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Paper short abstract:

In this paper I examine the link between relational creativity, grassroots activism, and musical craftsmanship based on ethnographic work with local musicians and nature conservationists in West Japan. I illustrate the political force of relational creativity when facing ecological threats.

Paper long abstract:

This paper is based on several years of fieldwork with music makers, amateur performers, craftsmen and nature conservationists in Udono, a small town between Kyoto and Osaka along the Yodo river. Here, local communities have been fighting the incumbent expansion of a highway tract which threatens to uproot the delicate riverine ecosystem sustaining a special quality of canes used in the making of a Japanese traditional musical instrument. Local communities have tried for several years to stage political protests, but always with little political results. In this paper, I will explore the limits of this kind of "hope work". Reflecting on the failure of specific political assemblages to prevent damages to the local ecosystem in this out-of-the-way place (Tsing), I will claim that "relational creativity" can be conceived as an alternative, more effective mode of engagement. In Udono, "hope work" created only superficial bonds between marginal regional and national stakeholders, whereas activists essentially failed to cultivate bonds across the board, pivoting on relational creativity. My claim is that activists so far have failed to mobilize the affective force of sound as a catalyst for political messages. By way of showing this, I intend to underscore a theoretical reflection on the political potential of "relational creativity" as a concept that can ground hope to powerful affective affordances.