So far in this course we’ve been studying what we call visible structures in permaculture. These are things you can see, feel, taste, and touch - the natural world and human settlements.
But the agreements between humans and the designs of how we interact with each other are just as important to the success of the design and when neglected, are very often the reason that designs fail.
These are structures that we have built just as surely as we build homes and roads. We often don’t consider who designed these structures, or the purpose of it, or how it is actually working, or question any of it. The agreements upon which our culture is built are just “there.”
“That’s just the way things are”.
But of course, that’s no more true than it is true there is only one way to farm or build a house. In permaculture, we divide these structures into a few categories. Any one of these can be a life long study and major skill set in itself. These are:
Culture
Education
Health
Spiritual wellness
Finance
Community governance
Land tenure (land access)
Next we’re going to strive to give you some basic tools in areas where most design failures occur, which are culture, finance, land access, and community.