Examines the permaculture ethics from the perspective of systems of power. Permaculture practice needs nourishing economic, social and cultural ground in which to take root, yet much of our society today is a desert in that respect. We need to incorporate an understanding of power into our social permaculture pattern literacy if we’re to turn that desert into a flourishing garden of Earth care, people care and fair share.
In Episode 5 of the Social Permaculture Online Bootcamp, Ben Habib explores how we are nested in webs of relationships with each other and with all of life on Earth, through different intersecting ecological, social and economic systems. Ben also introduces social permaculture “sectors” as a pattern language to help us locate ourselves in relation to the different inter-connected systems that influence our lives.
In Episode 3 of the Social Permaculture Online Bootcamp, Ben Habib explores reclaiming more control over our subsistence through gift economies and the commons, as a compliment to food production. This video’s activity prompts participants to create a basic “gift circle” as an easily replicable model of community-level exchange to obtain some of the things we need, outside of money economy. The objective is not just to obtain more of what we need through networks of mutual aid, but also to lay the foundation of sharing and reciprocity needed for larger-scale alternative economic systems for the post-COVID19 recovery and post-carbon transition.
In Episode 2 of Social Permaculture Online Bootcamp, Ben Habib confronts the feeling of overwhelm that many are feeling in the COVID-19 moment. Ben looks to the acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) framework for guidance, and specifically to a recent article “FACE COVID” published by renowned psychotherapist Russ Harris. Ben likes this model to help get grounded so that we can put one foot in front of the other and make the next decision.
In this first episode of the series, Ben Habib introduces the ‘Social Permaculture Online Bootcamp’. With an emphasis on transmutation, this series will explore issues, problems and anxieties associated with the COVID-19 crisis, and draw from insights from social permaculture and beyond to think about how we might respond.
In this presentation at APSA 2019, Ben offers a critical exploration of permaculture as a design methodology, system of ethics, community of practice, and social movement, which function as a vehicle for sustainability transitions and practice of a materialist politics. He also encourages academics of environmental politics to reflect on the appropriate balance of research, sustainability practice and environmental activism demanded by the urgent predicament of global climate and ecological crisis.
Earlier this month the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released a sobering special report arguing that globally we a decade to complete greenhouse mitigation measures, to limit the global temperature […]
As part of my session on The Economy and Economic Regeneration Strategies in the permaculture design course at CERES Community Environment Park, we spend some time teasing out what an […]
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 […]
On 19th April 2018 I conducted a workshop on my research project exploring permaculture as a transnational social movement at the 14th Australasian Permaculture Convergence, hosted at the Greenhills Centre […]
Thank you to Prof Tessa Morris-Suzuki for inviting me to act as a discussant in the Living Politics: Self-Help and Autonomous Action in East Asia and Beyond, hosted by the […]
On day eight of our CERES Global Sustainable Development, Permanent Culture and Un-learning tour to India, our group collaborated in a day of permaculture discussions and garden work with our friends at Shikshantar. In a co-creative process, the CERES Global group and members of the Shikshantar community learned about permaculture ethics and design principles, explored visions for the garden on the Shikshantar premises, and got our hands dirty working on innovations to bring the garden to life, building relationships and learning new things about ourselves and each other in the process. However, our yield from the day was not necessarily what we expected going in.
It is not often one comes away absolutely mesmerised from talking to a person, but such was our experience on this day. On day seven of our CERES Global Sustainable Development, Permanent Culture and Un-learning tour to India, a small number of our group visited with Kishore Saint, a retired geographer and friend of Shikshantar. Kishore-gi shared with us some of his life experiences living in Africa, the United States and the United Kingdom, reflected on insights into community he gained from interacting with tribal peoples in Rajasthan, and concluded with an exhortation for us to change the world by looking within ourselves.
On day six of our CERES Global Sustainable Development, Permanent Culture and Un-learning tour to India we visited a municipal waste dump on the outskirts of Udaipur. Dump sites are always the dirty little secret of industrial development and commerce. They are the hidden landscapes of every city, a landscape so toxic and forbidding to life. In the Udaipur dump site, however, a community of “rag pickers” live and work in the mounds of refuse, earning a living from picking and selling recyclable materials from the waste piles.
On day four of our CERES Global Sustainable Development, Permanent Culture and Un-learning tour to India we visited a small-scale organic farm and a migrating camel caravan on our way back to Udaipur from Malari village. In these engagements our group learned more about traditional organic farming and animal husbandry methods, along with the unique cultures of our hosts. Their hospitality in sharing food and friendship was greatly appreciated, a model of gift culture in action.
On day four of our CERES Global Sustainable Development, Permanent Culture and Un-learning tour to India we visited a village called Malari, 100 km north of Udaipur. In a day of fascinating interactions, we learned about the local dairy and herding economies, got some hands-on experience with local farming practices, enjoyed warm impromptu hospitality from our village hosts, and shared in a transcendental experience of dance and music.
On day three of our CERES Global Sustainable Development, Permanent Culture and Un-learning tour to India, our guides from Shikshantar—Vishal, Manish and Nishtha—led us on a fascinating journey through the old city of Udaipur. The winding alleyways, bustling markets, colourful buildings and diverse people, are collectively woven together in a rich tapestry of stories and history. On foot is the best way to experience the richness of these stories and notice things you never would have time to see transiting via faster modes of transportation.
On day two of our CERES Global Sustainable Development, Permanent Culture and Un-learning tour to India we visited the Shikshantar People’s Institute for Re-thinking Education and Development. Shikshantar is an applied research institute dedicated to catalysing radical transformation of education. Shikshantar was founded as a jeevan andolan (life movement) to challenge the hierarchical, colonial culture of education.
From 2nd-12th December 2017 I co-facilitated a CERES Global tour to India, themed around sustainable development, permanent culture and un-learning. My focus for the tour was to collect data for […]
On 29th November 2017 Dr Benjamin Habib conducted a workshop on his research into permaculture as a transnational social movement at the 2017 International Permaculture Convergence, hosted at Polam Farm […]
