The multispecies community within the training and housing complex inside the Racetrack Służewiec, from pre-socialist, through socialist, to present-day Warsaw

Abstract

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