Globalizing animals:histories for the anthropocene

Scholars of globalization tend to write about humans. They are interested in the movements of and connections between people, human-made products, ideas and money. As a result, the natural world generally receives only meagre attention in histories of globalization. In my inaugural lecture, I explore how a more-than-human history of globalization could look like. I do so by focusing on the ways in which the globalization process has changed the interaction between humans and undomesticated animals. The changes are manifold. The infrastructures of globalization – ranging from railroads to pipelines – have influenced the movement of animals. They have contributed to the spread of some species, while hampering the mobility of others. In the twentieth century, furthermore, scientific research has gradually allowed for globally coordinated management regimes that sought to control animal trajectories. Laws, information systems and technologies have been developed to contain or exterminate unwanted animals (such as invasive pests) while protecting others (such as threatened megafauna). Of course, these management regimes cannot be seen independently from the cultural representations of the animals in question. Some representations – for instance in Disney films, tourist folders, or campaigns of international conservation NGOs – have a gained a global reach. By influencing human conceptions and behaviour, they affect concrete animal lives. One can only conclude that undomesticated animals are caught up in the globalization process in multiple ways. The history of globalization is partially shaped by modernist ambitions of control over non-human life forms. Yet, I think this history also offers more optimistic stories. Looking closely, one finds ideas, practices and technologies that seek to attune human and non-human movements in a shared choreography. Such stories can hopefully prove inspirational in rethinking the interaction between humans and non-human life forms for the future

Moving Across the Zoo-Field Border: Heini Hediger in Congo

The twentieth century witnessed the rise of zoo biology. Such a discipline might seem anchored in a specific spatial setting (that of the zoological garden), but if historians want to understand its development they should not limit their view to the confines of the zoo grounds. After all, understanding animals and their behavior at the zoo often involved thinking about them in other spaces as well. Notably, the “artificial” state of animals in captivity invited reflection on their “natural” condition in the wild. In order to study the changing relation between science performed at the zoo and in the field, this essay conceptualizes a “zoo–field border”—arguing that movements across this border are crucial to understanding practices on both sides. In particular, the essay analyzes a field expedition to the national parks of the Belgian Congo set up in 1948 by Heini Hediger, the Swiss zoologist who is often credited as the pioneer of zoo biology. Hediger’s expedition, it argues, involved conceptual, methodological, and logistical border-crossing. The combination of these forms, then, ultimately enabled a rethinking of animals and their behaviors on both sides of the border

Preface

This collection of essays is the result of a Maastricht Research Based Learning (MARBLE) Project that was carried out at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASoS) at Maastricht University in the academic year 2013-2014. The project went under the title ‘Conservation Controversies’ – funnily misspelled at the university website as ‘Conversation Controversies’. Next to having agreeable conversations about conservation, this MARBLEproject aimed to provide so-called research-based learning. Under the guidance of Raf de Bont, five third year students from the Bachelor programs ‘Arts and Culture’ and ‘European Studies’ explored the role of experts in controversies about nature and the environment. They did so via particular case studies. Four of these are presented in this volume.

Introduction: Environmental Experts in Context

Ever since the concept ‘environment’ became a household term in the 1970s, it has been a constant object of controversy. The way we should deal with natural resources, and, more generally, how we should relate to nature as a whole has over the previous decades continuously been discussed by politicians, civil society, journalists and academics. The stakes of these discussions are high. According to sociologists such as Ulrich Beck (1992) and Anthony Giddens (1999), our modern society is characterized by high levels of environmental risk. What is more, Beck and his colleagues have stressed that contemporary society increasingly acknowledges human agency in both the production of environmental risks, and the possible mitigation of those risks. In order to organize this mitigation successfully, expert knowledge is considered crucial by most stakeholders involved. Therefore, experts of all kinds are called upon to settle controversies about how to deal with the environment. It is exactly this role of experts that constitutes the topic of this volume.

Conservation Conferences and Expert Networks in the Short Twentieth Century

The twentieth century witnessed the rise of a conservation movement that presented itself as 'international' and 'science-based'. This article analyses the changing transnational networks of experts mobilised by this movement. It does so by studying the participant lists of 21 influential international conservation conferences held between 1913 and 1990. On the basis of a database we were able to trace changes in the national background, disciplinary allegiance and gender balance of conference attendants. Furthermore, we singled out a so-called 'congress elite' of often returning participants, whose background we analyse more in depth. The overall composition of the congress network as well as that of its elite, we show, changed only through a slow and laborious process. This process accounts for both the continuity in the sensibilities of international conservation experts and the gradual changes in their approach

Real-life assessment of chronic rhinosinusitis patients using mobile technology: the mySinusitisCoach project by EUFOREA

Background: Chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) is a chronic inflammatory disease associated with a substantial personal and socioeconomic burden. Monitoring of patient‐reported outcomes by mobile technology offers the possibility to better understand real‐life burden of CRS. Methods: This study reports on the cross‐sectional evaluation of data of 626 users of mySinusitisCoach (mSC), a mobile application for CRS patients. Patient characteristics of mSC users were analysed as well as the level of disease control based on VAS global rhinosinusitis symptom score and adapted EPOS criteria. Results: The mSC cohort represents a heterogeneous group of CRS patients with a diverse pattern of major symptoms. Approximately half of patients reported nasal polyps. 47.3% of all CRS patients were uncontrolled based on evaluation of VAS global rhinosinusitis symptom score compared to 40.9% based on adapted EPOS criteria. The impact of CRS on sleep quality and daily life activities was significantly higher in uncontrolled versus well‐controlled patients. Half of patients had a history of FESS (functional endoscopic sinus surgery) and reported lower symptom severity compared to patients without a history of FESS, except for patients with a history of more than 3 procedures. Patients with a history of FESS reported higher VAS levels for impaired smell. Conclusion: Real‐life data confirm the high disease burden in uncontrolled CRS patients, clearly impacting quality of life. Sinus surgery improves patient‐reported outcomes, but not in patients with a history of more than 3 procedures. Mobile technology opens a new era of real‐life monitoring, supporting the evolution of care towards precision medicine

Real-life assessment of chronic rhinosinusitis patients using mobile technology : The mySinusitisCoach project by EUFOREA

Background Chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) is a chronic inflammatory disease associated with a substantial personal and socioeconomic burden. Monitoring of patient-reported outcomes by mobile technology offers the possibility to better understand real-life burden of CRS. Methods This study reports on the cross-sectional evaluation of data of 626 users of mySinusitisCoach (mSC), a mobile application for CRS patients. Patient characteristics of mSC users were analysed as well as the level of disease control based on VAS global rhinosinusitis symptom score and adapted EPOS criteria. Results The mSC cohort represents a heterogeneous group of CRS patients with a diverse pattern of major symptoms. Approximately half of patients reported nasal polyps. 47.3% of all CRS patients were uncontrolled based on evaluation of VAS global rhinosinusitis symptom score compared to 40.9% based on adapted EPOS criteria. The impact of CRS on sleep quality and daily life activities was significantly higher in uncontrolled versus well-controlled patients. Half of patients had a history of FESS (functional endoscopic sinus surgery) and reported lower symptom severity compared to patients without a history of FESS, except for patients with a history of more than 3 procedures. Patients with a history of FESS reported higher VAS levels for impaired smell. Conclusion Real-life data confirm the high disease burden in uncontrolled CRS patients, clearly impacting quality of life. Sinus surgery improves patient-reported outcomes, but not in patients with a history of more than 3 procedures. Mobile technology opens a new era of real-life monitoring, supporting the evolution of care towards precision medicine.Peer reviewe

Between seas and continents: aspects of the scientific career of Hermann Von Ihering, 1850-1930

This paper covers some periods in Hermann von Ihering’s scientific trajectory: his training in zoology in Germany and Naples, his international activities based in Brazil, and his return to Germany. It deals with aspects of the formulation of his theories on land bridges. It focuses on the network of contacts he maintained with German émigrés like himself, and primarily with Florentino Ameghino, which allowed him to interact in international scientific circles. It mentions excerpts of his letters and his publications in the periods when he began corresponding with Ameghino (1890), when he travelled to Europe in search of support for his theories (1907), and when he published his book on the history of the Atlantic Ocean (1927).Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Muse