Place-Based Knowledge
Place and Pedagogy
In “Place and Pedagogy,” David Orr contemplates education and community experience and posits that education has been reduced to an activity that occurs in “a collection of buildings” (183), that learning has been siloed into disciplines, and that we are alienated from the place we live in. “Place is nebulous to educators because to a great extent, we are a deplaced people for whom our immediate places are no longer sources of food, water, livelihood, energy, materials, friends, recreation, or sacred inspiration” (184). He describes our environment—the shopping mall, apartment, neon strip, glass office tower, freeway—as consisting of architectural expressions of deplacement, “none of which encourage much sense of rootedness, responsibility, and belonging” (184). Nomadism has been around for a long time but today it exists at a much larger scale, which leads Orr to question how long it takes to cultivate a sense of place. He proposes we work against social and ecological “degeneracy” by exploring the place where we live and work.
Orr, David. 2013. “Place and Pedagogy.” NAMTA Journal 38 (1): 183–88. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1078034.
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The Transition Companion: Making Your Community More Resilient in Uncertain Times
Through The Transition Companion book Rob Hopkins seeks to answer the question, “What would it look like if the best responses to peak oil and climate change came not from committees and Acts of Parliament, but from you and me and the people around us” (13)? Hopkins proposes that waiting for government takes too long and is not enough, and acting as individuals does not make enough of a difference, “but if we act as communities, it might just be enough, just in time” (12). Community engagement is at the heart of the book’s message. Hopkins focuses on five years of practical experience based on the transition movement (also transition theory) with projects that occurred primarily in the UK. Transition theory focuses on localized and resilient communities. It makes its point by featuring a diversity of projects that used transition as a grassroots organizing methodology but also offers a handbook approach with practical ‘how tos’ of transitioning with guidance on starting out, deepening and connecting one’s organizing, building, and dream casting for looking ahead.
Hopkins, Rob. 2011. The Transition Companion: Making Your Community More Resilient in Uncertain Times. Green Books.
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Transition Design: Design-led societal transition toward a more sustainable future
Transition design theorists Terry Irwin, Gideon Kossoff and Cameron Tonkinwise present an exploration of their new theory of transition design at the 2013 AIGA Design Conference. Their talk covers the basic principles of the theory, a discussion of “cosmopolitan localism” as a desirable model for a sustainable culture, and the role of designers in leading society through a transition to this “sustainable everyday life” through planning processes that consist of a series of “situated actions” rather that rigid plans. They discuss the need for teams of interdisciplinary experts to collaborate with grassroots, “place-based” communities and argue for nonhierarchical relationships between communities, regions, governments, and global networks. They envision a future where respect for ecosystems is built into society and where exploitative labour is a thing of the past. They propose models of design thinking that they suggest can help achieve these goals.
AIGAdesign. 2013. Terry Irwin, Gideon Kossoff & Cameron Tonkinwise. Video. Head, Heart, Hand: AIGA Design Conference. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGpNqfsucn0.
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The Quintuple Bottom Line: A Framework for Place-Based Sustainable Enterprise in the Craft Industry
This article explores the ways that contemporary craft businesses can be looked at as case studies to illustrate new economic models. The authors draw on several alternative models that foreground sustainability, such as cradle-to-cradle, doughnut, and circular economics. They argue that the sustainability ethics of these models need to be embedded in business, so they propose a “Quintuple Bottom Line” that makes “purpose, profit, people, planet and place” the foundation of business decisions (1). The authors examine the craft practices of small business owners in Scotland and Nepal, finding that that craftspeople in both locations are sensitive to the influence and potential of place on their work. They find, for example, that a large percentage of the Scottish craftspeople wished to or had already taken steps towards making their businesses environmentally sustainable (5). In Nepal, the authors interviewed the owners of small social enterprises, and found many that relied on principles of circular economy. For example, many new businesses found material opportunities in the recycling of agri-waste into their products (9). Many of these emerging businesses also made use of traditional an Indigenous knowledge related to the ecosystems and farming practices of the area (11). In both countries, environmental awareness was high among business owners who often sought to reuse and recycle waste material when possible. This article highlights how environmental awareness can be integrated into the practices of businesses that make small scale material products grounded in traditional and place-based knowledge.
Panneels, Inge. 2023. “The Quintuple Bottom Line: A Framework for Place-Based Sustainable Enterprise in the Craft Industry.” Sustainability 15 (4): 3791. https://doi.org/10.3390/su15043791.
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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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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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