permaculture

[Nick Routledge <fellowservant@yahoo.com>]

With regard to the permie identity thang, a few thoughts from the 
Eugene-Springfield nexus in Oregon, Heather's home turf...  
When permaculture hits the dirt, the realpolitik of context shifts the 
epistemology associated with the word, accordingly. We have found, for 
example, that our recent annual bioregional permaculture gathering, perhaps 
the largest and most long-lived in the Pacific Northwest, has morphed to the 
point where 'permaculture' per se, is now only one of a rich multiplicity of 
interests that gathering organizers are addressing under the gathering 
banner. This epistemological shift, born not of semantic distinctions 
proffered by permies gathering for training and conversation at intentional 
communities in the woods ("Define permaculture!") or somesuch, but in the 
realpolitik of an established, sizeable urban community that has long been a 
hotbed for permaculture practice-in-action, was reflected in intensive 
'politicking' at the level of the Eugene Permaculture Guild steering 
committee, as pressures to 'free' the 'Permaculture Gathering' (traditionally 
under the control of and,
 historically, the largest income source for the Guild) from the formal 
control of the steering committee and hand it over, lock-stock-and-barrel, to 
an entirely autonomous 'Gathering Committee' mounted. 

As it happens, these pressures were internal to the Guild steering committee 
- we essentially faced no pressure from the gathering committee - who 
perceived that efforts to keep the 'Permaculture Gathering' as a 
traditionally 'permaculture' event were simply incoherent, given that 
experience hereabouts clearly demonstrate that permaculture is only one key 
aspect of regenerative design in large, complex communities, and not a 
command-and-control function, for want of a better term. And rather than pull 
the name, 'Permaculture', from the Gathering, wise souls on the steering 
committee using authentic co-intelligent process over time, felt it made 
sense to let both the gathering and the name fly free. This handover might 
strike some as symbolic, but symbols, as they say, are as real as it gets.

Along associated lines, here's the intro to a brief editorial I penned for a 
recent issue of the Eugene Permaculture Guild's newsletter:

Ancient religious joke.          Q: Whaddya got if you put two theologians in 
a room? A: An argument. Yup,          any attempt to 'word-cage' the 
innumerable variety of philosophies and          activities embraced by 
'holism-in-action' presents real challenges. Permaculture          is (only) 
our word for it.
 http://www.seedambassadors.org/Mainpages/resurrection.htm
n.

 

Seed Ambassadors Project - http://www.seedambassadors.org

 __________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around 
http://mail.yahoo.com