Delving into the Patchiness of the World. Mycelial Orientations Towards Practices of Sensing, Sharing, and Caring

Article by Sarah Kolb

The Nordic Journal of Aesthetics, Vol. 69: Aesthetics, Ethics, and Relational Being, eds. Guðbjörg Jóhannesdóttir, Jóhannes Dagsson, and Una Thorláksdóttir (31/10/2025), 114–134, DOI: 10.7146/nja.v34i69.160659

Abstract

In an era of increasing precarity and ecological disruption, Anna Tsing’s The Mushroom at the End of the World (2015) offers a compelling perspective on navigating life amid capitalist ruins. Challenging dominant narratives that relegate nature to a passive backdrop for human agency, Tsing follows fungal pathways to explore relational models of egalitarian, multispecies coexistence. Building on Tsing’s transdisciplinary approach, this paper advocates for a shift beyond entrenched categorizations and extrapolations grounded in well-established conceptual frameworks of flora and fauna, proposing instead that fungi—with their intricate subterranean networks, subtle perceptual capacities, and remarkable symbiotic strategies—can serve as generative figures for imagining and co-creating alternative
futures. Departing from the hierarchical logic of family trees and individualist competition—tied to an endless trajectory of progress, differentiation, and fragmentation—fungi offer a transformative paradigm for cultivating situated practices of sensing, sharing, and caring.

Keywords

Fungal turn, Mycelial Entanglements, Relational Knowledge, Sensing, Sharing, Caring