As inspired by the documentary seen in class, the research paper component of my final project will be an investigation into permaculture. I will first provide a more explicit and thorough description of the permaculture ideology, specifically its three ethics and twelve guiding principles. From there, I plan to position both the theory and practice of permaculture in the context of specific environmental challenges facing the planet. This will evolve into profiling permaculture projects happening around the world, to illustrate permaculture’s potency and scope. I will try to provide a diverse array of projects, that vary by location, purpose, and implementation. This section will likely function similarly to the documentary we watched, which was powerful by way of its demonstration of permaculture in action. The projects I have read into so far range from North Carolina to the Jordanian desert. In the final section, I hope to be able to relate the philosophy and specific permaculture designs to the Duke community, with a particular focus on Duke’s green spaces like the Duke Campus Farm or the Nicholas School’s rooftop garden.
The actionable, application-based component of my final will either be a creative visual representation of my research (likely as a Padlet vision-board) or some sort of proposal for a permaculture design at one of Duke’s green spaces. This could be written, and largely derivative of my research paper, or an in-person meeting with those involved (for instance, between Dr. Cornes of the Duke Campus Farm, Professor Gould and myself).
The actionable component of this assignment is something that I am still unsure of, and any ideas or suggestions would be appreciated, as I unfortunately missed our class where we presented our research ideas. Thank you!
