Towards a new narrative Federico Diodato
Scienze del territorio,
02/2022, Letnik:
10, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
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The situation of crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic has made clear the role that information and communication technologies (ICTs) have assumed in the management of our lives and our territories. ...ICT companies are developing new technological devices to combine the physical and digital dimensions, which find a particularly fertile field of application in the various models of smart city, digital city, green city…. Advertised today as the remedy to the economic, environmental and also health crisis, these models do raise problems and concerns, especially regarding the dynamics of power: Are we still able to control the technological devices we interact with? In search for alternative narratives of territorial planning, that question the responsibility of citizens on these devices’ impact on the territory, the article refers to the research conducted by the SMART CITY 4.0 Sustainable Lab.
The current paper uses the concept of imaginaries to understand how permaculture provides alternative ways of organizing in response to the Anthropocene. We argue that imaginaries provide ways of ...organizing that combine ideas and concrete practices, imagining organizational alternatives by enacting new forms of collective practice. Permaculture movements, because of their combination of local, situated design practices and underlying social and political philosophies, provide an interesting case of imaginaries that make it possible to reimagine the relations between humans, non-human species and the natural environment. We identify and describe three imaginaries found in permaculture movements, conceiving of permaculture, respectively, as a technical design practice, a holistic life philosophy, and an intersectional social movement. These imaginaries open up possibilities for political and social alternatives to industrially organized agriculture, but are also at risk of various forms of ideological co-optation based on their underlying social premises. We discuss our perspective in terms of developing the concept of imaginaries in relation to organizational scholarship, particularly in contexts where fundamental relations between humans and the natural environment must be reimagined, as in the case of environmentalist organizing in response to the Anthropocene.
Expanding production in the ocean is expected to help address many challenges of the 21st century, from climate change to food insecurity. However, already declining ocean health and the legacy of ...socio-ecological harms from conventional agricultural practices on land suggest that a non-conventional approach to marine cultivation will be required. We explore marine permaculture as a possible system-design framework for future ocean stewardship that could lead to enhanced production alongside positive ecological and social outcomes. On land, permaculture has taken root as a framework for designing socio-ecological systems that seek to be productive, resilient, and equitable in the long term. Here, we imagine how permaculture’s design principles and ethics might manifest in the ocean and describe how it dovetails with recent scientific advances in ocean technologies and governance. Further developing and implementing marine permaculture could enable the realization of productive seascapes that avoid undermining progress toward sustainable development.
The design and sustainable development of tourist destinations in sensitive environments must follow an environmentally conscious approach that meets the resource and service needs of present and ...future generations without compromising the health of the ecosystems that provide them. The aim of this paper is to develop an eco-conscious design framework for tourist destinations in sensitive natural areas, as these are becoming increasingly attractive and popular in the tourism sector. This paper gives an overview of relevant fields of impact at the destination, which are drawn from holistic and nature-based approaches. The outcome is a three-dimensional design guidance, which creates a unique destination that focuses on creating a symbiotic relationship between humans and nature in which health is achievable for both. The approach was exemplified in a “Yoga house on a Cliff” architectural competition that took place in Serra da Estrela Natural Park in Portugal. The landscape was analysed with the Strolling method and the 3-dimensional design framework was used to design an authentic place in the prtotected mountain. Permaculture and nature-based solutions were used to structure the design and its elements wth a focus on environmental sustainability and the improvement of human health. This study provides evidence that an eco-conscious design has the potential to overcome incompatibilities and provide health-driven ecotourism in protected areas.
Microfarms are commercial soil-based market gardens cultivating organic vegetables with less than 1.5ha per farmer in rural France. Microfarms typically grow crops in both outdoor and protected ...(tunnel) areas. Despite their growing popularity among young farmers with no agricultural background, there are no data on expected income generated by these small-scale farms. Our objective was to determine the economic viability generated by a given agricultural area based on distinct microfarm scenarios. We used the stochastic model MERLIN to simulate 18microfarm scenarios combining three technical systems (varying with respect to the mechanization level, use of commercial inputs, cropping density, and number of cropping cycles per year), two marketing strategies (varying with respect to the length of the selling period and the range of crops grown), and three investment hypotheses (varying with respect to the level of bank loans and the percentage of workload used for self-built equipment). Viability was calculated from the number of simulations that generated a selected minimum monthly income (600, 1,000, or 1,400 Euro) for a maximum annual workload (1,800 or 2,500h).
This study shows that organic microfarms can be made economically viable in some cases but that the risks of not reaching viability in microfarms are not to be neglected. For microfarms, system redesign based on low mechanization, higher cropping density, more cropping cycles per year, low-input practices, lower fixed costs, and lower initial investment (manual and bio-intensive system with tiller cultivation) was more favorable (meaning a higher modeled viability) than input substitution (classic system) at a small scale. A 9-month selling period without winter storage crop cultivation led to higher viability than a 12-month selling period with winter storage crop cultivation. Low-cost investment strategies based on self-built equipment and second-hand materials led to lower viability than high-cost investment strategies that purchased equipment because the low-cost strategies increased the workload. Further research on microfarms should integrate other types of production and activities, such as small-scale breeding and on-farm processing and examine in which extent collaborations between microfarmers and larger scale farms could contribute to reshape farming systems and impact rural communities beyond the gate of microfarms.
•Microfarms are small-scale innovative organic market gardens.•A simulation model was used to study the economic viability of microfarm scenarios.•Viability was assessed based on contrasted income and workload criteria.•Global redesign is more profitable than input substitution for microfarms.
The banana tree circle (BTC) is a low-cost system for local greywater management, using a natural treatment and disposal process, providing additional resource recovery benefits. However, there are ...no standard design criteria for BTC that would allow for quality control of its efficiency and sustainability, and little is currently known about the full-scale performance of BTC. Based on the scoping literature review of 31 documents in the scientific database and eight documents from grey literature, a standard design model was proposed for the BTC technology based on the concept of water balance, greywater flows, rain, infiltration, and evapotranspiration. The first two steps of the BTC design were determining the areas required for infiltration and evapotranspiration. A cylindrical form trench, the soil percolation rate, and the hydraulic loading rate were considered for the infiltration area. The banana trees' evapotranspiration rate was taken into consideration for the evapotranspiration area. The proposed model was applied in a case study where we used a trench with 0.8 m depth and 1.5 m diameter. This study proposes a standard design criterion for the BTC based on environmental factors, and the scoping of the literature provides the basis for future studies to evaluate its environmental sustainability.
In a connected backyard gardening scheme, the backyards of neighboring houses are connected through mutually accessible gates so that the individual households can benefit from the sharing of ...resources, and develop social links with neighbors. This study highlights the significance of connected backyard gardening in terms of community building, based on interviews with a group of five households and a group of three households from two suburban streets in Adelaide, Australia. The study has found that these connected backyard gardens are a new form of intentional communities. They have demonstrated it is possible to carry out a sharing economy, a circular economy, and a platform economy in a small scale yet collective and innovative manner. The spread of connected backyard gardening in Adelaide is being challenged by land-subdivision pressure favoring urban infill. The study suggests the social benefits of collective residential gardening should be factored into city planning.
Abstract
This article focuses on the contemporary back‐to‐the‐land migration of permaculture practitioners in post‐socialist (1989–) Czechia. It explores the ideals and practices of self‐sufficiency ...among back‐to‐the‐land migrants as they relate to their migration motives and post‐migration life, including the fulfilment of a dream of self‐sufficiency and local community integration. This article deals with individual in‐rural migrant projects and the experiences of permaculturists who live in intentional eco‐communities. It draws upon data from in‐depth interviews with back‐to‐the‐land migrants and analysis of documents and field notes. The article concludes that the self‐sufficient vision, part of a ‘family homestead’ concept promoted by permaculture teachers, is difficult to achieve for rural newcomers who must reformulate their visions to match the lived reality. The post‐migration life of this group is further complicated by disillusionment with local community relations and difficulties integrating within their migration destination because of their distinctive lifestyle. Czech back‐to‐the‐land migration related to permaculture differs from its western version in its inclination towards nature‐based spirituality and a specific land structure still influenced by the forced collectivisation of the communist era.
Abstract The rob flood disaster in Pekalongan Regency that occurred in 2000-2019 left land that was previously rice fields as land that could not be cultivated and could not be returned to its ...original function as agricultural land. This is because the quality of the former rob land is still low due to being submerged in brackish water for years, so that if it is cultivated as agricultural land there is still a long way to go. The impact after the rob occurred was a decline in the quality of the environment and the economy of the village community because agricultural activities, which previously had become the main livelihood of the community, became non-existent, thereby increasing the poverty rate in the area affected by the rob disaster. The research will answer how permaculture is one of the solutions for the community of Api-api Village, Wonokerto District, for land and environmental restoration as well as the village community’s economy. Restore land productivity by paying attention to current environmental conditions and paying attention to the history of activities before the rob flood disaster to restore land function and increase the income of communities affected by rob.
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