The multispecies community at the Służewiec Racetrack in Warsaw

Abstract

ABSTRACT Urban horse-racing tracks cover vast areas and are often located in urban districts. One of them is the Służewiec Racetrack in Warsaw. It consists not only of a hippodrome, but also an inner training and housing center where most of the racing stables in Poland are placed. Based on archival and ethnographic research, humans and non-human animals’ relations within “racing town” are elaborated in different sociohistorical contexts. On the microlevel, this paper analyzes how multispecies relations are interwoven with forms of social control and hierarchy. The contemporary development of the human and non-human inhabitants’ web of life is interpreted as a counter-reaction of “racers” to organizational paresis of the Służewiec Racetrack. Horse racetracks are sometimes troublesome from the perspective of urban planning. On the macrolevel, this case study is considered within the paradigm of recombinant ecology, as an inspiration for rethinking the potential of this type of space.