The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly impacted the daily lives of people around the world, as various measures were implemented to contain the spread of the infection. These measures included restrictions on gatherings, movement, and the provision of services such as education and childcare, public transportation, various non-essential services, including in healthcare, and so on. Remote work was encouraged, and movement was restricted to the area within each municipality. As a result, people primarily stayed at home and within their family circles to protect themselves and others. Many individuals compensated for the limited outdoor activities by bringing "nature" into their homes, where indoor plants played a significant role. The aim of this thesis is to explore the relationship between people and indoor plants during the COVID-19 pandemic in the years 2020–2021 and afterward in urban environments in Slovenia, using an interspecies ethnography approach.
Existing literature, such as the study by Pérez–Urrestarazu et al. (2021), indicates that during the pandemic, outdoor plants generally took precedence over indoor plants, as respondents preferred outdoor plants to those indoors. However, many households also reported the positive emotional impact of indoor plants. Post-pandemic research has shown an increase in the popularity of indoor plants, reflecting a growing trend during quarantine when people spent more time at home.
The thesis presents an original anthropological perspective on the relationships between humans and indoor plants and contributes new insights to the field of interspecies ethnography, which has so far focused more on human-animal relationships. The research includes semi-structured interviews, unstructured conversations, and observations of visitors to a boutique plant store in Ljubljana, supplemented by market research data on the import of indoor plants into Slovenia from 2018 to 2022.
Fieldwork reveals that most respondents began engaging with indoor plants after moving out of their primary family homes, with the pandemic also playing an important role in strengthening this interest. Indoor plants were considered a factor in improving the living environment, providing emotional comfort, and enhancing social connections when the plant was received as a gift. The findings emphasize the importance of including interspecies relationships in anthropological research and shed light on the complex interactions between humans and plants.
By examining the reasons why urban residents cultivate indoor plants and how they care for them, this thesis aims to highlight the broader anthropological implications of human-plant relationships, thereby contributing to the growing field of multispecies ethnography.
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