Lockdown Fauna : The Beastly Topology of the COVID-19 Pandemic

• A few months into the COVID-19 pandemic, photos and news articles began circulating in social media about animals making unexpected appearances in urban areas. Photos were published in news media of dolphins in the canals of Venice, a record number of flamingos in Mumbai, wild boards in Barcelona, and undaunted urban foxes in central London. While some of these stories were proven to be false, such as the Venice dolphins, other stories turned out to be misleading. The animals who allegedly showed up in, returned to or overcrowded certain areas were in fact there all along, but had not gained wider attention until now. Although several of these stories are lacking in credibility, they can be seen as indications of humans’ understanding of themselves and their relations to nature and other animals. As such, they differ from typical romanticizations of a pristine nature untouched by human hand, as the depicted sceneries are human-built environments. Rather than a dream of a pure nature in a distant past, but a future in which humans picture their own downfall. We suggest that lockdown fauna imageries express a happy misanthropy and an optimistic apocalypticism that capture human self-understanding in a society characterized by pandemic and environmental crises. 

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Medie- och kommunikationsvetenskap (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Media and Communications (hsv//eng)

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Sociologi -- Socialantropologi (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Sociology -- Social Anthropology (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Anthropocene

biopolitics

COVID-19 pandemic

media representations of animals

misanthropy

social media

Working Life Studies

arbetslivsvetenskap

Publikations- och innehållstyp

ref (ämneskategori)

kon (ämneskategori)