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> send me whatever hand-outs or references you might have on the
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
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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