Perma/Culture: : Imagining Alternatives in an Age of Crisis

The keyword of this book’s title, "Perma/Culture," alludes to and plays on "permaculture," an international movement that can provide a framework for navigating the multiple "other worlds" within a broader environmental ethic. In an effort to introduce the concept of ‘Perma/Culture’ as a viable protocol for designing agricultural systems that mimic their natural counterparts, this edited collection brings together essays from an international team of scholars, activists and artists in which to provide a critical introduction to the ethicopolitical and cultural elements around the concept of ‘Perma/Culture’. These multidisciplinary essays include a varied landscape of sites and practices, from postcolonial bioregionalism among coffee farmers in India to African American back-to-the-land movements; from an account of the rewards and difficulties of building community in Transition Towns to a description of the ad hoc infrastructure of a fracking protest camp.

In the face of what seems like a concerted effort to destroy the only planet that can sustain us, critique is an important tool. It is in this vein that most scholars have approached environmental crisis. While there are numerous texts that chronicle contemporary issues in environmental ills, there are relatively few that explore the possibilities and practices which work to avoid collapse and build alternatives.

The keyword of this book’s full title, ''Perma/Culture,'' alludes to and plays on ''permaculture'', an international movement that can provide a framework for navigating the multiple ''other worlds'' within a broader environmental ethic. This edited collection brings together essays from an international team of scholars, activists and artists in order to provide a critical introduction to the ethico-political and cultural elements around the concept of ‘Perma/Culture’. These multidisciplinary essays include a varied landscape of sites and practices, from readings from ecotopian literature to an analysis of the intersection of agriculture and art; from an account of the rewards and difficulties of building community in Transition Towns to a description of the ad hoc infrastructure of a fracking protest camp.

Offering a number of constructive models in response to current global environmental challenges, this book makes a significant contribution to current eco-literature and will be of great interest to students and researchers in Environmental Humanities, Environmental Studies, Sociology and Communication Studies.