permaculture

[Juergen Botz <jurgen@botz.org>]

On 11/05/2009 05:04 PM, Permaculture Cooperative wrote:
> In my view, because they are lacking the infrastructural support that
> society provides "normal" communities, the Permaculture Pioneer generation
> has been forced to fend for themselves, and this can and has resulted in
> hierarchical inequities at their installations.
> 
> In cases of large Permaculture installations where there is familial
> support, such as with David Holmgren and Darren Doherty, and at small
> Pemaculture installations, there doesn't seem to be a problem.  In cases
> where there is not familial or institutional support, an exploitative status
> quo seems to develop at the pioneer institution.

Hi Kirstie... thanks for your response to my inquiry, but I'm afraid
"hierarchical inequities" and "exploitative status quo" are still too vague
for me to understand what you think the problem is.  I'm not trying to
challenge you, I'm really interested in your viewpoint.

In the past I've done a lot of research about cooperatives and workplace
democracy, so your articles about Mondragon piked my interest since I
already had some familiarity with this topic.  And I'm in the process of
developing a larger permaculture site here in Brazil and certainly would
like to avoid making mistakes that could lead to an "exploitative status
quo."

So could you please provide a little more detail?  What are hierarchical
inequities and how are they greater or different at permaculture farms
than at a "normal" farms (which is what I think you are saying in the
first paragraph I quoted).  Who or what is being exploited in the status
quo that you've observed?

:j