Rhizome (philosophy)

A rhizome is a concept in post-structuralism describing an assemblage that admits connections between any of its constituent elements, regardless of any predefined ordering, structure, or entry point.

[1] [2] [3] It is a central concept in the work of French Theorists Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, who use the term frequently in their development of Schizoanalysis.

[1][4] The term is heavily expanded upon in Deleuze and Guattari's 1980 work A Thousand Plateaus, where it is used to refer to networks that establish "connections between semiotic chains, organizations of power, and circumstances relative to the arts, sciences and social struggles.

In A Thousand Plateaus, the concept of rhizome is introduced through a botanical metaphor, which contrasts the rhizomatic character of underground root systems to the natural hierarchical ordering present in trees.

[2][3] In A Thousand Plateaus, Deleuze and Guattari write that "The rhizome itself assumes very diverse forms... but we get the feeling that we will convince no one unless we enumerate certain approximate characteristics.

An illustration of rhizome in opposition to arborescence from a 2006 exhibition of works inspired by A Thousand Plateaus at the Doris McCarthy Gallery. The red structure in the image is a tree, which presupposes a linear ordering over its elements that emanates from the root. The green structure in the image is a rhizome, which ceaselessly establishes connections across branches in the tree, without regard for the predefined order. [ 5 ]