liberation permaculture course design cover sheet

7/27/2019 Liberation Permaculture Course Design Cover Sheet

1/3

Design Cover Sheet

Title of Design Liberation Permaculture Design Course

Dates of Design November 2012 January 2013, October 2013

Design Brief

The purpose of this design has been to design a course that focuses on placing permaculture

in a wider context of social change and introduces participants to the role of the design

process in ecological resistance and radical community organising.

It arose from my experience of applying design to community organising commitments, suchas Frack Free Somerset, as well as from my frustration with the permaculture movements

lack of acknowledgement of oppressive power relationships in our society and the root

causes of ecological destruction we continuously try to remediate in our permaculturework.

How this design meets the Assessment Criteria:

Demonstrating Design Skills

Overview of Design ProcessO Observations of permaculture movements & movements for social change

B Boundaries length of course & practical arrangements, niches & course content

R Resources that have contributed to course content and process

E Evaluation the analysis in the design process, with a key tool being a functions, systems,

elements, analysis

D Design placing the elements & preparing the course curriculum & timetable

I Implementation designing publicity materials & creating a course booking system,

eventually hosting the courseM Maintenance Utilising cycles of feedback to improve the course

Use of Permaculture Ethics, Principles & TheorySee final design report. In summary:

Use of permaculture ethics:o In designing the course People care & fairshares e.g. designing for

accessibility in the application process & in practical logistics and learningenvironment, ensuring a low-input learning environment (earth care).

o Integrating the permaculture ethics in the course content through:!

People care social justice! Earth care ecological resistance & restoration! Fairshares redistributing power

The permaculture principles are also a key part of course Bill Mollisons Principles were also utilised during the course design:

o Elements serving multiple functionso Functions supported by multiple elementso Stacking of functionso Minimum input for maximum output

Design Tools & Techniques Used

Functions, Systems, Elements Analysis OBREDIM Bill Mollisons Principles


2/3


Learning from, and developing your permaculture practice

Effectiveness of Design & Design OutcomesOutcomes once the course has taken place:

A three day course for 16 participants who will then be able to apply the basicprinciples of permaculture design to their own lives and community organising work.These will hopefully improve the effectiveness of their efforts.

There will also hopefully be group relationship building & empowerment, as well ascontribution to the knowledge commons about how permaculture intersects with

radical social change.

Personal & professional outcomes include:

Feeling empowered by embracing and cultivating my radical niche in thepermaculture movement

Meeting other allies who share my political beliefs Increased confidence in using the design process for non-land based designs Greater awareness of the power of the design process, especially the functions,

systems, elements analysis Ability to stretch my popular education skill flexes Design addition to portfolio

Evaluation Summary

What went well:

Using the functions, systems, elements analysis to really get a handle on a hugeamount of potential course content and making that manageable paid to undertake

this project and having access to resources such as office space, printer and so forth.

The Boundaries anchor point of the OBREDIM framework supported me to seemy radical niche and the need to optimise this and focus down the content to meet

the needs of this niche

The course design stacked well with my Gaia University work and with my organisergoals

What I would have done differently:

Dedicated time in 2013 to making the course happen, so that it could have beenimplemented and evaluated within my diploma

Costings SummaryCourse costs:

5 per person per night for camping 10 per person for food per day 10 whole course printing & photocopying Total = 570

Average costs per learner - 35.62 (based on 16 learners) sliding scale 10 - 65should generate a small surplus towards teaching.

Design costs: marginal printing costs

Learning Pathway Reflections

This design project was empowering because it gave me an opportunity to reallyintegrate my anarchist politics with my permaculture design work. It helped me to

feel whole on a personal level but also helped me feel clearer in how I want to

strategically engage in social change work.

One of the main benefits was really seeing the usefulness of functions, systems andelements as part of the analysis process, I now seem to apply this framework to

everything!



3/3

Applying permaculture in your own life

This design opportunity, if successful, will contribute to my right livelihood design, asI seek funding to repeat it.

This design process also helped me integrate my political beliefs and worldview intomy engagement with permaculture, which will hopefully now positively influence and

inform all of my future life decisions.How this design meets the Assessment Criteria:

Applying permaculture to your work and projectsAssessment categories engaged with through this design:

Education through the design of the course & its implementation Community Building as the focus of the course is on supporting organisers to

better work for community self reliance and self determination,

Dissemination through spreading permaculture through radical networks andraising awareness of the application of permaculture design to radical social change.

liberation permaculture course design cover sheet

Documents