Renewing the relationship between permaculture and contemporary science – and we need your perspective.
Who does permaculture?
How do they participate? And why?
Right now, the big picture answer is: we don’t know.
We are conducting a survey that is one of the first attempts to gather systematic information about how and why people participate in permaculture. Right now, permaculture is pretty disconnected from the scientific community. We believe that everyone stands to gain from strengthening the dialog between permaculture practice and scientific research.
The survey is open to all adults (18 or over) who participate, in some way, with the permaculture movement. It does not matter if you are a new student or an old hand – all kinds of participants are welcome. The survey contains diverse questions about what kinds of activities you engage in that connect with permaculture, and the different ways this participation effects your life. The whole survey should take 25-30 minutes to complete. You do not have to answer any questions that you are not comfortable answering. Participation is completely voluntary, and all responses will be kept completely confidential.
We deeply appreciate your participation in the Permaculture Research Project. While there is no direct benefit to you as a respondent, by responding you will help build an understanding of the diverse ways in which people do permaculture, and their motivations for doing so. Youʼll be helping us establish permaculture as a scientifically- grounded approach to sustainable agriculture and holistic landscape design.
This study is being conducted by me, Rafter Sass Ferguson – permaculturist since 2003 and current doctoral student in Crop Sciences at University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign. The project is supervised by my advisor, Dr. Sarah Taylor Lovell. This survey is one part of my dissertation research, which deals with many aspects of science and practice in permaculture.