Toward a More-Than-Human Everyday Urbanism: Rhythms and Sensoria in the Multispecies City

Abstract

This article advances a more-than-human everyday urbanism as a useful analytic for articulating a less anthropocentric reading of the city. Using a case study of eastern coyotes (Canis latrans) in the Greater Toronto Area, Canada, it draws on empirical data and ethological literatures to consider everyday life in multispecies cities through two registers: rhythms and sensoria. It first performs an experimental rhythmanalysis, demonstrating the import of linear and cyclical rhythms in the space-times of human–coyote encounters. It then delves into coyote sensory worlds, illustrating the acoustic and olfactory ecologies that shape urban atmospheres and place-making. The article argues that a more-than-human everyday urbanism holds value for practice and politics, shifting the focus from spectacular moments of conflict with wildlife to a consideration of more-than-human place making, resituating urban animals as neighbors rather than invaders. This analysis contributes to emergent conversations in more-than-human and urban geographies aimed at making visible other-than-human spaces, practices, and experiences, a project central to recuperating the urban as an existing and potential site of multispecies flourishing.