Taking Appropriate Next Steps to Progressive Change:

1
Taking Appropriate Next Steps to Progressive
Change A Social Ecology Perspective
Professor Stuart B. Hill University of Western
Sydney, Australia s.hill_at_uws.edu.au
2

• The task is not so much to see what no one has
  yet seen, but to think what no one has thought
  about what everybody sees
• Arthur Schopenhauer, 1890

3
We are at a critical threshold in the
'psychosocial' evolution of our species
We may choose to continue to think behave in
ways that currently dominate industrialised
societies perpetuating

• unlimited growth increasing consumption

• creation of a wealthy class

• concentration of populations in cities

• unprioritised market-driven use of non-renewable
  resources

• failure to conserve maintain renewable
  resources,
• the ecological systems processes upon
  which all life depends

4

• AND, by doing this, condemn future generations to
  having to deal with the consequences of this,

• Or we may choose to learn
• particularly from psychology, ecology
• how to live caring, sustainable
• genuinely meaningful healthy lives

5
4 stages in the evolution of agriculture
Richard Bawden, 1988
Hill, S.B. 1990. Ecological and psychological
prerequisites for the establishment of
sustainable prairie agricultural communities, in
Jerome Martin (ed) Alternative Futures for
Sustainable Prairie Agricultural Communities.
University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB. Pp.197-229.
6
What are rational goals for development?

• Goals
• productivity
• profit
• power
• Objective
• more (no limits)

• nourishment, shelter,
• fulfillment, meaning
• sustainability, maintenance,
• wellbeing for all,
• enough (limits)

7

• Means
• growth
• competition
• centralisation

• balance
• collaboration
• decentralisation

8

• Non-renewable resources
• wasted
• exhausted
• Renewable resources
• degraded

• limited/prioritised use
• conservation
• sustainable management

9

• Human Condition
• living outside-in
• (reactive)
• stressed
• detached
• degenerating

• living inside-out
• (proactive)
• joyful
• integrated, relational
• co-evolving

10
Rewards to farmers

• Erodes natural capital,
• ecological integrity
• (declining productivity)

• Productivity
• yield, output

• Builds natural capital,
• ecological integrity
• (basis for sustained productivity)

• Rehabilitation
• maintenance

11
Most new initiatives start with a 'planning'
process the outcomes are frequently
disappointing Underneath planning lies
'imagination creativity', underneath this
lies 'passions feelings' all within an
internal context of 'values worldviews', a
specific external context Engaging first with
these latter areas generally leads to innovative
plans programs that are genuinely progressive
transformative
(Statement by Stuart Hill for position of
Provocateur with Department of Primary
Industries, Government of Victoria, Australia
2004)
12
Levels of consideration for better action
action
planning
imagination creativity
feelings passions
worldviews, values beliefs
Top two overemphasised
(modified from John Herron, 1992. Feeling and
Personhood. Sage, London)
13
Similarly, most initiatives focus on
'efficiency' 'substitution' strategies
These predictably fail to address the causes of
problems What is needed is a 'whole system
design/redesign' approach that aims to make
systems problem-proof proactively supportive
of wellbeing, meaning sustainability
(Statement by Stuart Hill for position of
Provocateur with Department of Primary
Industries, Government of Victoria, Australia
2004) (cont.)
14
In complex systems cause effect are distant in
time space
15
(No Transcript)
16
(No Transcript)
17
(No Transcript)
18
(No Transcript)
19
(No Transcript)
20
Hills ESR problem-solving/proofing model
P
Conventional
P
P
Efficiency
P
P
Substitution
Redesign/design
21
Unrealised potential of design/redesign
etc
3
2
1
REDESIGN (proactive)
SUBSTITUTION
EFFICIENCY (primarily reactive)
22
Furthermore, problems tend to be addressed in
fragmented ways, within the confines of
disciplines specialties Again, what is
needed is a holistic, integrated, whole system
approach. To be able to do this external
redesign it is usually necessary to also engage
in some liberating internal redesign in
terms of our understandings ways of working
collaborating
(Statement by Stuart Hill for position of
Provocateur with Department of Primary
Industries, Government of Victoria, Australia
2004) (cont.)
23
Odums layer cake
Nature, biodiversity
Economics, marketing, policy
Soils, nutrients, landscape
Livestock
Water
Pasture
Purpose
Strategies
Where to do things
When to do things
What How to do
24
Upper levels affect lower levels
Our species with its rich cultural diversity
Planet Earth
Industrialised Western world population
Zoogeographical region (Australasia)
Country state population
Country, state bioregion
Community, interest, work, church professional
groups
Catchment, town, suburb, village
Family, friends, and workmates
Work play places
Self
Home
Lower levels affect upper levels
25
In most 'modern' societies governance for
wellbeing (personal, social ecological) remains
a minor concern, an add-on, or a minimalist,
'shallow' (green-wash) program, designed to avoid
litigation voter disquiet
It is the poor cousin of economic governance
(for ongoing growth in productivity, profit,
associated inequitable access to power)
26
Biased triple bottom line
Pille Bunnell Nicolas Sonntag, 2000. Pers. Com.
27
Transitional triple bottom line
Economy money
Social constructions that need to be reframed
as tools to enable us to act on our higher
values
Soc
Envi
28
Enabling triple bottom line

• Planet, environment, ecological systems, nature

• Socio-cultural institutional structures
• processes in politics, economics, business,
• education, technology, religion

• People communities, groups, families,
• individuals

29
Design redesign for sustainable futures must
consider integrate

• ecological structures processes

• cultures social structures processes
• (including, but not privileging, economics,
  plus all other social constructions politics,
  technology, industry, education, religion)

• people
• (individuals, families, groups, communities,
  small businesses)

30
Social ecology (an Australian version), with its
focus on

• interrelationships between the
• - personal,
• - social,
• - ecological
• 'unknown'
• (for some, 'spiritual')

• sustainability

• wellbeing

• progressive change

provides an effective, inclusive, evolving
framework for reconceptualising our political
structures processes lifestyles

• for enabling improved futures,

• for supporting the ongoing psychosocial
  evolution of our species

31
Short definition of SOCIAL ECOLOGY (Hill 2003)
The study practice of personal, social
ecological sustainability progressive change
based on the critical application integration
of ecological, humanistic, relational, community
'spiritual' values
32
Why do so many of us keep making the same
mistakes?
33
Planet

• exhaustion of fossil fuel reserves other
  non-renewable resources

• global warming, associated climatic changes
  rising sea level

• thinning of ozone layer accumulation of waste
  matter' in space

• fluctuating water tables, drought, drying lakes
  rivers, flooding

• contamination of soil, water organisms with
  pollutants

• deforestation, desertification, soil erosion
  degradation

• loss of habitat, biodiversity, species
  extinctions loss of varieties

34
Agroecosystems

• loss of natural capital (soil, water,
  biodiversity)
• declining energy resource efficiency

• breakdown of maintenance functions
• (soil regeneration, natural pest control)

• increased vulnerability associated pest, weed,
  disease,
• livestock stress problems

• increased dependence on imported resources,
  curative inputs,
• experts ( associated reduced return on
  investment)

35
Rural societies economies

• war, prejudice, oppression maldistribution
  problems

• displacement from land lack of access to basic
  needs

• farm bankruptcies, decaying rural communities,
• loss of social cultural capital

• increasing dependence on subsidies imported
  inputs

• dependence on unstable distant world markets
• other external controls

• malnourishment, zoonoses (diseases of lower
  animals that can infect humans), allergies,
  stress-related degenerative conditions

• illiteracy, learning disabilities, emotional
  disturbance depression

• compensatory, addictive, compulsive, aggressive
  
• self-harming behaviours

• feelings of isolation, hopelessness helplessness

36
Roots of our current situation may be traced to

• our history of collective personal distress
  oppression

• associated compensatory behaviours

• institutional accommodation of support for
  this

• beliefs in futures based on
• - extrapolation/growth,
• - substitution,
• - surveillance control,
• curative product- service-based responses to
  crises
• (back-end solutions)

37
Establishment of maladaptive compensatory selves
Hurt Oppression
Adaptation (maladaptation)
Core healthy self/essence
Hurt Oppression
Multiple Selves

• Core
• Healthy
• spontaneous
• aware
• empowered
• loving
• informed action

• Maladaptive Compensatory
• patterned
• unaware
• disempowered
• fearful
• acting out

Distorted potentially healthy behaviour
Superimposed unhealthy behaviour
38
The way I look at it, for what I lose in freedom
I gain in security
39
Most of the time we behave as if we were
hypnotised twice
firstly into accepting pseudoreality as reality,
secondly into believing we were not hypnotised
R. D. Laing 1971 The Politics of the Family
40
(No Transcript)
41
(No Transcript)
42
(No Transcript)
43
REDUCE REUSE RECYCLE
REPAIR REFRAIN REFUSE RESCUE REGENERATE REDESIG
N REFLECT REVIEW RE-EVALUATE READ RISK REGIS
TER RULES RESPONSIBILITY RECOVER REVOLT
REBEL RECONSIDER REFUTE REBUKE REGULATE
Etc, etc, AND all other letters alphabets
44
We need to recognise the degree to which
psychological processes influence everything (as
barriers enablers)
45
outside inside out !
46
Assumption
At every moment we are all always doing the best
we can, given

• what we inherited (genetics plus)

• our past experiences, adaptations to them

• present contexts conditions

47
Person
Values Morals Ethics
Actions
Past Environments/Experiences
Present Environment/Conditions
Supportive
Oppressive
48
We must also recognise that we are evolving
psychosocially
plan for better futures rather than more
efficient controlled pasts
49
Our cultural evolution
Higher values driven
Enablement
Network society driven
Demand driven
Socialisation
Sustainability Equity/Social justice
Supply driven
50
Time to take the next step in our psychosocial
evolution
from economics-obsessed, socializing
(manipulative, controlling, problem-solving)
cultures (compensatory, back-end/reactive
patterned living)
to higher values-based, life-enabling ones
(proactive, spontaneous living)
51
The common

• defensive,
• reactive,
• expert-based,
• back-end,
• problem-solving focus

must give way to more

• imaginative,
• proactive,
• front-end,
• design redesign approaches to

personal to planetary health wellbeing
52
Appropriate next steps are

• deeply personal

• highly context specific

This is why

• formulaic,
• centrally-directed
• imposed change

• always fails to achieve its stated aims

• invariably causes more problems than it solves

53
Consequently the collaborative task is to
design implement institutional
community structures processes
that can enable those of us involved
to take those appropriate next steps,
to evaluate, celebrate learn our way forwards
as we go
54
Known unknown

• What is unknown

What is known
The challenge how to engage clearly with the
unknown mystical
André Voisin, 1959. Soil, Grass and Cancer.
Longmans, London
55
(No Transcript)
56
Clever people know how to solve problems
Wise people avoid them!
Attributed to Albert Einstein
57
Progressive spiral
To act
Knowing
To learn
Unknowing
58
Because all such neglected resources offer
enormous opportunities for improved use
the future may be much more hopeful than is
generally imagined
59
We need a radical paradigm shift in our thinking
acting
Sorry to intrude maam, but we thought wed
come in and just sort of roam around for a few
minutes (Gary Larson)
60
(No Transcript)
61
The challenge - how to change?
How to best enable cultural transformation?
62
Progressive change is often first ridiculed
63
Just because youre outnumbered doesnt mean
youre wrong
64
The challenge of letting go of the fateful
familiar
65
of letting come
the emerging new unfamiliar
Letting go
Letting come
66
Text on theory practice of such
change Scharmer, C. Otto 2007. Theory U Leading
from the Future as it Emerges. SOL, Cambridge, MA
67
We need more paradoxical ways
of understanding
acting
68
Premises

• Dominant
• atomism mechanism
• universalism
• objectivism
• monism

• Alternative
• holism
• contextualism
• rigorous subjectivism
• pluralism

(modified from Scoones, I Thompson, J. 1994.
Beyond Farmer First. IT Publ., London)
69
Its time to question the old approaches !!
Listen I am fed up with this weeding out the
sick and the old business I want something in
its prime Gary Larson
70
We must extend the boundaries of our
thinking(modified from Geoff, L. P. Smoker
1997. Peace an evolving idea. Future Generations
J. 23 (2) 4-9)
War Prevention
Structural Condits.
Holistic Complex Models
Inter-cultural Peace
Inner-Outer Peace
No Violence
Balance of Forces
Absence of War
Feminist Peace
Gaia Peace
OUTER PEACE
Environmental
Cultural
Transnational
Peace
Between States
Within States
Community
Family Individual
Inner Peace
71
We need better maps frameworks for
understanding, designing, decision-making
action
Lal, Rattan 2007. Soil science and the carbon
civilization. SSSAJ, 71(5) 1425-1437
72
Parallel interrelated processes involved in change
What meaningful do-able initiatives can we take
in each of these areas to support progressive
cultural change?
73
Reconciliation

• socio-cultural imperatives
• (including economics)

• ecological imperatives

• personal imperatives

74
Aim to work effectively with progressive change
that enables wellbeing, meaning sustainability
for all
75
Importance of taking ecological approaches
76
We must design manage
complex heterogenous
systems
77
Resilience
Capability of living systems to persist when
'challenged' (by 'insults' /or lack of
resources)

• dependent on interactions between 'genetic',
• historical contextual factors

• can be increased by 'capital building'
  processes at
• all levels (including individuals, groups
  ecosystems)

• reduced by 'capital eroding' processes

78
Natural vs. Industrialised
systems human systems

• Driven by infinite solar energy Driven by
  ancient fossil fuel

Cyclical no such thing as waste Linear inputs
end up as waste
Competition cooperation Competition
over-ride of natural systems
No great excesses Large excesses
Depends on diversity complexity Tend towards
simplicity monoculture
79
Food cycle
Consumption
Production
Recycle (decomposition in soil)
80
(No Transcript)
81
Dual-track management for achieving
sustainability (modified from Phillip Sutton,
2005)http//www.green-innovations.asn.au/Dual-tra
ck-management-for-sustainability.htm
Improvement - within existing paradigm
? ensure viability within current contexts?
regulatory compliance strategies? efficiency
substitution initiatives? understand
implications of current paradigm drivers
Transformation paradigm change

• learn way forwards create better/different
  worlds (including new products, services
  markets)? design/redesign (internal external)
• to enable wellbeing ( so avoid crises) ?
  driven by some new drivers reflecting revised
  values

82
3 stages of perception

• deceptive simplicity
• heavy-handed solutions (with unexpected
  disbenefits)

• confusing (often paralysing) complexity
• puzzlement, studies, committees

• profound simplicity ahas, elegant paradoxical
  
• solutions (with unexpected benefits)

83
Dominant Grand Narrative of Progress
Neglected/Blocked
? maintenance, caring
? production (regardless of cost)
? growth, no limits
? sustainability, limits (resources,
ecological)
? sense of enough
? wealth

• community,
• mutualistic relationships

? individualism
? consumerism (emphasising compensatory
wants)
? conserver society (meeting basic needs)

• homogenisation,
• simplification

• maintenance of
• support for diversity

• understanding science
• arts

• controlling science
• (understanding science
• arts as a disposable luxury)

84
Dominant Grand Narrative of Progress
Neglected/Blocked
? appropriate technologies (decentralised,
repairable)

• market forces (manipulated
• demand, excessive advertising)

? economic rationalism (monetary system of
values)
? meeting greatest good (social justice)

• regional self-reliance
• responsibility

• transglobal corporate
• managerialism

• sense of place, right
• to meaningful work

? mobile disposable workforce (disconnected
from place)
The myths that these are embedded in are
inadequate for securing a good future for most
in present future generations
We need to search for new life-promoting myths
that can accommodate these characteristics some
can be found within nature (ecology psychology)
85
Decisions to make re change

• what to stop doing

• what to reduce/de-emphasise

• what to do differently

• what to increase/expand

• what to start doing (new)

86
Decisions to make re change (cont.)

• what will it take to do this?

• what are the barriers
• what will remove them?

• what resources are needed
• available (particularly locally) how to get
  them?

87
Kurt Lewins Force Field Analysis
add strengthen
Driving forces
Restraining forces (barriers)
external internal
remove weaken
88
Limiting factors for change

• information access to it, misinformation,
• knowledge, skills, competencies

• resources renewable, non-renewable,
  technologies, money, time

• institutional supports policies, programs,
  structures, services, legislation, regulations

89
Forms of political action
Supports

• education, demonstration models
• extension other services
• research development
• legislation regulation

Rewards (only available during a transition
period to prevent the development of dependence)

• tax incentives
• subsidies
• low interest loans

Penalties (for those who act irresponsibly)

• monitoring programs
• legislation its implementation

90
Limiting factors for change (cont.)

• family community support

• empowerment/disempowerment
• (feelings of helplessness/hopelessness)

• awareness

• vision imagination

• values, worldviews, paradigms, beliefs

• persistent denial, procrastination
  distractive/compensatory activities

91
Stages in Understanding (Rachel Lauers
epistemes 1983)
1. initial recognition of thing or concept
2. its definition measurement
3. understanding its relationships/parallels
4. critical reflection on it (going deeper)
5. recognizing its paradoxical unknown
qualities (beyond the thing!)
92
Overlapping stages in change (Hill 2005)

• ignorance denial

• awareness acknowledgement

• understanding competence

• effective action project-based initiatives

• ongoing co-evolution of responsible
• life-affirming practices (how we now live)

93
Extension in complex situations
Increasing people skills
Human development
Education
Problem solving
Technical know how
Technology transfer
Short-term
Longer-term
Increasing complexity of situations
modified from Peter Van Beek, 1993
94
Humanity is not central in the universe, neither
the best of life or sole locus of values
Earth has its own intrinsic values it is not a
resource for human use.
Therefore, a primary human goal is to seek ways
of living sustainably on Earth, contributing to
its healthy diversity and beauty,
not as the commanding executive officer, but as
the junior partner
Rowe, Stan 2001-2002. Earth awareness the
integration of ecological, aesthetic, and ethical
consciousness. The Structuralist 41/42 11-17
(edited version reproduced in Rowe, S. 2006.
Earth Alive Essays on Ecology. NeWest Pr.,
Edmonton, AL p.174
95
Decisions to make re-change (cont.)

• prioritise activities aportion resources

• brainstorm, set long-, mid- short-term goals

• breakdown into meaningful doable actions

• do, reflect celebrate, do reflect celebrate
  

• evaluate redesign programs activities
• (as indicated)

96
Some Pre-prerequisites for Sustainability

• awareness consciousness

• dreams, hopes, visions imagination

• values clarification, commitment courage

• understanding collaboration across difference

• new kinds of community, political, business
  academic leadership ( support)

97
Framework for planning change
Strategic questions What would it take to.?
What gets in the way what would remove these
barriers?
98
One radical way to progress our thinking
action is paradoxically (in a workshop context)
to boldly 'lie' about changes that you have
already brought about (that you have actually not
brought about!)
This enables us to vision in relation to our
benign potential, rather than settle for
tinkering with the status quo
By daring to engage in such 'deep' reflection
implementation of meaningful doable initiatives,
we can significantly contribute to changing the
world for the better
99
Agroecology paradigm-shift imperatives

• Extend our philosophy
• (beyond yield Glocal trans-generational
  equity responsibility, wellbeing, meaning,
  sustainability our psychosocial coevolution)
• Design/redesign maintain healthy whole systems
• (that are problem-proof enable wellbeing
  for all)
• - locally adapted relevant
• (farmer knowledge, local resources
  markets)
• - with complex cropping systems
• (rotations, multi-species, polycultures,
  multifunctions)
• - and with non-crop biota considered
• (decomposers, system-maintainers, pests,
  biocontrols, symbionts)

Modified from David Clements Anil Shrestha
(eds), 2004. New Dimensions in Agroecology.
Haworth, Binghamton, NY
100
Agroecology paradigm-shift imperatives (Cont.)

• Consider landscape/catchment-scale, e.g., Keyline
• Support ecological processes, ecosystem services
  close cycles
• (consider succession, regeneration, waste
  management)
• Use natural ecosystems as models
• (e.g., emphasise integration, resilience
  sustainability)
• Explicitly consider human social ecology
• (especially psychology, personal cultural
  change)

Modified from David Clements Anil Shrestha
(eds), 2004. New Dimensions in Agroecology.
Haworth, Binghamton, NY
101
Psychosocial evolution transformative institutio
nal structural change

• Socialising

• Exclusionary
• Social
• Institutions

• Problem Focus

• Enabling

• Participatory
• Social
• Institutions

• Redesign/Design

102
Progressive change
Decolonisation
Reinhabitation
Transformation
Conservation
103
We can apply profound understandings from
developed areas to less developed ones
Cancer patients who have gone into remission
identified the following four factors as
key (Herschberg, C. Barasch, M.I. 1995.
Remarkable Recovery What Extraordinary Healings
Tell Us About Getting Well and Staying Well.
Riverhead Books, San Francisco, CA)

• connectedness

• control over ones life

• passion for life

• challenges goals extending beyond current
  crises

104
Key points

• we are at a critical threshold
• a moment of profound choice
• in the psychosocial development of our species

• all of us have already started changing
• have wondered about what to do next
• how to dare to do it
• how to find allies resources to help us

105
Key points (cont.)

• further sustainable change will be achieved
• not through mega-projects,
• but by each of us individually
• in small mutually supportive collaborative
  groups,
• taking small meaningful, locally relevant
  actions, by sharing the processes involved
• publicly celebrating the outcomes
• to make them available to others

106
Key points (cont.)

• a group as small as this
• if truly committed to such action
• can play a major role in enabling
• this cultural transformation

• I can do it
• I want to do it
• I will do it

107
(No Transcript)
108
(No Transcript)
109
(No Transcript)
110
(No Transcript)
111
(No Transcript)
112
(No Transcript)
113
(No Transcript)
114
(No Transcript)
115
(No Transcript)
116
F

• lat outstretched upon a mound of
  earth I lie I Press my ear against its surface
  and I hear far off and deep, the measured sound
  of heart that beats within the ground. And with
  it pounds in harmony with the swift, familiar
  heart in me. They pulse as one, together swell,
  together fall I cannot tell my sound from
  Earths, for I am part of rhythmic, universal
  heart.
• - Elizabeth Odell

117
Sustainable Agriculture in Egypt Faris M.A.
Kahn, M.H. eds. 1993. Lynne Reiner Publ., London
Stuart Hill p. 54

• it will be the awareness, empowerment, vision
  values of people, their appropriate use of
  science technology that will enable us to
  achieve sustainable food systems

• will be realized only through our own
  psychosocial evolution

• the ability of a single, aware, empowered
  individual to bring about meaningful change
  should not be underestimated

• Assume that you are that individual!

118
Its the bits we dont see that enable most
systems to function
119
Society tends to focus only on the most
attractive visible bits
120
We are surprised when systems predictably
eventually collapse
121
Losses of natural capital from
agroecosystems
122
We must pay much more attention to the unknown
neglected
and learn how to work effectively with them
123
Soil within terrestrial ecosystems
Subconscious within the human mind
What might be the interrelationships between them?
124
In the 1950s Australian producer P.A. Yeomans
by engaging with the bits we dont see
created an inch of topsoil in three years
125
Lal, Rattan 2007. Soil science and the carbon
civilization. SSSAJ, 71(5) 1425-1437
126
Benefits of Yeomans-type thinking could include

• ecologically sustainable managed ecosystems

• conservation of habitat for biodiversity

• maintenance of ecosystem services

• wellbeing meaning

• non-violence peace

• climate amelioration

127
(No Transcript)
128
Keyline scale of permanence

• Climate
• Landscape
• Water
• Roads

• Trees
• Buildings
• Subdivision
• Soil

P.A. Yeomans The Challenge of Landscape,
1958 Water for Every Farm, 1965 The City Forest
The Keyline Plan for the Human Environment
Revolution, 1971
129
(No Transcript)
130
Allan Yeomans 2005. Priority One Together We Can
Beat Global Warming. Keyline Publ., Arundal, QLD
131
(No Transcript)
132
Keyline ploughing3 successive depths/years
133
Roots tell a story French Beans on calcareous
clay soil (Bockemuhl, J. 1981)
Compost
Unfertilised
NPK
134
The carrot onion we dont see
Weaver, John 1927. Root Development in Vegetable
Crops. McGraw-Hill, New York
135
Key features of Yeomans' Keyline design/redesign
initiatives
Conceptual

• Learn from nature, one's own others
  experiences
• (indigenous, immigrant organic farming
  cultures)

• Create, as well as conserve, soil ( natural
  capital in general)

• Hierarchy of Permanence as basis for strategic
  decision making

• Support effective use of ecosystem processes
  'services' (through careful choice of the nature,
  time place of all structures processes, eg.
  Keylines Key Points)

• Use of inputs processes to build natural
  capital 'prime' systems

136
Key features of Yeomans' Keyline design/redesign
initiatives (cont.)
Structural

• Keyline plough (modified chisel plough with
  vibrator)

• Keyline dams irrigation channels

• Nature placement of all structures

137
Key features of Yeomans' Keyline design/redesign
initiatives (cont.)
Procedural

• Timing of all operations (ploughing, irrigation,
  grazing)

• Keyline ploughing pattern

• Rotational grazing

138
Strengths driving forces affecting Yeomans'
Keyline initiatives
Personal

• Exceptional powers of observation
• (especially of water movement across
  landscapes)

• Deep interest, commitment, rebelliousness
  'drivenness' re water, soil pasture management
  (near loss of son to desiccation, loss of
  brother-in-law in grass fire)

• Diverse complementary experiences competencies
• (mining assayer, seeing Chinese-made mining
  dams, aboriginal knowledge, earth moving, time
  with nature, extensive reading, travel, meetings)

139
Strengths driving forces affecting Yeomans'
Keyline initiatives (cont.)
Personal (cont.)

• Cross-boundary (applying water management in
  mining to agriculture) integrative thinking
  (Hierarchy of Permanence, Keyline as whole design
  systems)

• Lateral paradoxical thinking (creating vs just
  conserving soil)

• Ongoing experimentation careful record keeping

• Implementation of small, meaningful initiatives
  (including small risks) that can contribute to
  larger, longer-term plans (initial dam
  construction etc.)

140
Strengths driving forces affecting Yeomans'
Keyline initiatives (cont.)
Social

• Post-war programs/tax benefits facilitated farm
  purchase

• Importation of initial chisel plough from USA

• Involvement of others with complimentary
  competencies (Chinese aboriginal influence,
  Holmes, Hicks, his children)

• Communication of findings ideas
• (open days, training sessions, talks,
  articles, books,
• establishing a Foundation journal, media)

• Commercialization of products (Keyline plough)
  services (Keyline consulting, dam construction,
  self-publishing)

141
Strengths driving forces affecting Yeomans'
Keyline initiatives (cont.)
Ecological

• Capitalizing on forces 'services' of nature
  (natural water flows, gravity, carbon capture,
  soil formation, windbreaks, grazing management,
  working effectively with place time)

• Using nature as a model source of inspiration

142
Sustainable Agriculture in Egypt Faris M.A.
Kahn, M.H. eds. 1993. Lynne Reiner Publ.,
London (Proceedings of 1992 Conference)
Fred Bentley p.37

• Global environmental degradation is more serious
  
• than the public realizes

• In a finite world population increase the
  polluting economic growth processes are
  unsustainable

• If economic disparities are not reduced by
  actions of governments, I predict chaos

143
The Human Condition
Food System
Resources
Environment
144
Prerequisites to Ecologically Sustainable
SOLUTIONS to Natural Resource Management

• Dont be blinded by what you think you know
• Be open to engaging with the unknown
• Be willing to stay
• Humble, curious
• Confused
• Open to seeking new, sometimes paradoxical,
  understandings acting on them in small
  meaningful ways

145
The Illusion

• Advanced
• ? technologically

? also psychosocially?
146
The Illusion (cont.)
Psychosocially undeveloped

• oppressive hierarchies

• addictive-compulsive behaviours

• war non-peaceful use of power

• resource waste

• disrespect for others/other organisms

• enemy orientation

• oppressive child rearing

• powerlessness, impotence

• compensatory displacement behaviours

AND

• some awareness of these other indicators

• some efforts to recover charge

147
The Soil Challenge

• Historical abysmal appreciation understanding
  of soil
• (dead, dirt, physical/chemical, mined, product
  input/output)
• Devastating consequences (feedback) from which
  we
• still need to learn
• (inevitable, accelerating degradation,
  contamination, loss of natural capital
  associated cultural decline)

148
The Soil Challenge (cont.)

• The Task
• enable transition to front end, proactive,
  ecologically sustainable design/redesign
  management
• Clarify, ground develop a responsible vision
• identify existing, relevant initiatives,
  supports competence
• enable the spread further development of these,
  of mutually supportive new initiatives
  (particularly by providing access to resources
  by removing barriers to progress)
• Develop these initiatives into integrated
  programs of progressive change

149
The Soil Challenge (cont.)

• The Task (cont.)
• Facilitate the design of effective enabling
  institutional structures processes (soc/cult,
  polit, econ, business/ marketing/distribution,
  educn/training, RD, technology)
• Enable personal recovery transition to an
  enabling (vs colonising/socialising)
  culture, as the next stage in our psychosocial
  coevolution (relating, pairing, conception,
  birth, child-rearing, personal development)

150
Odum Barrett, 2004
151
Present future needs for distribution of effort
in implementing sustainable agriculture
Present
Level
Future needs
Individual (psycho-social)
Socio-politico-economic (policy)
Whole systems (biophysical, eg, farm, catchment,
community, ecozone)
Problem solving (science, technology, research)
152
VALUES
ORGANISATION
KNOWLEDGE
ENVIRONMENT WELLBEING
TECHNOLOGY
Coevolutionary relationships
Richard Norgaard, 1994. Development Betrayed,
Routledge, New York p.27
153
(No Transcript)
154
Coevolutionary pathway

• Psychosocial evolution of our species
• Collective cultural transformation
• Clarification of decisions re values, worldviews,
  paradigms intentions
• Individual personal development to enable
  appropriate design management of systems
• Redesign/design of systems to remove causes
• More integrated, multifaceted problem solving
• Curative, single magic-bullet solutions
• Problem solving measurement
• Recognition of issue, phenomenon, problem

155
Testing questions for evaluating initiatives
156
Does it support?
Personal (capital sustainability)

• spontaneity, curiosity engagement

• empowerment, awareness, respect of the unknown

• creative visioning, values worldviews
  clarification

• acquisition of essential literacies
  competencies

• building maintaining vitality, health
  wellbeing

• caring, loving, responsible, negentropic
  relationships

• lifelong personal development responsibility

157
Does it support? (cont.)
Socio-political / cultural (capital
sustainability)

• building maintaining trust, access,
  collaborative,
• life-affirming community structures processes

• reflexive, critical, imaginative, celebrational
  attitudes

• cultural diversity respectful, mutualistic
• relationships

• cultural development psychosocial co-evolution

158
Does it support? (cont.)
Environmental/natural (capital sustainability)

• enabling life-supporting ecological processes

• conserving habitats functional high
  biodiversity

• ecosystem development co-evolutionary change

159
Does it support? (cont.)
General foci

• proactive, whole system design/redesign
• for wellbeing

• small/doable, meaningful, collaborative
  initiatives

• windows of change use of integrator-indicators

• attentive to all outcomes feedback

160
The current state of the world, with its
environmental degradation, conflicts,
inequities, prejudices, other negative
characteristics, is the collective result of all
of these maladaptive compensatory expressions
of our thinking acting
So the challenge in relation to any area is to
reflect on the ways in which our thinking
acting express our benign potential, ( also
how they might be maladaptive compensatory)
then enable the former to be expressed the
latter to be healed addressed
161
In whatever ways that we have been raised, we all
retain a capacity for benign action , in our
own ways, are always endeavouring to do our best
to act on this capacity
But, too often, for most of us, because our
efforts to do this have repeatedly been
thwarted, because the dominant cultural
pressures make this difficult, we commonly settle
for going along with things postponing such
action, for substituting 'adaptive'
'compensatory' behaviours
These involve compromising our values, seeking
stimulation to feel 'alive', consumptive
lifestyles, obsession with appearance
impressing others, loss of purpose direction,
fears denial concerning all of this
162
Psychosocial evolution of child development (de
Mause 1982 Foundations of Psychohistory, Creative
Roots, New York)
Enabling
Enabling recognises all humans as social,
potentially benign beings, capable of developing
their own agendas it is supportive of this
All other stages impose adult agendas on
children others, so undermine their
potential development
163
(No Transcript)
164
(No Transcript)
165
'Socialising', like all previous stages in our
psychosocial evolution, involves the excessive
imposition by adults, society in general, of
foreign agendas (invariably inappropriate in
content with respect to time space) on
children who (if not wounded) have their own
benign, uniquely personal contextually
fine-tuned agendas
This oppressive process results in young peoples
disempowerment, loss of awareness, the
development of adaptive non-benign thoughts
behaviours, a sense of disconnectedness, both
from their external internal worlds most
choose either to conform or rebel
166
In contrast to this, 'enabling' approaches to
child-rearing education have the potential to
support the development of individuals who are
empowered, aware, loving, caring, responsible,
creative, visionary, knowledgeable, competent,
wise, with a zest for life
Such individuals are likely to be much more
capable of acting alone, in collaboration with
others, to radically transform redesign our
institutional structures process, our
lifestyles, to make the world a better place for
all
167
The ways in which we work with landscape is
influenced by

• our psychological preferences
• degree of freedom from distress

• our understandings competencies

• our access to resources technologies

• the features, contexts influences
• within the working environment