Designing for resilience: permaculture as a transdisciplinary methodology in applied resilience research

Abstract

ABSTRACT. In this paper I examine the relationship between resilience research and permaculture, a system for the design and creation of human habitats, organizations, and projects rooted in ethics of sustainability, well-being, and equity. I argue that applying permaculture as a tool in research design can enable research to contribute more directly, immediately, and effectively to building community resilience. I explore this argument with reference to three case studies of research projects that involve permaculture as both research topic and methodology, at multiple geographical scales. Each of these cases provides evidence that research activities contribute to community resilience, and that this can be attributed to the application of permaculture principles and methods in research design. In particular, permaculture embeds iterative processes of action learning able to enhance adaptive capacity within communities in which it is applied. This includes transdisciplinary communities that mobilize around specific research interests and communities of place and/or practice that participate in transdisciplinary research. I suggest that this may be an instance of a general situation whereby research both incorporates and enhances existing learning processes that contribute to adaptive capacity and community resilience. I tentatively propose for such collaborations the label "Mode 3" resilience research, and suggest further research be done to identify and examine further cases in both permaculture and other fields of resilience research.Key Words: community resilience; participatory action research; permaculture; transdisciplinary research; transformation INTRODUCTION: COMMUNITY RESILIENCE AND MODE 2 SCIENCEIn this paper I examine the relationship between permaculture and resilience research. Specifically, I explore how social permaculture can form the basis of transdisciplinary methodologies in which research directly and deliberately contributes to efforts to build community resilience. This exploration draws on three case studies of research collaborations in which I was personally involved. I locate the argument in a wider analysis of the nature of participation in resilience research and the methodological, epistemological, and political implications of collaboration with community-based resilience practitioners. In conclusion I suggest that increased levels of critical introspection concerning normative aspects is necessary for full realization of the applied potential of resilience research, and point toward a possible new orientation that foregrounds these reflexive dimensions.

The German Permaculture Community from a Community of Practice Perspective

“…Most commonly, permaculture is seen in relation to agro-ecological farming and the design of regenerative, closed-loop systems, where it first originated from. However, it has evolved to a broader application in practice as an ecologically informed holistic planning and design system for complex systems [49,63,64] that can be applied to ecosystems as well as social systems [65]. Although it is difficult to give a concise definition of permaculture it can be roughly outlined in terms of four interrelated characteristics [63,66].…”

“…In 2015, the UK Permaculture Association funded the Permaculture International Research Network (PIRN), by now counting 700 researchers from 60 countries. With this, the network is also establishing its own scientific body, documenting and critically reflecting on the established knowledge [64].…”

Beyond Supporting Access to Land in Socio-Technical Transitions. How Polish Grassroots Initiatives Help Farmers and New Entrants in Transitioning to Sustainable Models of Agriculture

“…The origins of the concept can be traced back to the works of Mollison and Holmgren [36] who coined the term from the phrase "permanent agriculture", which was subsequently broadened to signify "permanent culture". In consequence, permaculture evolved into "a design methodology for sustainable human habitats that takes inspiration from ways in which natural systems self-organize for resilience and productivity" [37]. The practices that follow from this assumption are based on a set of 12 basic principles oriented on ecosystem mimicry (i.e., making as much use of existing ecosystem relations as possible) and system optimization that are promoted within a widely dispersed, non-institutionalized permaculture movement active around the world ( [35,37].…”

Developing the Transformative Capacity of Social Innovation through Learning: A Conceptual Framework and Research Agenda for the Roles of Network Leadership

“…While certain key individuals are often important, network leadership is usually very different from traditional top-down leadership and involves a more distributed, emergent, collective leadership among various actors at different levels of the network [3,8,58,59]. Network leadership may thus be seen as a distributed practice of actors including: members of local SI initiatives (e.g., a Transition Town in a particular city), actors in network organizations at national and transnational levels (e.g., Transition Network and its national coordination hubs), as well as meta-networks that foster exchanges and collaborations across networks (e.g., The European network for community-led initiatives on climate change and sustainability (ECOLISE), which includes Transition Network, Global Ecovillage Network, the Permaculture movement and many others) [60].…”