Social science and humanities publications of interest to birders (1 Viewer)

[Andrew Whitehouse]

As a social scientist who does work on human-bird relations I thought it might be useful to start a thread detailing work, particularly recent stuff, in the social sciences and humanities that is to do with birds or of interest to birders. These days it seems to be more and more commonplace for researchers in these fields to write about birds but I guess that the wider world probably still isn't too aware of most of what's being published. If others would like to add stuff then feel free to do so - I'm sure I'll find out about new stuff I'm unaware of. Here are a few to start things off.

Thom van Dooren (2014) 'Flight Ways: Life and Loss at the Edge of Extinction":
http://thomvandooren.org/publications/flight-ways/

Etienne Benson (2010) 'Wired Wilderness: Technologies of Tracking and the Making of Modern Wildlife'
http://etiennebenson.com/wiredwilderness/

Helen Macdonald. 2002. ‘What makes you a scientist is the way you look at things’: ornithology and the observer 1930-1955. Stud. Hist. Phil. Biol. & Biomed. Sci. 33 (2002) 53–77.
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1369848601000346
Very good article about the development of the BTO and 'citizen science' observational birding, by the author of 'H is for Hawk'.

Sophia Davis (2011) 'Militarised natural history: Tales of the avocet’s return to postwar Britain'
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1369848610001202

Rebecca Ellis (2011) ‘Jizz and the joy of pattern recognition: virtuosity, discipline and the agency of insight in UK naturalists’ arts of seeing’. Social Studies of Science 41 (6): 769-790.
http://sss.sagepub.com/content/41/6/769.short
Not actually about birds (about byrologists) but a good discussion of jizz.

John Law, & Michael Lynch. 1988. ‘Lists, field guides, and the descriptive organization of seeing: birdwatching as an exemplary observational activity’. Human Studies 11: 271-303.
http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF00177306?LI=true
An oldie but a goody.

Rebecca Mundy. 2009. ‘Birdsong and the image of evolution’ Society and Animals 17: 206-223.
http://booksandjournals.brillonline.com/content/journals/10.1163/156853009x445389

Merle Patchett. 2012. ‘On necro-ornithology, monstrosity and botched birds’. Antennae 20: 9-26.
http://www.antennae.org.uk/download/i/mark_dl/u/4012379076/4607883749/ANTENNAE ISSUE 20.docx.pdf

Richard Nelson. 1983. Make prayers to the raven: a Koyukon view of the northern forest. London: University of Chicago Press.
http://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/M/bo3630601.html
A classic ethnography.

Mark Bonta. 2003. Seven names for the bellbird: conservation geography in Honduras. College Station: Texas A&M University Press.
http://www.tamupress.com/product/Seven-Names-for-the-Bellbird,22.aspx
Nice account of people's relations with birds in Honduras.

Mark Bonta. 2010. “Ornithophilia: thoughts on geography in birding.” Geographical Review 100:2 139-151.
http://ocean.otr.usm.edu/~w440035/Materials/BontaGEOGRREVIEW2010.pdf

Celia Lowe 2010. ‘Viral clouds: becoming H5N1 in Indonesia’. Cultural Anthropology 25 (4): 625-649.

Jamie Lorimer. 2008. “Counting corncrakes: the affective science of the UK corncrake census”. Social Studies of Science 38(3): 377-405.
http://sss.sagepub.com/content/38/3/377.short

Kay Milton. 2000. Ducks out of water: nature conservation as boundary maintenance. In J. Knight (ed.) Natural enemies: people – wildlife conflicts in anthropological perspective. London: Routledge.

 

[jedigrant]

Thanks! Just downloaded one of the pdf's, will have to check it out. And 'Flight Ways' looks really interesting.

 

[Rick Wright]

Gannon, Thomas C. 2009. Skylark Meets Meadowlark: Reimagining the Bird in British Romantic and Contemporary Native American Literature. Lincoln: U Nebraska P.

 

[JTweedie]

I read Helen Macdonald's paper listed above. Interesting to read about the tensions between the RSPB and the BTO. There seemed to be an allusion to gender in their differing approach to the understanding or appreciation of birds, with the more scientific approach of the BTO being considered more masculine than the more emotional approach of the RSPB back in the 1930s.

While I don't think you can apply gender to the organisations today, and despite the RSPB having a much broader agenda these days, I still think that they still appeal very much so to those who have a more emotional approach to birding, particularly those who don't know birds much beyond what they see in their gardens, but they like the idea that their money is helping protect birds out in the wider world.

You can see this reflected in the kind of stuff that the RSPB sells through its brochure that they send out with their magazine.