The mushroom at the end of the world : on the possibility of life in capitalist ruins / Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Tsing, Anna Lowenhaupt, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Environmental degradation.

Economic development--Environmental aspects.

Economic development.

Human ecology.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (347 p.)

Place of Publication:

Princeton, NJ : Princeton University Press, [2015]

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Matsutake is the most valuable mushroom in the world-and a weed that grows in human-disturbed forests across the northern hemisphere. Through its ability to nurture trees, matsutake helps forests to grow in daunting places. It is also an edible delicacy in Japan, where it sometimes commands astronomical prices. In all its contradictions, matsutake offers insights into areas far beyond just mushrooms and addresses a crucial question: what manages to live in the ruins we have made? A tale of diversity within our damaged landscapes, The Mushroom at the End of the World follows one of the strangest commodity chains of our times to explore the unexpected corners of capitalism. Here, we witness the varied and peculiar worlds of matsutake commerce: the worlds of Japanese gourmets, capitalist traders, Hmong jungle fighters, industrial forests, Yi Chinese goat herders, Finnish nature guides, and more. These companions also lead us into fungal ecologies and forest histories to better understand the promise of cohabitation in a time of massive human destruction.By investigating one of the world's most sought-after fungi, The Mushroom at the End of the World presents an original examination into the relation between capitalist destruction and collaborative survival within multispecies landscapes, the prerequisite for continuing life on earth.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Enabling Entanglements

Prologue. Autumn Aroma

Part I. What's Left?

1. Arts of Noticing

2. Contamination as Collaboration

3. Some Problems with Scale

Part II. After Progress: Salvage Accumulation

4. Working the Edge

5. Open Ticket, Oregon

6. War Stories

7. What Happened to the State? Two Kinds of Asian Americans

8. Between the Dollar and the Yen

9. From Gifts to Commodities-and Back

10. Salvage Rhythms: Business in Disturbance

Part III. Disturbed Beginnings: Unintentional Design

11. The Life of the Forest

12. History

13. Resurgence

14. Serendipity

15. Ruin

16. Science as Translation

17. Flying Spores

Part IV. In the Middle of Things

18. Matsutake Crusaders: Waiting for Fungal Action

19. Ordinary Assets

20. Anti-ending: Some People I Met along the Way

Notes

Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Pilot project,eBook available to selected US libraries only

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 23. Mai 2019)

ISBN:

9780691220550

0691220557

9781400873548

1400873541

OCLC:

1132690758