Tropismatic (Dis)entanglements

Figures of Response-ability in the Rokugodote Homeless Village

抄録

This article explores the concept of tropism as a material-semiotic tool for comprehending complex entanglements among humans and non-humans within a homeless village located along Japan’s Tama River. Tropism, originally a biological term, is reimagined as a figurative lens, illuminating the notion of a response-ability that transcends human-centric interactions and embraces the interconnections of diverse entities and environments. The article navigates a range of phenomena in the village, from resource utilization to informal waste management, structural violence, and collaborative initiatives, to name a few, all through the tropismatic (dis)entanglement framework. The analyses showcase how tropism provide a non-hierarchical perspective, facilitating a bridge between disparate worldings and promoting a diffractive approach to interactions with both human and non-human elements. This method not only fosters nuanced understandings of intricate relationships but also encourages scholars to embrace rich tapestries of human-nonhuman relationships across diverse contexts, transcending the boundaries of the homeless village.