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Environmental Values

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Ecologically sustainable rural development and the difficulty of social change

Brian Furze

Environmental Values 1(1992): 141-155. doi: 10.3197/096327192776680106

This article explores the importance of environmental perception in the context of alternative agrarian social relations. Because environmental perception is socially constructed, the article is concerned with how those with an alternative agenda for agrarian practice attempt change, and the likely difficulties faced due to the structural requirements and effects of the dominant paradigm of development. It explores the need for a clear model of change, both in its outcomes and its change strategies, and the difficulties that may be faced. The article draws on a case study of a rural landsharing collective in Australia to contextualize these broader issues, and considers some of the implications of the findings for instigating the broader concern of an ecologically sustainable agrarian practice based on permacultural design.

KEYWORDS: permaculture, rural land sharers, sustainable agriculture, sustainable rural development

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