Landscapes as Multispecies Matters: the Mushing Landscape in the Making in Finnish Lapland

Abstract

Abstract Animals are important players in tourism but their presence and agency in the formation of tourist landscapes has been largely disregarded. Landscapes are often considered to be unchanging material surfaces shaped through culture, thus leaving only a limited role for animals. Drawing on non-representational ideas of landscape, I focus on the (re)formation of a local tourist landscape that takes place in the unfolding atmospheric practices of mushing. I present two narratives that are based on mobile video ethnographic vignettes and accompanying short video clips to reflect on the role of the sled dogs in the making of the local mushing landscape. Finally, I develop the argument that nonhuman animals are a unique part of the fabric and sociality of landscapes, thus making landscapes unavoidably multispecies matters.