Reflections from the Chair
In my work as the Chair of Permaculture International Ltd, active engagement in global and local change maker communities and experience as a professional transformational steward for the past 20 years across both “old” and “new” systems, I have the privilege of observing many patterns that relate to the conditions described above. Additionally, I have the opportunity to think deeply and discuss with peers, perspectives on the role of stewardship that the Permaculture International Ltd Board and the movement itself must embrace if it is to fulfil its potential.
I would like to take the opportunity to share these views as a starting point for a more formal discussion forum which we will be co-hosting soon for permaculture leaders around the world and a series of open forums we will be scheduling over the next 12 months.
Permaculture stewardship in a polarised world
The polarisation we see manifesting every day, from a systemic perspective, is an exponential acceleration of BOTH:
- the most extreme elements of the incumbent extractive world order designed around principles of dominance of man and separation from nature, and
- the proliferation of multiple scales of nested regenerative systems designed around the principles of interconnected earth care, people care and fair share that the Permaculture movement and many others based on the same principles have been quietly designing and implementing over the past 50 years on every continent in the world.
The Western World is not ready for this challenge, not because proven solutions to the problems don’t exist, they do, at every scale, but because the solutions to the problems do not serve the critical requirements for survival for the incumbent system.
The challenge we have as individuals, as citizens, as a community, as leaders and as a movement is to understand how to meet this moment.
“Meeting people where they are” – a framing dilemma
How do we “meet people where they are” when much of the world doesn’t know such solutions are real and are accessible in their own communities and the prevailing narrative prevents the message from being heard?
Some of the answer to this question can be found in sharing the stories of communities, cities and countries that have embraced permaculture design principles alongside their own unique cultures and contexts having either:
- already experienced “collapse” through war or environmental exploitation (e.g. Vietnam, Timor Leste, India) or
- proactively applied a fully informed context of systemic foresight to design and invest in the ecological, social and infrastructural systems alongside carbon emissions agendas to enable their populations access a liveable future (China, Singapore).
We will be starting to address this education gap this month as we kick off a new section of this newsletter detailing many of the large-scale permaculture design collaborations built on unique local foundations in every instance.
The more challenging aspect will be reclaiming the framing around what it means to create resilient, adaptive and regenerative conditions for life in our own communities in a way that resonates with audiences currently dominated by fear.
So, what’s “framing” got to do with it?
Let’s start by answering a question that we have all asked ourselves at some point as we witness the runaway success of “far right” political parties all over the world.
Q. “Why do the people who will be most harmed by the policies of these parties, so passionately support them?”
A. Framing – the “far right” know how to tap into an audience’s deeply held worldviews, emotions, or cultural assumptions. This changes perception without altering the core facts.
Let’s expand this by using statements made above.
The sentence “the challenge we have as individuals, as citizens, as a community, as leaders and as a movement is to understand how to meet this moment” could be interpreted in two ways:
- If you innately believe that you are a human being in a deeply interconnected world with a sense of personal responsibility that aligns with this worldview and values system, you will connect with this as a “call to collective action”. (This is the belief system of “progressives” in a political sense)
- If you innately believe that it is the responsibility of every individual to fend for themselves in a hostile world and identify with the view that the pursuit of your own individual desires will lead a prosperous society through the “invisible hand”, then you will not feel the pull of the collective call to action. (This is the belief system of the “conservatives” in a political sense)
The concept of a “steward” is a prime example of the power of framing. Regardless of the fact that “stewardship” is and has always been defined in the dictionary and in law as “acting as a caretaker or guardian rather than the absolute owner, prioritising long-term sustainability, accountability, and the well-being of others”, the conservative moral frame is so embedded in our incumbent worldview that most board directors believe they are stewards of short term shareholder returns, political leaders are stewards of the right to hold power and citizens accept this as a truth.
Essentially, the “conservative” worldview is so embedded in our society, and the incumbent players are so skilled at framing the narrative, backed by 50 years of reinforcement through funding of education systems and institutional investment and daily repetition in news, social media and everyday conversation, that facts simply do not matter when used to counter language already hijacked by the moral framing of that worldview.
The belief that “facts will set us free” is simply not true in such a world. It’s why 50 years of “truth telling” and now irrefutable, data backed evidence about climate change, earth degradation, ocean acidification, extreme wealth gaps and poverty statistics etc have not worked to “wake people up”.
How is this relevant to the positioning of Permaculture in this moment of reaching a “tipping point” for the emergence of new systems?
Permaculture and all other related “nature systems centred” movements are led by people who have “progressive” worldviews. People with such worldviews have been busy doing a range of things over the past 30 years:
| Focus | Outcomes | Relevance to Permaculture Positioning |
|---|---|---|
| REFORMING THE INCUMBENT SYSTEM | ||
| Fighting to reform the “old system” with facts, data and truth – believing that the truth will “wake people up”. | Only incremental change was achieved as adoption was only within the boundaries of the incumbent system’s tolerance and with no genuinely systematic lens on inter-related earth and human systems. | This has never been and is certainly not now our “work to do” as Permaculture International Limited. (NB PIL exists to promote the wise utilisation of the ecological, agricultural, horticultural, silvicultural, viticultural, aquacultural, social, residential and economic resources of Australia and elsewhere through education, information dissemination and consultation and through the theoretical and practical application of Permaculture design principles.) The “old system” cannot be reformed and effort spent here is effort not spent elsewhere. This is why we have never done traditional “advocacy” that attempts to “reform” policy. |
| Trying to convince those with conservative views “using their language” to “meet them where they are” without understanding the moral framing embedded within our culture. | Served to reinforce existing world views – it’s how cognition works (George Lakoff – Don’t Think of an Elephant). One of the key reasons why the most vulnerable are flocking to the far right – vulnerable people feeling abandoned and marginalised resonate with the “fight for yourself” narrative. | The Permaculture movement has tried to do this with the idea of “a revolution disguised as gardening”. Although this has been very successful in some respects, in general, the outcome of this is that most people believe that Permaculture IS gardening, even within the “nature-centric” movements of regeneration and bioregionalism. We need to change the narrative, bring the work of the movement at all scales into view and take our place alongside all other new systems movements. |
| DESIGNING NEW SYSTEMS – “You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.” — Buckminster Fuller | ||
| Western World Lens | Proliferation of permaculture and related work round ethical principles of interconnected earth, people and fair share, primarily as an “alternative” lifestyle choice – now reaching a “tipping point” with the acceleration of the bioregional lens as a context for minimal viable conditions. | The right work for the time for the Permaculture movement over the past 50 years since our birth at the time of the Oil Crisis and the first publishing of Limits to Growth – Donella Meadows. We need to revisit this framing with a fresh narrative at this next Oil Crisis moment having reached the Limits to Growth on our planet as predicted. |
| Majority World Lens | Significant examples of permaculturists working alongside collapsed communities and countries and proactive nations combining permaculture design principles with unique cultural contexts to rebuild self-sufficiency, and regenerate bioregional landscapes, economies, ecologies and identity. | Much of this work is invisible in the western world for what it is – genuine system change designed around interconnected earth and human systems that enable self-sustaining economies of sufficiency and dignity for all. We must find ways to reframe this work in the minds and hearts of a much broader audience and actively work with majority nations who have already implemented these systems to amplify the message. |
REFORMING THE INCUMBENT SYSTEM
- Focus
- Fighting to reform the “old system” with facts, data and truth – believing that the truth will “wake people up”.
- Outcomes
- Only incremental change was achieved as adoption was only within the boundaries of the incumbent system’s tolerance and with no genuinely systematic lens on inter-related earth and human systems.
- Relevance to Permaculture Positioning
- This has never been and is certainly not now our “work to do” as Permaculture International Limited. (NB PIL exists to promote the wise utilisation of the ecological, agricultural, horticultural, silvicultural, viticultural, aquacultural, social, residential and economic resources of Australia and elsewhere through education, information dissemination and consultation and through the theoretical and practical application of Permaculture design principles.) The “old system” cannot be reformed and effort spent here is effort not spent elsewhere. This is why we have never done traditional “advocacy” that attempts to “reform” policy.
- Focus
- Trying to convince those with conservative views “using their language” to “meet them where they are” without understanding the moral framing embedded within our culture.
- Outcomes
- Served to reinforce existing world views – it’s how cognition works (George Lakoff – Don’t Think of an Elephant). One of the key reasons why the most vulnerable are flocking to the far right – vulnerable people feeling abandoned and marginalised resonate with the “fight for yourself” narrative.
- Relevance to Permaculture Positioning
- The Permaculture movement has tried to do this with the idea of “a revolution disguised as gardening”. Although this has been very successful in some respects, in general, the outcome of this is that most people believe that Permaculture IS gardening, even within the “nature-centric” movements of regeneration and bioregionalism. We need to change the narrative, bring the work of the movement at all scales into view and take our place alongside all other new systems movements.
DESIGNING NEW SYSTEMS
“You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.” — Buckminster Fuller
- Focus
- Western World Lens – Proliferation of permaculture and related work round ethical principles of interconnected earth, people and fair share, primarily as an “alternative” lifestyle choice – now reaching a “tipping point” with the acceleration of the bioregional lens as a context for minimal viable conditions.
- Relevance to Permaculture Positioning
- The right work for the time for the Permaculture movement over the past 50 years since our birth at the time of the Oil Crisis and the first publishing of Limits to Growth – Donella Meadows. We need to revisit this framing with a fresh narrative at this next Oil Crisis moment having reached the Limits to Growth on our planet as predicted.
- Focus
- Majority World Lens – Significant examples of permaculturists working alongside collapsed communities and countries and proactive nations combining permaculture design principles with unique cultural contexts to rebuild self-sufficiency, and regenerate bioregional landscapes, economies, ecologies and identity.
- Relevance to Permaculture Positioning
- Much of this work is invisible in the western world for what it is – genuine system change designed around interconnected earth and human systems that enable self-sustaining economies of sufficiency and dignity for all. We must find ways to reframe this work in the minds and hearts of a much broader audience and actively work with majority nations who have already implemented these systems to amplify the message.
What will we do next?
We need to acknowledge many hard truths and design a new story that resonates with our audiences.
We are commencing a process of deep and broad research and gathering of the past 50 years of proven solutions on every continent to the problems of our time, to understand how we must tell our story in a way that resonates with audiences with all worldviews and most importantly with a context that is relevant to everyone in their own place.
We will be sharing this journey as we go and inviting participation at every stage.
Please join us.