Seminar “Multispecies City: diversity, communication, conflicts”

1.-2. December 2017, Tartu Loodusmaja (Lille, 10 Tartu)

Department of Semiotics at the University of Tartu holds a two-day seminar on urban environments from the semiotic and historical perspectives, as well as urban planning and natural sciences. The aim of the current seminar is to bring together different disciplines working with the non-human species in cities to shed light upon differences as well as overlaps between approaches.

Urban environments are inhabited not only by humans but by a number of species, including our pets, plants introduced by humans, commensals taking advantage of human resources, and also native species of the given area. Different species are related by manifold of relations: food chains, behavioural co-adaptations, interspecies communication, use of shared environments, and also cultural representations in case of human culture. A lot of this diversity is, however, concealed and the existence of other species in urban environments becomes often noticed only in the case of problematic and conflictive encounters. The unfolding interactions between species also depend heavily on spatial arrangements: urban planning, allocation of resources, migratory routes of birds and mammals and so on.

Plenary lecture by  Ingvar Svanberg: Various uses of urban ponds in Sweden from medieval times until the present day.

> Event web page HERE

> Seminar 1-2 Dec 2017