Paper short abstract:

This paper engages with local response to global climate change crisis, in the framework of permaculture farming and gardening methods. Through a range of ethnographic snapshots among subsistence farmers and gardeners in Sweden and Denmark, I get to grips with civic response to climate challenges.

Paper long abstract:

This paper engages with local response to global climate change challenges, in the framework of permaculture farming and gardening in Denmark and Sweden. Permaculture is a holistic design system for resilient living and land use, with special focus on regenerative agriculture and social wellbeing. Permaculture was introduced in 1978 by environmentalists Bill Mollison and David Holmgren as a response to the degradation of biodiversity and natural resources caused by the capitalist system, hereunder industrial agriculture. Thus, permaculture seeks to rebuild the relationship between humans and more-than-humans in their natural environment, by designing a system that provides humans with food, energy, shelter etc., in a way that ensures social and environmental wellbeing, rather than economic profit. Hereby, suggesting alternative paths to our common sustainable futures.

Through a range of ethnographic snapshots among civic actors/permaculturists in Denmark and Sweden who engage with permaculture methods, I direct attention to the imaginings and transformative aspects of permaculture in a local, everyday setting. Following the permaculturists in their everyday practices, reflection and sensemaking in and around their land, I get to grips with why and how they in their own everyday life strive towards a more sustainable (and even meaningful) way of living. These ethnographic snapshots work as locally situated examples of how individuals and groups in Denmark and Sweden practice alternative futures in their own everyday life. While most informants start at individual/household level some experience how their engagement grows and expands to include their friends, family and local community.