permaculture

[Vinton Lawrence <vlawrence@nets.com>]

Phil,
Chapter 14 of the Mollison _PermacultureDesigner's Manual_, "Strategies 
for an Alternative Nation", the last chapter, is primarily about 
"invisible structures". Strangely, there is no TOC heading or reference 
in the index to "invisible structures" though I remember well that Bill 
called them that in  his courses.
Especially in the initial phases of organizing the Permaculture Credit 
Union, the groups that met to originate the design concept paid much 
attention to the "species characteristics" of each of the possible forms 
that a financial institution for the benefit of permaculturists might 
take - ranging from investment groups and venture capital funds to 
informal loan funds, LETS systems, and "banks". We eventually settled on 
the "credit union" model because it was/is owned by the members, returns 
profits to the collective good, is a democratic institution, had a 
strong community in the existing credit union movement, and was 
historically created by farmers to provide the credit that they needed 
to buy seeds and tools.

In reference to Kevin S.'s comments on the dearth of permaculture  
attention to this subject, the "Green Economies Conference" that is 
being organized as a complement/adjunct to IPC-8 in Brazil  in May of 
this year (www.ipc8.org) is a concerted and high level effort to bring 
forth a permaculture -based inquiry into how we must expand the "design 
strategies" of permaculture to include the systems by which we organize 
and fund our "culture" and "civil structures".

Personally, I am interested in any models/metaphors that folks may be 
aware of that are analogues of "economic systems" that occur in nature. 
This might include such behaviors as squirrels hoarding nuts, but I am 
really looking for energy exchange models that might be mirrored as we 
design permaculture "economies".

Vint Lawrence



Phil Vergamini wrote:
> 	As part of the educational component of the Permaculture 
> Credit Union, we are planning to put together a handout/brochure that 
> will hopefully explain what Invisible Structures or Hidden Structures 
> mean to the Pc community.  These we'll make available to Pc teachers 
> to use in their classes, as well as PCU members, and any other 
> members of the Pc community who might be interested.  I've been 
> searching the Pc books and the internet for information on the topic 
> and not having much luck.  What I've found are "hidden" references to 
> what it means - usually just one brief sentence containing the words 
> invisible or hidden, the word structures, and maybe a reference to 
> financial, social, or legal - but not a lot of detail.  There doesn't 
> seem to me to be a lot of information available but I may not be 
> looking in the right places.
>
> 	So, I'm putting out a request to all teachers of Pc to please 
> send me whatever hand-outs or references you might have on the 
> subject that you use in your courses.  We'll put together something 
> and try to run it by anyone who was willing to contribute to it. 
> We'll also try to give credit to sources whenever we can.
>
>         Thanks much-
>
>         -Phil
>