Multispecies home (un)making: Dogs and lifestyle migrants in Lijiang Ancient Town, China.

This study advances scholarship in animal geography by examining how dogs participate in the processual and relational making and unmaking of home within the context of global lifestyle migration. Drawing on longitudinal ethnographic fieldwork with 36 participants in Lijiang Ancient Town, China, thi...

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Published in:Geographical Journal Vol. 191; no. 4; pp. 1 - 14
Main Authors: Yin, Duo, Gao, Quan
Format: Article
Published: Wiley-Blackwell Dec2025
Subjects:
Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
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        atl: Multispecies home (un)making: Dogs and lifestyle migrants in Lijiang Ancient Town, China.
      aug:
        au:
          Yin, Duo
          Gao, Quan
        affil:
          School of Geography and Remote Sensing, Guangzhou University, Higher Education Mega Center, Guangzhou, China
          School of Geography and Planning, Sun Yat‐Sen University, Higher Education Mega Center, Guangzhou, China
      su:
        Lijiang (China)
        China
        Human-animal relationships
        Internal migration
        Pets
        Dogs
        Home range (Animal geography)
        Living conditions
      sug:
        subj:
          Human-animal relationships
          Internal migration
          Pets
          Lijiang (China)
          China
          Live animal merchant wholesalers
          All Other Animal Production
          All other miscellaneous animal production
          Pet and Pet Supplies Stores
          Dogs
          Home range (Animal geography)
          Living conditions
      keyword:
        animal agency
        animal geographies
        dogs
        home
        human–animal relationships
        more‐than‐human geographies
        animal agency
        animal geographies
        dogs
        home
        human–animal relationships
        more‐than‐human geographies
      ab: This study advances scholarship in animal geography by examining how dogs participate in the processual and relational making and unmaking of home within the context of global lifestyle migration. Drawing on longitudinal ethnographic fieldwork with 36 participants in Lijiang Ancient Town, China, this study traces the spatial‐affective entanglements between lifestyle migrants and their companion dogs. It reveals how dogs co‐construct multispecies domesticities through embodied practices—such as scent‐marking, route repetition and place attachment—that extend beyond the boundaries of human‐centred home imaginaries. However, these fragile multispecies arrangements are destabilised when migration results in abandonment. In such moments, dogs are forced to navigate disrupted relational geographies and shifting territorialities, marked by anxiety, behavioural change and dislocation. To conceptualise these experiences, the study introduces the notion of 'trans‐species traumatic geographies', capturing the spatial and emotional consequences of rupture for non‐human companions. By foregrounding canine perspectives and embodied vulnerabilities, this study challenges the anthropocentric focus of migration narratives and underscores the co‐constitutive nature of homemaking across species. It contributes to critical conversations on multispecies mobility and displacement, and the ethics of human–animal domesticity in an era of global movement.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype: Article
      src: R
    language: English
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