Paper Short Abstract:

Based on fieldwork conducted in Poland, this paper discusses my attempt to 'rewrite' the story of guerrilla gardening from a more-than-human perspective and using an experimental, interdisciplinary methodology. It presents the advantages, limitations, and questions opened by such rewriting.

Paper Abstract:

This paper discusses a methodological challenge I encountered in 2022-2024 during my research on guerrilla gardening, a grassroots urban activity that involves interacting with plants without the consent of 'their' landowners (Tracey, 2006). Existing scholarship discussing its political, yet human-centred potential fails to acknowledge the human-plant entanglements that create and sustain 'guerrilla' assemblages. Thus unwriting – or retelling – their stories from a new, more-than-human perspective became one of my aims. A small 'guerrilla plot' on the outskirts of Łódź (central Poland) became my field; two women who planted and cared for the 'unofficial' greenery became my research partners. With exploratory walks and in-depth interviews as initial research methods, my methodology grew as I followed the gardeners and their attentiveness (Tsing 2013). Together, we attuned our perceptions to the local more-than-human world, which revealed entangled histories, current social practices and imagined futures. Combining this with my previous encounters with philosophers and anthropologists, as well as the concepts and practices of botanists, I wrote down two 'retold' stories of guerrilla assemblages. Categories such as different temporalities, spatiality, flourishing, unruliness and their politics served as the basis for them. In addition to presenting my experimental methodology and proposed research outcomes as textual stories, I also aim to articulate some questions. How can anthropology benefit from rewriting stories in a more-than-humanly inspired way? Can research with an indeterminate and interdisciplinary methodology contribute to attempts to overcome climate crisis narratives of stagnation and mourning? What are its limitations?