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  • From: Nick Routledge <fellowservant@yahoo.com>
  • To: permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] Food Not Lawns book
  • Date: Tue, 26 Dec 2006 11:07:52 -0800 (PST)

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

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