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Paper Short Abstract:

Drawing on a long-term individual and collective ethnographic engagement with plants, this paper presents phyto-anthropological research as a method for transdisciplinary knowledge production and inquires into the practicalities of undoing and rewriting ethnographies with plants. 

Paper Abstract:

There seems to be agreement that ethnographies of more-than-human worlds require breaking down disciplinary boundaries (Tsing, 2010), but the practicalities of transdisciplinary approaches remain ambiguous. In relation to ethnography, concepts such as the 'mode of wonder' (Ogden, Hall, & Tanita 2013) or the 'arts of noticing' (Tsing 2015) speak to our imaginations but tell us little about research methods and strategies. Drawing on a long-term individual and collective ethnographic engagement with plants in Istanbul (Turkey) and Gdańsk (Poland), this paper introduces what we call “phyto-anthropological” inquiry as a method for transdisciplinary knowledge production. By focusing on the process of developing research methods within an interdisciplinary team, this paper brings to light the practicalities of research, with its muddiness, ambiguity and unpredictability.

The paper unfolds as follows. First, it presents the process by which research methods were developed within an interdisciplinary team and through plant-human affective encounters. Second, it explores limitations and potentials of transdisciplinary approaches. Third, it addresses the questions of more-than-human agency, representation and genre, and inquires into the practicalities of undoing and rewriting ethnographies with plants.