01041 Invisible Structure Toolbox

Memes

Memes are fundamental units of cultural, structural, social, and personal knowledge.

Meme theory is a bit controversial and some will say it is all just made up. Well, that’s true of a lot of things. If they are useful, we use them for what they are useful for, irrespective of the detail that “somebody made it up” deep in the mists of time and antiquity. This is not meant to be an academic discussion of the validity of meme theories. It is a lay discussion about the application of permaculture design principles to invisible structures.

In that specific and particular context, the concept of memes is useful for the study and analysis of invisible structures. It is a map description of how ideas move around and influence behaviors. This gives us clues about ideas for changing behaviors to promote more sustainable ways of living and being. Whenever we talk about maps, we have to remember that a map is not actually the territory. It is an interpretation of the territory from the viewpoint of the map-maker. That does not mean that maps have zero value, because they have lots of utility. It just means that we have to be careful in how we use them.

POP QUIZ! How many times have I said that some form of “the map is not the territory?” What does that frequency of reference suggest about the importance of the concept for permaculture design?

The word “meme” comes from Charles Dawkins 1976 book, The Selfish Gene. He shortened the Greek word mimene which means “something imitated.” Obviously he looked for a word that sounded a bit like “gene.” Thus, meme was the word. He didn’t invent the concept, He was its major transmitter in the 20th century.

The study of memes is not anywhere nearly as scientifically rigorous as the study of genes. Mapping the human genome is a relatively simple matter compared to mapping the human memene (if that is a word). That is not a commentary on the simplicity of genetic mapping, because that isn’t simple. It is a commentary on the extreme complexity and chaotic nature of memes and the human cultural artifacts we build with them.

Dawkins defined meme as a unit of cultural transmission.

Memes are to culture as genes are to human development.

One difference is that we can change our memes, whereas changing our genes is not practical at present. I guess maybe viruses are an exception.

NB: This is not a scientific discussion of genetics. It is a lay discussion of the application of permaculture design to invisible structures.

We can mix and match genes, such as happens with human reproduction, where the genes supplied by the mother and father determine the possible genetic universe for a baby.

Human beings replicate memes.

In doing so, we often change or modify them. Over time, some memes go extinct. People regularly create new memes. We could even say that there is a kind of natural selection that goes on with memes and we can certainly say that there is a natural succession that goes on with memes.

The human body transmits genes horizontally and vertically.

Parents give genes by inheritance to their children. Genes transmit horizontally through populations via viruses and other biological methods.

Memes transmit in the same way.

Children are born into a family with a certain set of genes inherited from their parents. They inherit memes transmitted to them by their parents through the acts of child rearing and education.

There appears to be succession in memes. Things and situations that were once unthinkable are now commonplace.

Viruses have the ability to adapt genetic codes. That’s how we get multiple versions of the flu. Viruses attach to our cells via receptors. Our bodies adapt to virus by changing so that they can no longer attach to our cells. Viruses adapt to make sure they can still attach to cells.

Is this so different from what happens with memes?

If people like certain ideas, they will receive and process information in that context and that will influence their behavior.

If they aren’t receptive to certain ideas, they will erect defenses against them that will influence what they accept and how they behave.

When it comes to memes, permaculture, and invisible structures . . . we want to —

• Encourage memes of sustainability, conservation, frugality, community.
• Discourage memes of gluttony, waste, violence, despair.
• Use natural succession in memes to develop the situation to support movements toward more sustainability and resilience.

The Extended Family

The family is the basic unit of all societies. It exists in many forms. We are most familiar with the nuclear family, consisting of a mother, father, and children, or one parent raising children.

Individual nuclear families and single parent families may be part of larger extended families, consisting of grandparents, aunts, uncles, and any number of cousins of various degrees. Extended families can be linked by biology or adoption to others, and become clans or tribes sharing common bonds of support and care.

The family has a biological base, although biology is not necessary. There are many non-traditional families, tribes, and clans that form by adoption, not biology. An extended family may form among people who although not necessarily related by biology, come together based on convenience, necessity, or adoption as a united family that cares for each other and helps each other.

The ability of the conventional nuclear family of 3.1 people to live “independently’ on its own is an artifact of the age of cheap energy. As cheap energy goes away, so will the ability of the isolated nuclear family to live in isolation from an extended family, whether it is their biological extended family or a group that comes together for convenience or necessity. No one in the past was able to live in such an isolated way and it won’t be true in our future either. What is true for families with two parents in residence, is even more an issue for single parent households.

As we transition toward more sustainable ways of doing things, the extended family will make a major resurgence.

Bioregionalism

Bioregionalism is a system of governance and economics based on shared geography, which is referred to as a bioregion. Natural features such as watersheds and patterns of terrain, as well as human cultural factors, define bioregions. Bioregionalism takes the extended family (clan or tribe) to a larger level of social organization.

Bill Mollison’s thoughts on bioregionalism (from the Permaculture Design Manual):

• An association of residents of an identifiable geographic area.
• Boundaries may be a watershed, tribal, politics, custom.
• Needs a bioregional organization to organize projects and activities.
• Seen as a parallel structure to other invisible structures of governance.
• Bioregional land access tool box.

As we move toward a critical mass of persons interested in permaculture, bioregional governance can become a reality. In the meantime, the existing bioregional organizations do important work promoting more sustainable ways of living and doing.

The North American Bioregional Congress has met every other year since 1984. It can be found online at http://wp.bioregionalcongress.net/ .

Alternative Food Distribution Systems

There are several alternative economic distribution and production systems that can work to supply urban areas with the necessary supplies. Some of the important principles for developing urban food systems are:

• Form and function follow food.
• Eat with the season.
• Be temperate in your selection of foods.
• Prepare meals from basic ingredients.
• Develop the organization and systems of your kitchen.
• Recycle resources and energy Process and preserve foods at home.
• Practice food storage. Grow some of your own food.
• Buy foods from local farmers and producers.
• Never buy meats that originate in confined animal feeding operations.
• Design for economy.
• Design for resilience.
• Design for catastrophe.

The Small Plot Intensive farming model (http://www.spinfarming.com/ ) practices urban market gardening on small backyard plots. This links people with land, who don’t want to garden, with people who want to garden but have no land.

Community Supported Agriculture. These structures partner urban customers with rural producers. The customer pay part of the price up front, during the winter, thus providing seed money for the production and assuming some of the risk. Typically, everyone gets a weekly box with that week's harvest divided among the number of subscribers.

Urban gleaning. People may have fruit and nut trees on their properties and never harvest the fruit. Programs can promote gleaning such perennial food production assets on residential and business properties.

Farm-link systems. Various kinds of structures that make it easy for people in cities to buy food from farmers. Besides Community Supported Agriculture programs, these type of structure includes food cooperatives, farmers’ markets, roadside stands, etc.

Commonworks. An organization of individuals and families buys or leases land, and subleases it to its members for food production. A percent of the total revenues generated goes into a common fund for improvements.

Farm and garden clubs. Another variation on Community Supported Agriculture, various kinds of sharing agreements between urban residents and rural food producers.

Barter systems and labor exchanges. These go around the money system by promoting trade between individuals and households without the use of money.

The important alternative economic principle of these structures is CYCLING — keep money and resources cycling in a village to bioregion context. The goal is to minimize outflows of resources.

Ecovillage Development

An ecovillage is a group of people, consciously united in a network of mutual support. In the Design Manual, Mollison points out these advantages of being part of an ecovillage development:

• Harnesses the neighborhood principle of mutual aid.
• Reduce the need to earn.
• Earn within the village.
• Produce a surplus for export.
• Provide many of the nonmaterial needs of the people.
• Cooperate in enterprises and small associations.
• Provides privacy, access to tools, conservation, recreation, basic life essentials (shelter, food, water).

Mollison thinks that 100 to 500 income producers is a good size for such an effort. This would perhaps be 200 to 2,000 people. At the 3,000 level, he says there is a serious deterioration in the personalism of the activity. The Hutterites, a communal Christian organization, keep their villages below 300 total people. An ecovillage of 3,000 people could be composed of ten smaller groups of about 300 people.

There are a wide variety of legal and governance strategies that can be used to organize the eco-village, including housing cooperatives, consumer cooperatives, worker cooperatives, and land trusts, The balance required is to not manage too much, while managing enough for the common good of the group.

The ecovillage could start with restrictive covenants forbidding certain activities (like use of chemical fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides), and mandating other activities (like composting and recycling).

Depending on how the group starts, Mollison suggests that 30% of the sites be deeded to the village government, to be sold or developed or otherwise used for the benefit of the common works of the village.

Never build an ecovillage on virgin land in a pasture or forest. It makes no permaculture sense to destroy a natural ecology in order to build a human ecology. While people often think of moving to an eco-village in a rural area, the real ecological frontier is to develop ecovillages in the midst of existing towns and cities.

When we think about this kind of development in the urban context, it’s important to speak the language of urban planners. Rather than refer to something like this as an urban ecovillage, which is a concept that could possibly cause the heads of an urban planner to explode, we would speak of this as a Planned Unit Development, or “PUD.”

• A PUD is both a development method and a regulatory process.
• The design features a negotiation between local government authorities and the land owner(s) seeking to develop the PUD.
• Works with new construction and existing neighborhoods.
• Offers a model for an eco-village in the context of an urban area.
• It is familiar to planners and local government authorities. Familiar is good.

Location criteria for ecovillages. The traditional suggestion is to look for edge/transition eco-region areas. If people can access more than one eco-region, they will have an easier time developing their system.

OK, those criteria developed among people looking for locations for eco-villages in rural areas. What do they look like when applied to urban areas?

We first note that cities are themselves ecologies and contain their own versions of edge/transition areas. Look for areas of transition in urban areas, where there are both residences and small-scale commercial or even some kinds of smaller industrial development.

Declining industrial areas could become seriously fertile urban ecovillages. It would be easier to establish an Planned Unplugged Development in a commercial area. Think about the possibilities of converting a warehouse or a former industrial site to an Unplugged development.

New Urbanism is the concept that city planners would be familiar with. It prepares them to consider new options for urban planning such as we are talking here.