permaculture

[Mitra Ardron <mitra_lists@earth.path.net>]

Phil

My feeling is that hte best thing Permies can do with the Invisible 
Structures is to recognise that
* the human and "invisible" systems are crucial to Permaculture's success;
* that permies in general have done a pretty bad job of it, which is 
characterised by really good systems, that are poorly taken up by the 
community.
* that Chapter 14 - unlike the rest of the Permaculture Designer's 
Manual - was clearly written by someone who had little direct 
experience of what they were writing about
* that there are lots of good projects out there working on the 
invisible structures, and start figuring out what works in your own 
environment. For example - what banking; community currency; 
organisational; decision making structures are working in your 
environment?

I notice that there is a focus on some of this at IPC-8, and wish I 
could be there to hear it, unfortunately the web site is beautifully 
designed, but missing all the important content like a list of 
presenters  (something to learn about invisible systems there) so we 
can't see exactly who or what is being presented!

- Mitra



At 1:15 PM -0700 13/2/07, Vinton Lawrence wrote:
> 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
> >  
>
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Mitra Ardron:  Natural Innovation  & Zelfo Australia
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