A Review: E. Peeren, H. Stuit, A. Van Weyenberg (eds.), "Peripheral Visions in The Globalizing Present, Space, Mobility, Aesthetics" (Leide, Boston: Brill, 2016)

• Main Author: Elia Zaru
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Globus et Locus 2016-12-01
• Series: Glocalism: Journal of Culture, Politics and Innovation
• Subjects: globalization
• Online Access: http://www.glocalismjournal.net/Issues/TERRITORIES-BORDERS-AND-THE-NEW-GEOGRAPHY/The-Latest-Books/A-Review-E-Peeren-H-Stuit-A-Van-Weyenberg-Eds-Peripheral-Visions-In-The-Globalizing-Present-Space-Mobility-Aesthetics-Leide-Boston-Brill-2016.kl

In 1980 Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari published Mille Plateaux, in which they theorized the philosophical concept of the “rhizome”. With such a notion, the two scholars aimed at breaking any hierarchical ontology. Instead of assuming a situated and territorialized point of view, they argued, the “rhizome” specifically allows the deterritorialization of being, and offers a peripheral vision of the world by excluding the existence of a defined centre. The “rhizome” contrasts what the two authors called an “arborescent” conception of knowledge, characterized by a precise hierarchic form. While in the former every point is necessarily related to each single other, the latter functions exactly by fixing a set of principal points which follow an exclusion principle. The “arborescent” scheme proceeds through dichotomy and hierarchy, and prevents the undesirable connections.