Permaculture CoLab @ APC14: International Collaboration on Permaculture Education and Research

In this workshop at the 14th Australasian Permaculture Convergence in Canberra (16th-19th April 2018), Lachlan McKenzie and Ben Habib, with a little help from Ian Lillington, introduced Permaculture CoLab. The Permaculture Collaborative Laboratory (CoLab) is an online space to collaborate, a space to enhance the effectiveness of permaculture networks. Permaculture CoLab has adopted elements of the Constellation Framework and apply sociocratic principles in organising thematic working groups. Two of the constellations that have emerged from the CoLab process: the International Permaculture Education Network (IPEN) and the Permaculture International Research Network (PIRN). Full audio of the workshop is available here…

The International Permaculture Education Network’s goal is to help increase the coherence and effectiveness of permaculture education globally, to significantly expand permaculture’s positive impacts. To achieve this IPEN is working to create an international network and platform that allows permaculture education resources to be shared, translated, accessed, enriched and adopted by a global teaching and learning audience.

The Permaculture International Research Network (PIRN) is an international network of over 700 permaculture researchers in 60 countries, which aims to create an online network of permaculture researchers, facilitate new relationships and partnerships, facilitate collaborative international research projects, and support the dissemination of high quality permaculture research.

PIRN Functions Diagram (DRAFT)_29 Jan 2018

One of the key goals of this workshop was to harvest ideas and input for IPEN and PIRN, and to recruit new members to these constellations. One of the outcomes of the PIRN discussion group was the establishment of an Australian Permaculture Researchers Network group on Facebook, to connect Australian academic researchers working on permaculture-related research projects to share information, offer mentoring, and link with the broader international permaculture research community through PIRN.