[Oe List ...] Conservation Economy

[LAURELCG at aol.com]

Forwarded by Jann McGuire.  Stuart Cowan was one of my teachers at University 
of Creation Spirituality, a visionary scientist.
 
Web site review by Tom Atlee: Another of my favorite developments is Stuart 
Cowan's "Patterns of a Conservation  Economy" 
<http://www.conservationeconomy.net> which delineate a "pattern language" for bioregional sustainability. A 
"pattern language" is architect/planner Christopher Alexander's term for a 
coherent collection of design elements needed to make a livable Place -- from 
micro-factors like back yards to macro-factors like regional plans. Each design 
element acts like a systemic "need" which can be satisfied in a wide variety of 
ways -- so the whole system of design  elements ("the pattern language") 
encourages tremendous creativity and diversity.
 
Cowan's modular/ fractal web of such factors constitutes a mini- encyclopedia 
of sustainable ideas and practices, such as
 * Awareness of Consumption and Its Effects
 * Beauty and Play
 * Community-Based Financial Institutions
 * Cyclical Patterns of Production and Consumption
 * Local Currencies and Trading Systems
 * Practical Skills in Support of Place
 * Regional Tax Revenue Sharing
 * Urban Growth Boundaries
 * Waste as a Resource
 * Wildlife Corridors
 * and dozens more.
 
 
 Notice how each one of these systemic needs can be satisfied in many 
 different ways, which makes room for the many different initiatives 
 we're all working on. The whole pattern is laid out in a web-like 
 chart, and you can click on any part of it to get a succinct 
 description of that factor and its links to related elements in the 
 overall pattern language. This beautifully integrated map -- in its 
 concept, content and presentation -- gives me hope that we just might 
 pull together our far-flung movements into a coherent whole -- a 
 wholesome cultural eddy ready to absorb the chaotic energies of 
 transition and become the whirlpool of a future new society.
 
 
 Already each pattern description (which you find when you click on 
 the pattern name at <http://www.conservationeconomy.net>) includes 
 organizations and references that are relevant to that particular 
 area of life. At any time we could start expanding and deepening 
 this shared map -- using its form for cataloguing and linking all our 
 groups, initiatives, innovations, and resources. (Cowan has now 
 started a consulting firm, Autopoiesis <http://www.apoiesis.com/> to 
 actualize the insights he has gained in such studies as this. And I 
 am hoping over the next year to begin design of a comparable pattern 
 language for evolutionary dynamics to support people wanting to 
 consciously, proactively engage in the evolution of human 
 consciousness and social systems. But Cowan's original map remains, 
 begging to be filled out. Do you know anyone who would like to start 
 mapping ALL our resources and initiatives into the Conservation  Economy 
pattern language, and bringing others into that world?)
 
 
 Anne Forbes