Plants in Place: A Phenomenology of the Vegetal

Plants are not immobile but change through growth, spreading, and interactions with their environment. Plants in Place explores the relationship between plants and human places, focusing on phenomenology, plant-thinking, and the dynamic constitution of plant edges. It offers new ways to appreciate the complexity and vitality of vegetal life and how it can enhance our understanding and experience of place.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 208 pages
Publication date: 12 December 2023
Publisher: Columbia University Press

Plants are often perceived as immobile, in contrast to humans and other animals. However, the vegetal realm encompasses numerous place-based forms of transformation, including stems rising upward, roots spreading outward, fronds unfurling in response to sunlight, seeds traveling vast distances, and intricate connections with the surrounding world. How do plants, as sessile, growing, decaying, and metamorphosing beings, shape the places they inhabit, and how are they shaped by them? How do human places interact with those of plants—in lived experiences, landscape painting, cultivation and contemplation, forests, fields, gardens, and cities?

These profound inquiries are explored in Plants in Place, a collaborative study that intersects Edward S. Casey's phenomenology of place with Michael Marder's plant-thinking. The book delves into both the microlevel, where it examines the dynamic constitution of plant edges or a child's engagement with moss, and the macrolevel, where it encompasses habitats that feature the sociality of trees. Through this captivating portrayal of plants and their places, readers are offered fresh perspectives on the complexity and vitality of vegetal life. Eloquently written, descriptively rich, and insightful, the book also demonstrates how the worlds of plants can enrich our understanding and experience of place more broadly.

Dimension: 216 x 140 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780231213455