A new form of collaboration in cultural anthropology: Matsutake worlds

Abstract

A B S T R A C TExperiments in collaboration open new investigative possibilities for cultural anthropologists. In this report, we use our research on matsutake mushrooms to show the promise of collaborative experiments for ethnographers of scale making, global connection, and human-nonhuman relations. Anna Tsing introduces. Mogu Mogu (Timothy Choy and Shiho Satsuka) argue that the mushroomic figure of mycorrhizal life illuminates workings of capital and power, nature and culture. Lieba Faier examines contingency-through the effect of weather and bugs on matsutake production-as a form of self-positioning that emerges from local understandings of connection. Michael Hathaway uses postcolonial science studies to examine the transnational production, flow, and transformation of scientific knowledge about matsutake. Miyako Inoue discusses the anthropological subject that emerges through the kind of collaboration envisioned and practiced by the Matsutake Worlds Research Group.

The world in a box? Food security, edible insects, and “One World, One Health” collaboration

“…In the multi-sectoral OWOH field of global sciences, integration and "a common vision" are the rage. In contrast, this article is an experiment in collaboration (see also Choy et al, 2009;Kelly et al, 2010) that aims to enhance without duplicating the scientists' results.…”

Infrastructuring Environments

“…Here researchers in STS, anthropology, and beyond exchange conceptual tools and ethnographic sensitivities towards emerging more-than-human worlds and their 'multispecies living' (e.g. Choy et al, 2009;Braun and Whatmore, 2010;de la Cadena, 2012;Raffles, 2011;Law and Lien, 2013).…”

Experiments in Collaboration: Interdisciplinary Graduate Education in Science and Justice

“…By investing time into forging interdisciplinary skills and intellectual relationships, the SJTP creates room for researchers to test and reformulate their ideas about their project's connections to public constituencies and their values. What counts as a “broader impact” and a contribution to a more just world is not known in advance, but can emerge through this process of collaboration and experimentation [13],[16]–[19]. While this effort can be hard work, with frictions and dead ends along the way, the results are much more satisfying and effective.…”