Design Cover Sheet

Title of Design Dates of Design Design Brief

Liberation Permaculture Design Course November 2012 January 2013, October 2013

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, such as 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 permaculture work.

How this design meets the Assessment Criteria: Demonstrating Design Skills Overview of Design Process
O 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 course M Maintenance Utilising cycles of feedback to improve the course

Use of Permaculture Ethics, Principles & Theory

See 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 learning environment, 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 functions o Functions supported by multiple elements o Stacking of functions o Minimum input for maximum output Design Tools & Techniques Used
Functions, Systems, Elements Analysis OBREDIM Bill Mollisons Principles

How this design meets the Assessment Criteria: Learning from, and developing your permaculture practice Effectiveness of Design & Design Outcomes
Outcomes once the course has taken place: A three day course for 16 participants who will then be able to apply the basic principles 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 as contribution 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 the permaculture 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 huge amount 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 see my 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 organiser goals What I would have done differently: Dedicated time in 2013 to making the course happen, so that it could have been implemented and evaluated within my diploma

Costings Summary
Course 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 - 65 should 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 really integrate 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 and elements as part of the analysis process, I now seem to apply this framework to everything!

How this design meets the Assessment Criteria: !

Applying permaculture in your own life

This design opportunity, if successful, will contribute to my right livelihood design, as I seek funding to repeat it. This design process also helped me integrate my political beliefs and worldview into my 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 projects
Assessment 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 and raising awareness of the application of permaculture design to radical social change.