Nixon, Rob. “The Less Selfish Gene: Forest Altruism, Neoliberalism, and the Tree of Life.” Environmental Humanities 13, no. 2 (2021): 348–71. doi:10.1215/22011919-9320189
Why have millions of readers and viewers become magnetized by the hitherto arcane field of plant communication? The article argues that the contemporary appeal of plant communication is rooted in a quest for alternative modes of being to neoliberalism, modes more accommodating of the coexistence of cooperation and competition in human and more-than-human communities. This ascendant understanding of plant communication and forest dynamics offers a counternarrative of flourishing, a model of what George Monbiot has called, in another context, “private sufficiency and public wealth.” (Abstract)
© 2021 Rob Nixon
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