Rhizome
A rhizome is a stem of a plant (usually underground). (See Wikipedia, 2006 for a description with picture).
It is used metaphorically as an alternative to the tree of knowledge metaphor by, for example, Deleuze & Guattari (1987). This kind of knowledge organization is network-like, much like the Internet.
"Deleuze and Guattari [1987]
make no bones about the fact that they oppose the root-tree model. They see it
as a model of totalizing theory, a model that's specifically designed to
function as a restrictive stratum, imposing its forms on a maximum of flows,
particles, and intensities. They make their case quite clearly:
We're tired of trees. We should stop believing in trees, roots, and radicles.
They've made us suffer too much. All of arborescent culture is founded on them,
from biology to linguistics. (17)
In opposition to the root-tree model, D & G offer the rhizome, a structure
without a centralized, hierarchical organization, a structure that, in many
ways, reflects the more "natural" pattern of geo-organic development. They say,
"Many people have trees growing in their heads, but the brain is more like a
grass than a tree" (17). We're taught to act like trees and forced to think like
trees, but D & G believe that we more "naturally" think like rhizomes (grass not
trees)." (Taylor, 1996).
Literature:
Deleuze, G. & Guattari, F. (1987). A Thousand Plateaus. Capitalism and Schizophrenia. Translation and foreword by Brian Massumi. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Taylor, A. (1996). Mus(e)ings on Deleuze & Guattari. Wanderings and reflections. A collection of short essays concerning the works of Gilles Deleuze & Felix Guattari and their relevance to the study of rhetoric. http://www.uta.edu/english/apt/d&g/arhizome.html
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. (2006). Rhizome. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhizome
See also: Hypertext/Hypermedia; Tree of knowledge
Birger Hjørland
Last edited: 01-06-2006