borderlands.
How can the results of your doctoral research be utilised in practice?
The results of my doctoral research indicate that separating companion cats and dogs from their caregivers during transportation can lead to negative experiences for the animal and the humans due to a lack of care available and reduced interaction with a familiar person in an unfamiliar environment. Furthermore, the results underline that the commodification of space, a well-established practice in the civil aviation business, can negatively affect the well-being of all studied species and, consequently, their movement experiences. Lastly, the results raise public awareness of border controls for companion cats and dogs at international airports, including their organisation, the decisions, and the consequences these controls entail for companion animals with missing or flawed documents.
What are the key research methods and materials used in your doctoral research?
My research relies on qualitative methods modified to include animals as actors. Dissertation study comprises interviews with experts and pet owners, fieldwork at international airports, and newspaper articles and video clips. The first study is based on 16 semi-structured interviews with caregivers of companion cats and dogs, which were analysed using qualitative content analysis. The second study explores the transportation of horses by analysing social media data, including news articles and YouTube clips, and four expert interviews using a Foucauldian discourse analysis. The third study draws on ethnographic fieldwork at three European airports with border controls. The fieldwork material was analysed with a thematic analysis.
The doctoral dissertation of Lucia Gräschke, M.Soc.Sc., entitled International Mobilities – The Construction of Subjective Transportation Experiences of Cats, Dogs and Horses through Relationality, Boundaries and Care will be examined at the Faculty of Social Sciences and Business Studies. The opponent will be Professor David Redmalm (Mälardalen University), and the custos will be University Lecturer Juha Kotilainen, University of Eastern Finland. Language of the public defence is English.