Re: <nettime> Bioregionalism

Hi Michael, hi all,

The bioregional movement is much more recent in Europe, insofar as it continues on from what was build in the United States. In France there is a very old regionalist movement, centrifugal in relation to French administrative centralism. Patrick Geddes, the Scottish biologist and planning pioneer, is an important figure. A similar movement here, over the past few decades, which has merged with bioregionalism, is that of the Territorialists, around the Italian architect, Alberto Magnaghi.

The issues in Europe are very different from those in the "New" World, where local populations lived in light symbiosis with the land until the colonialists arrived. Nature in Europe has been transformed over millennia by agricultural society, that has created largely humanised urban and rural landscapes (even seemingly natural mountain forests have been the object of husbandry), yet in harmony with the biosphere, until the industrial age turned vast swathes into an open-air factory.

With a group of friends, I am involved in a project to create a bioregional design cooperative. It will hopefully see the light of day in September...

Best wishes -

Joe.

Le 18 juil. 2023 à 15:01, Michael Gregory via Nettime-tmp <nettime-tmp@mail.ljudmila.org> a écrit :

Yes, Joe, some of us were and still are connected with the bioregionalism movement, which continues in many descendant efforts (rewilding, community farms, etc) trying under stress of climate change and unrelenting growth-at-any-cost economics to build sustainable communities -- even sustainable cities -- for production of food and other resources based on recognition of regional physiogeographic and ecosystem conditions.

Here in the US Southwest, the movement is inherent, for instance, in a vibrant contemporary back to the land exodus from urban centers reminiscent of the diaspora in Berg and Dasmann's day, with many today moving into little houses out in the boonies, harvesting rainwater rather than pumping scarce groundwater, using wind and solar energy instead of fossil fuels, forming self-assistance networks, exploring alternative (i.e., low water-use) crops, etc.

Michael Gregory

Michael Gregory
- www.michaelgregoryaz.net
- www.reddragonflypress.org/2020-titles/pound-laundry

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