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>> 1 1 Catching the Buzz Introduction As long-term New York City residents, neither of us would consider ourselves to be huge animal lovers or nature enthusiasts. We go on occasional hikes or camping trips to escape the city, but there is always something strangely comforting about driving back into the metropolis and feeling the energy of the city—the architecture, the noises, and the people. We have both been shelter-pet owners at different stages of our lives and while trying to provide our pets with the best homes possible, there was a clear and sharp division between humans and animals: “no dogs on the bed.” As sociologists, we are invigorated when we find ourselves immersed in human subcultures where seemingly “abnormal” things happen. We like to watch members of our species pushing their bodies beyond their limits, resisting social expectations through creative problem solving— forcing us to reconsider the everyday taken-for-granted ways of life. Our previous research projects were not very engaged with animals. Mary’s work interrogates artworlds, particularly how and why humans create things that come to be viewed as art and the difficulties working artists endure in the process of getting critical and economic recognition , as well as practices of body modification, from tattooing to more extreme procedures. These field sites appeal to her because they speak to the creative impulses of our species, and exploring practices and behaviors deemed to be “deviant” or “outsider” provoke us to reflect on conventional and habitual ways of being in the world. On the other hand, Lisa Jean’s work focuses on human bodies in biomedical, sexual, or reproductive situations. With studies about human sperm to child sex predation to female genital anatomy and safer sex practices, her scholarship is also decidedly humancentric. Her research and projects have all examined human bodies as essential to the shape and functioning of social life. She has shown that while some bodies are highly 2 > 3 thereby bonding and socializing over shared interests in a seemingly disparate urban landscape and a larger cultural mediascape “gone wild.” Making our work known in our social lives, friends, or friends of friends, who had decided to keep bees started approaching us with increasing frequency. We sampled the growing array of local honey sold at the farmers’ markets and compared the beeswax candles that adorned the Brooklyn Flea booth. We heard a lot of stories about bees, from news reports on Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) to anecdotes about swarms at local spots. In short, we tingled with the buzz over bees. Like a contact high, that experience of being sober but feeling altered when surrounded by others who are chemically affected, we were catching a buzz from other people and from the bees. This buzz, a rhythmic and hypnotic sensation, an emotional and physical shift in our consciousness, resounded throughout our research journey and percusses through this book. We wanted to learn about the beekeepers themselves, their interactions with each other, how they are part of various craft and green DIY movements, and, of course, their relationships to their bees. Who were these fellow urbanites that took on the hobby of raising bees? What motivated them? How did they become proficient? What was the phenomenology of keeping bees? We discovered that New York City beekeepers are a pleasantly motley crew of people, embodying different personal styles, political perspectives, and manners of beekeeping. The one feature that connected them was their role as the bees’ stewards— they were earnest, serious, and deeply committed to their bees. In order to learn about the practice of beekeeping and gain entry into the world of urban beekeepers, in January 2010 we enrolled in a six-month class on urban beekeeping at the Central Park Arsenal. As two novices with limited animal/insect husbandry experience, we were introduced to a part of the burgeoning New York beekeeping world and to a larger community of people who are attracted to and participate in urban homesteading and the greening of city rooftops and backyards. Jim Fischer of New York City Beekeeping led the biweekly classes, which each consisted of a two- to three-hour comprehensive PowerPoint presentation and an extensive question-and-answer period. We were quickly swept up in Fischer’s sharp wit and engaged lecturing style. Always wearing a bee-themed t-shirt, Jim, a fiftyish man with 4 > 5 2011. Our project was fueled by Purchase College’s commitment to sustainability and the continuation of an on...

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