Bioregionalism
Cosmopolitan Localism: The Planetary Networking of Everyday Life in Place
How do we envision sustainable long-term futures? And how do we guide actions to realize these visions? Kossoff proposes that the nascent concept of cosmopolitan localism needs further development. Globalization is at the root of many “wicked” problems, but to only turn to localism is simplistic. While many theorists suggest a future place-based lifestyle, we also need to consider the advantages of being networked at multiple scales, from households to neighbourhoods, cities, regions and the planet. Cosmopolitan localism, Kossoff suggests, should advocate for self-organization at the local level but should also try to be networked. By developing and engaging in a local network we build local resilience, which facilitates reinhabitation. A networked society is a prerequisite. SLOC communities (Small Local Open Connected communities proposed by Ezio Manzini in the 2010s) share knowledge and resources. SLOC communities develop self-managed economies “wherein manufacturing and agricultural production would be largely for local consumption” (58). Communities are nodes rather than centers of production separated by great distances. Everyday needs should be satisfied by local communities and be tailored toward specific cultures and ecosystems. Individual actions can support local networks, e.g., eating at a local restaurant that gets their produce from a local farmer, who employs local workers. Engaging with the local network creates a decentralized and non-hierarchical organized system resulting in social, economic, and political power that is distributed.
Kossoff, Gideon. 2019. “Cosmopolitan Localism: The Planetary Networking of Everyday Life in Place.” Cuadernos Del Centro de Estudios de Diseño y Comunicación, no. 73: 51-66. https://www.academia.edu/38852836/Cosmopolitan_Localism_The_Planetary_Networking_of_Everyday_Life_in_Place.
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Exploring a Place-Based Approach to Materials Design: Harakeke Nonwovens in Aotearoa New Zealand
This research paper, presented at the Textiles Intersections Conference at Loughborough University in London, presents a pilot study into the development of harakeke, a flax plant indigenous to New Zealand. The researchers centred a place-based approach to material design to move beyond “one world frameworks,” that is moving beyond a universal way of approaching challenges and considering instead multiple viewpoints and cultural practices/value systems (13). The pilot study resulted in a prototype of a nonwoven sample and insights into a place-based approach that engaged discussion with Māori knowledge and wisdom, reciprocity, and “carefully considered collaboration” (4). The authors propose that nonwoven production offers a sustainable strategy as it eliminates “several processing steps in comparison with traditional textile production” and is beneficial for “short life products,” i.e. paper cloth, and biodegradability (4). Referencing Tim Cresswell, the project engaged with place as a lens to recognize “connections between a region and its ecosystem” (2), as defined in bioregionalism, and approached design through ideas of localism and the transition movement. Forefronting Māori knowledge and wisdom and working with Māori leaders was key to this project whose objective was to renew the harakeke industry.
Kane, F., T. Ruka, A. Kilford, M. J. Le-Guen, P. Brorrens, and K. Komene. 2020. “Exploring a Place-Based Approach to Developing New Materials for Sustainable Futures: Natural Fibre Composites in New Zealand.” In Textile Intersections. Loughborough University. https://doi.org/10.17028/rd.lboro.9724661.v1.
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Place-Based Learning and Knowing: Critical Pedagogies Grounded in Indigeneity
U.S.-based geographer and researcher Jay T. Johnson is engaged in exploring and supporting the cultural survival of Indigenous peoples in New Zealand, the Pacific, and North America. In this paper, he draws on his experience and the work of anthropologists, philosophers, geographers, and critical educators to argue for a better understanding of “place.” He offers John Agnew’s (1987) three main understandings of place: as location, as representing a sense (feelings about a place), and as a setting where everyday life happens. He then suggests two more ways we might conceptualize place: “as a way of understanding, knowing and learning about the world,” and “as the embodied location of everyday struggle for meaning” (830). He advocates for a move away from dualistic and reductionist thinking and encourages meaningful place-making questions: “What happened here? Who was involved? What was it like? Why should it matter?” (831). In the process of erasing Indigenous histories, Johnson argues, Western culture has weakened the meaning of a place and has created instead an abstract empty space. He proposes that education grounded in Indigeneity requires that research initiatives “understand the importance of place within Indigenous” worldviews and ways of knowing (835). Ultimately, he argues that such engagement with place has the potential to repair academia’s tendency to overlook, or simplify, the history, and therefore, the significance of a place or how we might understand “place.”
Johnson, Jay T. 2012. “Place-Based Learning and Knowing: Critical Pedagogies Grounded in Indigeneity.” GeoJournal 77 (6): 829–36. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10708-010-9379-1.
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A Learning Journey into Contemporary Bioregionalism: People & Nature
The term “bioregionalism” has been in use for over forty years; it is an environmental philosophy, or social movement, that considers bioregions in relation to human and cultural relationships between people and the ecosystems they are dependent on. A bioregion is any geographical area defined by ecological systems rather than political boundaries. This collaborative research paper draws attention to how the term has been used and explores this lineage while examining “the landscape of contemporary bioregioning” (2129). “Bioregioning” is an emerging version of the term; as a verb is meant to emphasize action, i.e., running projects such as ecological restoration, food-energy-water transitions, policy implementation, etc. The benefit of engaging the concept of a bioregion is that it creates a relational conversation with the place one inhabits, bringing into focus sustainability, and a sense of responsibility that includes both human and non-human others. Bioregioning considers regional scale but also looks to ethics and a process for change created with others in a community. The authors contend that even in its new evolution, bioregioning still carries the risk of “disempower[ing] decolonial alternatives” and favouring environmental sustainability over social justice (2137). However, risks can also lead to new pathways: new ways for communities to relate to their region and to realize interdependence beyond one’s region.
Wearne, Samuel, Ella Hubbard, Krisztina Jónás, and Maria Wilke. 2023. "A Learning Journey into Contemporary Bioregionalism: People & Nature." People & Nature 5 (6): 2124–40. https://doi.org/10.1002/pan3.10548.
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