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Friday, 7 September 2007

SPECIAL REPORT...

The permaculture papers

TOWARDS AN URBAN PERMACULTURE

A few modest ideas for adapting, applying and teaching Permaculture in the city

IT WAS THE 1990s and we had been teaching the Permacultre Design Course (PDC) for some years. The notion that parts of the course were a sometimes uncomfortable fit with the lives of many of our students was an observation that dawned over time.

These were urban people. Few aspired to a rural smallholding. There would be perhaps one, maybe two out of a class of between 12 and 20 who foresaw a move to the country. Even then, for most, the move was planned for some undefined time in the future. Most of the students planned to remain in the city where they had their livelihoods or where they were studying.

There was another observation that troubled us: our experience in Permaculture community organisations, in Permaculture projects in the city and in our work (Fiona in local government and myself in an overseas aid agency) told us that something critical was missing from the conventional PDC if it was to truly equip people to take action in their communities. These were the skills to work effectively with others, such as those to do with conflict resolution, decision making, team direction-setting and solving problems. There was an evident need for a basic level of training in creative thinking.

So it was that we extended our part-time PDC from an inadequate 72 hours to over 100. This gave time to familiarise students with people skills and others to do with group decision making. In this, we found the work of Edward de Bono and Stephen Covey, as well as the group skills instruction of Maria McGuire from the Institute for Cultural Affairs (now with Unfolding Futures in Sydney) influential.

We urbanised the PDC by adapting elements in the conventional course, such as Permaculture's zoned landuse system, to the urban environment. A focus on intensive, small scale, high productivity gardening as well as other ways to source food in the city were introduced as was other material to do with town planning and waste minimisation.

It was this experience as a training provider in the PDC (as well as in earlier 'introduction to Permaculture' courses at community colleges), in teaching organic gardening for a community college and in Permaculture projects in the city that forms the background to the following proposal to urbanise Permaculture application and education in the city.

Consider social and demographic change

There are a number of considerations for those planning to implement Permaculture projects, develop training curricula or provide Permaculture education in our larger cities.

The considerations refer especially to metropolitan cities like Sydney and may be modified for smaller centres. The metropolitan centres, however, are the locus of our society, the places that demographers tell us are set to grow in population and political influence. For Permaculture educators to ignore them would be to disregard what will be the lived reality for most of the people in the country (Sydney already holds a quarter of the Australian population and is growing at an average of 1000 new residents a week).

Time poverty

Urban people are, for the most part, time poor.

Long working hours, time taken to commute to and from work, family commitments and the many other robbers of time leave little of it to spend on improving our lives. Weekends - for those who do not spend them at work - are spent recovering from the working week, relaxing and socialising with friends.

This is the reality of urban life that must be recognised as a limiting factor by Permaculture activists and educators.

Career focus

Working life is all-of-life for many urban people. This was disclosed in a 2004 book by two Australian Financial Review journalists entitled Better Than Sex: How a Whole Generation Got Hooked on Work (2004; Trinca H, Fox C; Random House, Australia ISBN: 1740511964).

The authors found that work, for many, is all-enveloping. They talk of workers being encouraged to psychologically clock on 24x7 and found community, family, religion and intimate relationships peripheral to working life. Their's is a life where the borders between work and play are blurred, a world where work dominates.

In these circumstances, and they seem to be relevant more to younger workers, people are understandably reluctant to spend money and time on training that has no apparent benefit to their career. Their career-focus means working long hours then spending time off recuperating and socialising.

Travel

Travel to and from work, friends and other destinations is a factor of big city life.

Travel takes time; the workplace is often distant from where people live. Ideally, we would live in a village-like environment where the workplace is within walking or cycling distance of the home - but this is the ideal, not the reality.

Travel is necessary because:

• modern business and industry 'clusters' in particular locations; the city has information technology, educational and financial clusters, for instance; clustering helps to develop new ideas, services and products through the informal exchange of those who work in the industries; a clustered environment is a productive environment
• workplaces, recreational and cultural facilities are not evenly distributed across the cityscape; they are located according to the laws of urban and economic geography and government policy
• the city is stratified with areas characterised by industry (eg. Sydney's 'global belt' of 'new economy' technology, educational, financial, media and entertainment businesses linked directly to the global economy; the middle-ring suburbs of 'old economy' industry), by residential characteristic (eg. families, many who are first home buyers in the newer, outer-urban regions; the more affluent in high-price suburbs; lower socio-economic residents clustered in particular inner-urban areas or middle-ring suburbs; middle-class professional workers in the old suburbs of the inner-west); commuter satellite cities such as Gosford, Campbelltown, Wollongong and the villages of the Blue Mountains - these form part of the greater conurbation of the Sydney-Newcastle-Wollongong axis, much as the Brisbane-Noosa-Gold Coast is developing as a major conurbation.

These are the realities of the metropolitan city. The situation of major regional cities and of smaller cities and towns will differ, however Permaculture, if it is to be effective, must address the circumstances of the majority - and that is the big cities such as Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide - the places where most of the Australian population lives.

Declining household size

The old model of the 'nuclear family' - a nucleus of parents with two or more children - is fading. It is being replaced by smaller, three-person families (parents plus a single child) and, increasingly, by two and single-person households. This development has been verified by social researchers and the Australian Census.

The declining size of the household, especially the substantial increase in one and two-person households over the past twenty years, has important implications for Permaculture educators and designers:

• the traditional Australian house with large garden is no being built in metropolitan cities; it has been reduced by medium density development and urban consolidation and is not the preferred housing model for smaller households; the traditional house in large garden is found mainly in the middle-ring suburbs of Sydney although it is likely more widespread in other cities; newer, outer-urban development offers large houses on small blocks, reducing the opportunity for productive home gardens
• one and two-person households are creating the need for social space for informal interaction
• smaller households encourage medium density housing, opening the opportunity for Permaculture activists to promote the Scandanavian co-housing model of urban development.

Demographic change

Demographer, Bernard Salt, first identified the move of significant numbers of people to the cities and coasts (Salt B, 2001 [updated 2003]; The Big Shift; Hardie Grant Books, Melbourne). His findings were later verified in the 2002 Australian Census.

Salt says the move is so significant that a distinctive 'coastal culture' is in the making and is associated with the depopulation of inland rural areas. Sharing this demographic dominance with the coasts will be the big cities which, too, are to grow. The populations and businesses of small rural towns are being absorbed into what Salt calls the rural 'sponge cities', larger centres that grow at the expense of smaller towns.

For governments and planners, as well as for Permaculture educators and designers, the challenge is to focus their work where it can make most impact and that must increasingly be the cities and coastal settlements. Developing models and strategies to increase the environmental and social sustainability of these centres is where that focus shoud be.

The future of Permaculture training and design in the city

What follows are a few brief proposals of how Permaculture education could be adapted to major urban centres and the needs of their residents, especially in the metropolitan cities. They presuppose a Permaculture course that runs over several semesters, perhaps two years or more in the manner of certificate courses (certificate Level Four courses in the Australian vocational training system).

The ideas may appear fanciful, even alien to some Permaculture designers and educators, however - as stated at the start of this paper - they are based on observations of and involvement in Permaculture projects in the city and on some years experience in teaching the PDC and introductory Permaculture courses, as well as comments made by other Permaculture teachers and activists. They are also based on observations made while working in the overseas aid industry, a vocation that Permaculture graduates sometimes aspire to.

In looking at how Permaculture could be adapted to the environment of our major urban centres - and perhaps to other cities overseas (about half the global population now lives in urban centres) - the topics are divided into:

• 'hard systems' - those to do with the physical, natural and built environments; an analogy is the hardware of a computer system, the physical objects like CPU, screen, printer, scanner etc
• 'soft systems' - those on the personal level dealing with analysing, creating innovative ideas, communicating, thinking, attitude, approach - and the methodologies that could enhance group processes; soft systems are akin to the operating system of a computer, the embodied knowledge base, software and the programmes that control the hardware and make the thing run - the better the software, the better the performance, the better the result.

Hard systems

Proposal 1: Focus on food systems, not gardening

By focusing on the urban food system rather than solely on gardening, Permaculture educators and activists will relate to a greater number of people.

The reason for this wider focus (it must be acknowledged that some Permaculture educators already introduce students to the 'alternative' local food system; however, the focus needs to be ascribed in curricula) is that fewer people have access to gardening space in the city. This is due to:

• the preference for apartment and townhouse living of a greater number of people, especially one and two-person households
• government policies on urban consolidation that, in Sydney, have boosted the population of suburbs and reduced space for home gardens
• the shortage of land for future urban expansion
• the small land blocks with large houses characteristic of newer, outer-urban development.

Additional to this reduced access to gardening space is the fact that many people, while they may have an interest in food, are not interested in growing it. Home and community gardening, however, remain pertinent to Permaculture training because they are popular urban activities.

The proposed focus would place home and community food gardening into the broader context of urban food systems that include the so-called 'alternative' food system comprised of food cooperatives, farmer's markets, small organic food businesses, community-supported agriculture (CSA) - 'subscription farms' - organic home delivery services and so on and the conventional agriculture of supermarkets, local groceries, urban-fringe market gardens and agricultural produce imported into the city. Such a comprehensive analysis would make it possible for students to choose their food source carefully.

Such sources would have to include the supermarkets which stock an increasing range of organic foods. Supermarkets are the only source of food for many for whom community food systems simply do not exist within easy reach - and supermarkets cater for the time-deprived urban resident. Considering the distance a food product has travelled ('food miles') and the energy embodied in a product by transport and manufacture would make for informed buying.

A Permaculture education focused on the urban food system would provide:

• a factual analysis and critique of the conventional food system including familiarisation with problems ascribable to conventional agriculture, such as land degradation and issues of international trade
• a comparative analysis with the alternative local food system
• encouragement of students to participate in the local food system and to initiate elements of the system where they live
• familiarisation with the urban trend towards local, fresh foods (and the role of farmer's markets, CSA's and other initiatives that are the means of delivery of local foods to city consumers) and the 'Slow Food' movement
• familiarisation with the 'fair trade' industry to assist informed buying
• the principles of sustainable agriculture.

Teaching the latter point could replace teaching of Permaculture's zone system of rural landuse (zones 3,4,5) as this is of less value to urban people.

As already mentioned, community gardens are an appropriate social and food technolgy for Permaculture due to their role in the provision of fresh food, their social role in providing safe space for informal contact and purposeful recreation and because they bring public control over land. There also exists potential for the development of rooftop gardens on suitable buildings, perhaps making use of organic wastes converted into fertiliser - compost - or perhaps making use of organic hydroponic techniques.

Limiting factors on urban market gardening and community gardening include:

• competition for land with other community-based groups, housing development and business
• soil contamination due to past landuse
• objections to noise and odour by neighbours
• overshadowing by surrounding buildings.

A focus on the so-called 'alternative' urban food system in Permaculture education would help prepare the territory for the development of community food systems in big cities and country towns.

Proposal 2: Educate and promote the value of resource-efficient building design

The city is a dynamic and convivial place full of opportunity and services not available in smaller centres. It is where most people prefer to live because there they can make a livelihood and utilise their skills. Sure, it can be dirty and dangerous, but this is a secondary consideration for most of those who choose to live here. The city has the density of population that makes specialised services and products financially viable and that accounts for its specialist bookstores, cafes, cultural facilities and shops.

At the same time the city is a sink for the products of its hinterland and from further afield, yet this is as it has been through history. Only now are the cities starting to close the loop on wastes and to reuse and recycle rather than being a conduit for incoming goods, the output of which is waste.

In NSW, progressive local government formed partnerships with the state government's Sustainable Energy Development Authority to establish policies on energy efficient building in their municipalities. Now, the NSW government has made such policy state-wide through the Building Sustainability Index - BASIX . The benefit lies in mandating a minimum standard of energy performance and water conservation.

For Permaculture educators and advocates, legislating energy efficiency does not mean they no longer have to address the issue. The role of educators in courses or in the wider community educational context is to:

• fill an advocacy role, in states that do not mandate energy efficiency, to promote the adoption of policy; while this may take permaculturists into the world of advocacy and lobbying where some will feel uncomfortable and deny that such activities have anything to do with Permaculture, the more enlightened will recognise that this is the way beneficial legislation is adopted
• educate students and community association members in the principles and techniques of energy efficient building design and associated areas such as lifecycle analysis of products and the embodied energy of building materials.

Investigating and promoting the means of renovating existing housing stock to comply with minimum energy and water efficiency standards would prove worthwhile because most home owners remodel existing buildings rather than demolish and rebuild. The mooted water efficiency labelling of houses at time of resale, similar to that applied to electrical appliances to indicate energy efficiency, may provide further stimulus to resource efficient building design.

Worthy of inclusion in course material as case studies may be energy and water-efficient medium density developments such as the passive solar Kogarah Town Centre apartments and the Stringybark Grove townhouse development. The Kogarah development is a mixed residential/commercial seven-storey, U-spaped structure with solar aspect that is roofed with photovoltaic panels (awnings are also photovoltaic and glass skylights have photoelectric cells embedded in them). The Stringybark Grove development measured the embedded energy of all the materials used and is passive solar in design.

The city is essentially a built environment. Improving the resource performance of buildings goes a long way to making the metropolis a sustainable habitat.

Proposal 3: Provide instruction in gardening suited to small urban home gardens

Despite having less access to land than previous generations, there remains considerable interest in organic gardening in the city, even when it means only a few pots on the apartment balcony. The main constraints of urban gardening are space and shading from surrounding structures and vegetation.

Permaculturists providing advice or training in urban gardening might pay attention to:

• intensive gardening systems that offer high-productivity; this implies a focus on the improvement of soil fertility and a knowledge of gardening systems such as the Biointensive/ French Intensive method, the 'Square Foot Garden' method developed in the US and the Potager gardening methods found in Europe
• container gardening for balconies and small courtyards.

The traditional Australian garden with a detached house on its own large block of land will progressivley become an artefact of the past. It can still be found, mainly in the older suburbs away from the inner-urban core with its medium density housing and small gardens. Contemporary detached housing, especially that of the newer, outer-urban zone, typically consists of a large house on a small block of land.

This brings into question Permaculture's zoned landuse system when applied to major urban centres. The system usually classifies land on the basis of distance from the dwelling and the use it is put to:

• zone 3,4 and 5 are generally applied to farms and include landuses such as commercial cropping or orcharding, agroforestry and a zone for nature conservation
• zones 1 and 2 are found in the home garden and consist of the intensive annual vegetable and culinary herb beds close to the house with zone 2 set aside for perennial vegetables, long-term annual crops such as potato and corn as well as fruit trees and shrubs more distant from the house.

The reality of small urban gardens is that zones 1 and 2 are combined. Perhaps it is time to consider the home garden as a unity rather than as separate zones and look for design solutions to combine fruit, perennial and annual crops so that root and space competition is reduced. Europe's Potager gardens might provide a few clues.

Intensive urban systems require regular inputs of soil nutrients in the form of compost, but even this can be difficult for small households that do not produce much by way of organic wastes. It seems that nutrients may have to be moved from one place in the city to another.

Maintaining soil fertility also calls for a repertoire of techniques, not just the sheet mulching that is commonly taught in Permaculture courses. Single and double digging, both of which are traditional organic gardening techniques, have a place when a fast boost to soil fertility is needed. An approach that uses techniques suited to soil characteristics is called for rather than reliance on a single method.

Proposal 4: Develop convivial 'third places'

'Third places' are locations where people meet informally. They are congenial to social interaction, itself a component of community-building.

The term was invented by social researcher, Ray Oldenburg, and described in his book Great Good Places (1989, 1999; Marlowe and Company, NY). Oldenburg uses the term to differentiate such places from 'first places' - the home, and 'second places' - the workplace.

He identifies successful third places as coffee shops, cafes and restaurants, hair dressers and libraries. We could add community gardens to Oldenburg's list as they more than adequately fulfil his criteria which includes the need for third places to be cheap to visit.

It is the social interaction - the discussion, the creative thinking and collaboration, the generation of ideas and the like - that are the critical function of third places. Out of informal interaction come the initiatives that create a sense of place, a sense of belonging and involvement, a sense of community.

Sydney-based social researcher, Hugh Mackay, reports that his research discloses the demand for something similar. Noting the declining size of the Australian household, Mackay proposes that new developments incorporate what he calls a 'village green', a venue for informal interaction or quiet sitting and observing. He says we have a 'herding instinct', a need to be with others even if it is just sitting in a coffee bar in the company of others without interacting with them.

What Oldenburg and Mackay are proposing goes further that some sterile community centre and is a great deal more than the shopping mall can provide. A criteria for third places is that they offer the opportunity for conviviality. Yet, to do this, they have to attract a sufficient number of people and be easy of access. Oldenburg says they should be within walking distance of the home or on a public transport route.

Incorporating the concept of the third place in Permaculture training and design would be justified as the evidence suggests it is useful to building a sense of community. Designers might deliberately design such places into their ecovillages and consider 'Permaculture centres' that fulfil the role.

Proposal 5: Develop livelihoods

Vocations and livelihoods, whether self-employed, as an employee or as a voluntary activity play an important role in today's world.

The need to make a livelihood has been discussed in Permaculture but little progress has been made on developing solutions. Livelihoods are one of those topics that come up at Permaculture convergences but that have too little or no time devoted to their discussion.

Newcastle University academic and permaculturists, Terry Leahy, sums up the current situation regarding Permaculture and livelihood.

"The Design Certificate is intended to qualify you to put yourself on the market with the skills of a permaculturist", writes Terry.

"However, at the same time, most of the people who have actually got jobs with this certificate are working as teachers of permaculture and their students are people who are amateur farmers and gardeners."

All too true. Few employers stipulate the possession of a Permaculture Design Certificate - the only one I have knowledge of was a part-time position as community garden coordinator in Western Sydney, and the certificate was only a preferred, not a necessary qualification.

It remains to be seen whether the incoming accredited certificates in Permaculture will change this situation. The questions that will be asked by employers is this:

• what exactly does the certificate qualify the holder to do?
• does it offer better qualifications than specialised training?

Today, there are new positions, many with local government, that would suit Permaculturists who have the required tertiary (mainly university) qualifications - sustainable development officers, waste education officers, triple bottom line officers and so on. None of these are Permaculture positions in their own right but all of them act in areas once the province of Permaculture.

Northey Street City Farm in Brisbane has taken another direction in developing 'green' livelihoods by becoming the venue for the government's 'work for the dole' scheme and similar initiatives of the state government. Farm members have taken positions as trainers. Northey Street's weekly farmer's market supports the livelihoods of organic farmers by providing a direct-to-the-public outlet for their products.

Northey Street was not the first to offer a paid position in community garden work. That was Young Earth Community Garden in Sydney which employed Permaculture a graduate of one of our PDCs as coordinator. Her role involved not only training in gardening techniques. Equally important was work with people, evidence that training in people skills (the soft systems that follow) is important to Permaculture graduates.

Cultivating Community, a community-based organisation contracted to the Victorian government to supply coordination and support services to community gardens, now employs a number of people part-time.

Perhaps it is this do-it-yourself area that Permaculture graduates will have to look to in search of work. The risk is that they would operate in the community sector in what has been a predominately voluntary area. The risk is in artificially 'professionalising' the training and participatory design that is at the core of community gardening and similar endeavours and co-opting the role of volunteers.

Employment positions remain few, so Permaculture educators might widen its ambit by discussing ideas such as those of Marcus Letcher about what he calls the 'modular work' approach. Letcher recognises that casual work is a fixture (around one-third of Australians earn their living through casual work) and that a positive approach would be to systematise it in such a way as to make worthwhile the further development of 'core' skills.

Developing livelihoods in Pemaculture is a vexed issue requiring more thought, however discussion of the subject in Permaculture training and in Permaculture work in general would indicate that it is a part of the design system and a necessary consideration in developing socially sustainable systems.

Soft systems

Proposal 6: Develop project management skills

There are two things that account for the inability of Permaculture projects to persist over the long term. One of these is a lack of project management skills. The PDC is already crammed with material and, without extending the course, there is no likelihood of providing a basis in simple project management.

Project management is the body of knowledge that turns ideas into reality. It is an important 'doing' skill, a framework for conceptualising, planning and carrying out a programme of activities that lead to a defined goal. Education in basic project management - instruction in a model that can be adapted to different project situations - would be a boon for students of the Permaculture design system. It would also prove of benefit to them in the wider world of employment as project management skills are general in nature and applicable over a range of work situations.

Educational content in project management for urban Permaculture design students would familiarise them with techniques of analysis, generating creative ideas and communication within a context of project visualisation > planning > implementation > closing and evaluating.

If these qualities - analysis, decision making, communication - are familiar that is no surprise. They are the same skills that are required in the workplace for any role assuming a level of responsibility. Conceptualisation, planning, monitoring and evaluating are companion skills that would allow Permaculture designers to set up and manage a project.

References:

A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge;1996; Project Management Institute Standards Committee; USA (ISBN 1-880410-12-5).

To Do, Doing, Done - A Creative Approach to Managing Projects and Effectively Finishing What Matters Most; Snead GL, Wycoff J, 1997; Fireside (Simon and Schuster), NY (ISBN 0-684-81887-6).

Proposal 7: Provide training in people skills

People skills have seldom been part of Permaculture training and are a necessary companion to project management skills. The point of proposing the development of people skills in urban Permaculture training and field work is to boost the chance of success of projects and to make possible a more participatory approach.

Working in Permaculture in the cities is essentially about working in teams. Working in teams implies a participatory approach if due process and democratic participation are to form part of the permaculture methodology.

The types of people skills that would be of benefit include decision making, problem solving, resolution of conflict and direction setting for organisations. A minimum competency in such skills would also prove useful in community organisations and the workplace.

A comprehensive range of participatory techniques that would prove useful to Permaculture are to be found within the Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) toolkit employed by development aid agencies.

Proposal 8: Address quality of life as a Permaculture focus

Permaculture must be about more than utilitarian things if it is to truly be integrated into the lives of urban people. Issues that have developed around 'qualitative' aspects of modern urban living, such as work/family/life balance, the daily experience of the workplace, the quality of the built environment and so on are becoming political issues if they have not yet fully achieved that status. As such, they provide clues to Permaculture advocates and educators as to how they may gain the attention of urban people.

Permaculture might be about the design of habitation but to fully become a whole life system it must address take control over their own lives.

There are techniques to do this but, once again, they are likely to be rejected by some Permaculture advocates as either nothing to do with the design system or as too time consuming and peripheral to spend training time on. For sure, the techniques could not be delved into in depth in Permaculture training, however familiarising trainees and community group members with them is another matter.

Such things are considered important by urban people because those mentioned directly affect their quality of life whereas 'traditional' Permaculture concerns such as food and gardening are not seen to be so pertinent (there is no food shortage in the city, food remains comparatively cheap and those wanting fresh or local food can get it).

Evidence that quality of life issues are treated quite seriously in the city comes from Conversations for the Twenty-First Century, a community discussion forum that attracted numerous participants in the city several years ago. When the coordinator called a discussion on the quality of working life, he anticipated accommodating the group in the living room of his apartment. He had to change the venue when over 140 people registered to attend. A lively conversation followed and follow-up meetings were organised. He had hit on a hot issue.

Permaculture would not have to invent techniques to provide a sense of empowerment in life; they already exist and can be found in the writings of Stephen Covey, Edward de Bono and others. What they all propose is that the use of simple techniques can make individuals more personally effective in their lives, give them control over how they use time and set them on course towards personal goals.

The city is the future

This list of modest proposals includes suggestions for social and personal development within the ethical framework imposed by Permaculture and using, as practically as possible, the sets of principles developed by Bill Mollison and David Holmgren.

The reason for proposing that social and personal development be incorporated with the development of the built, agricultural and natural environments as a body of training is because evidence suggests that quality of life issues are important to urban people. To ignore that is to ignore reality - this is the way things are in the city.

Permaculture is admirably situated for extension into a whole life system, a comprehensive framework in which the individual can relate to the neighbourhood and the city. The principles are broad and flexible enough.

The formulation of a distinctive strand of urban Permacultue training and application would best be done by people who live in the cities, people for whom the city is the daily lived reality. It would need people from the smaller regional centres and the large towns too, if a broad body of knowledge and practice were to be developed for a range of urban situations.

Our cities are set to grow in population and physical size. Permaculture design must acknowledge this and start work on ideas to influence that growth.