Miriam Adelman - Böcker

This edited volume demonstrates the broader socio-cultural context for individual human-horse relations and equestrian practices by documenting the international value of equines; socially, culturally, as subjects of academic study and as drivers of public policy. It broadens our understanding of the importance of horses to humans by providing case studies from an unprecedented diversity of cultures. The volume is grounded in the contention that the changing status of equines reveals - and moves us to reflect on - important material and symbolic societal transformations ushered in by (post)modernity which affect local and global contexts alike.Through a detailed consideration of the social relations and cultural dimensions of equestrian practices across several continents, this volume provides readers with an understanding of the ways in which interactions with horses provide global connectivity with localized identities, and vice versa. It further discusses new frontiersin the research on and practice of equestrianism, framed against global megatrends and local micro-trends.

This edited volume demonstrates the broader socio-cultural context for individual human-horse relations and equestrian practices by documenting the international value of equines; socially, culturally, as subjects of academic study and as drivers of public policy. It broadens our understanding of the importance of horses to humans by providing case studies from an unprecedented diversity of cultures. The volume is grounded in the contention that the changing status of equines reveals - and moves us to reflect on - important material and symbolic societal transformations ushered in by (post)modernity which affect local and global contexts alike.Through a detailed consideration of the social relations and cultural dimensions of equestrian practices across several continents, this volume provides readers with an understanding of the ways in which interactions with horses provide global connectivity with localized identities, and vice versa. It further discusses new frontiersin the research on and practice of equestrianism, framed against global megatrends and local micro-trends.

This volume brings together studies from various disciplines of the social sciences and humanities ( anthropology, sociology, cultural studies, history and literary theory) that shed light on the equestrian world as a historically gendered and highly dynamic field of contemporary sport and culture.  From high level international dressage and jumping, polo and the turf, to the rodeo world of the Americas and popular forms of equestrian sport and culture, we are introduced to a range of  issues that  are played out at local and global, national and international levels. Students and scholars of gender, culture and sport  will find much of interest in this original look at contemporary issues such as “engendered” (women’s and men’s) identities/subjectivities as equestrians, representations of girls, horses and the world of adventure in juvenile fiction;  the current “feminization” of particular equestrian activities (and where boys and men stand in relation to this);  how broad forms of social inequality and stratification play themselves out within gendered equestrian contexts; men and women and their relation to horses within the framework of current discussions on the relation of animals to humans (which may  include not only love and care, but also exploitation and violence), among others.  Singular contributions  show how   equestrian activities contribute to historical and current constructions of embodied “femininities” and “masculinities”, reflecting a world that has been moving “beyond the binaries” while continuing to be enmeshed in their persistent and contradictory legacy. ​