[p2p-research] incredibly interesting newsletter on participatory and sustainable design

[Michel Bauwens]

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From: Doors Report <doors-report at list.doorsofperception.com>
Date: Sun, Oct 4, 2009 at 11:17 PM
Subject: Doors of Perception: October 2009 - Letter from Poznan
To: Doors Report <doors-report at list.doorsofperception.com>


Doors of Perception Report
October 2009
Letter from Poznan
by John Thackara

TRANSITION COUNTRIES AND TRANSITION TOWNS (POZNAN)
I went to Poznan, in Poland, to speak at a conference called World
Innovation
Days. In brushing up on the history of the Wielkopolska region [of which
Poznan
is the capital] I was reminded that Central and Eastern countries of Europe
are
still called "Transition Countries" - as in, transitioning from communist
statehood to membership of a bright, shiny and high-tech European Union. To
help
them along, the EU wants transition countries to grasp the holy grail of
Innovation, which is why EU money paid for most of this event. Now in the
EU,
"innovation" is interpreted as high technology innovation - but, to their
credit, the organisers in Poznan invited several speakers [including me] to
talk
about social innovation, too. I devoted a fair bit of my piece to Transition
Towns which, I told my hosts, are the most important development happening
anywhere right now. I would like to report that everyone in Poznan said
"Yes! We
must link up with these fellow Transtioners" - but as this would entail a
180
degree policy about-turn, they didn't. It will take a while yet.
http://www.rsi-wielkopolska.pl/Page.aspx?v=3&se=5&sse=18&aid=66

CONCENTRATION CAMP FOR PIGS
Polish agriculture is becoming a cheap resource for globalised food "value
chains" that are are based on high energy inputs, growing transport
intensity,
and ever more complex forms of food processing. These latter refinements are
lauded as the fruits of innovation. But a grim reality lies behind this
glossy
image. An animal welfare blogger, Tom Garrett, visited what look to me (on
his
blog) like concentration camps for pigs. The rows of hog sheds are owned by
Poldanor, a Danish producer, which describes its sheds blandly as
Concentrated
Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs); in central Pomorskie alone, Poldanor
slaughters 300,000 pigs each year. Funding for Poldanor's massive expansion
in
Poland came from interest free loans advanced by the Danish Investment Fund
for
Central and Eastern Europe (IO), supervised by the Danish Foreign Ministry.
Garrett, sceptical that the huge scale of investment he saw was within the
capacity of the owners of record, a Danish farming cooperative with 160
members,
discovered that sitting members of the Danish government, along with
prominent
politicians, were among Poldanor investors. Sadly for them, these upstanding
citizens have not had the quiet and profitable ride they no doubt wished
for:
Civic committees opposed to factory farming have been established in many
Polish
villages; roads have been blocked to protest farmers who have signed
contracts
with agribusiness incomers; animal welfare activists are fighting to inform
the
public about the terrible conditions within CAFOs; and Denmark's SiG trade
union
described Poldanor's "takeover of slaughterhouses in Eastern Poland by the
Danish Crown (as) the outsourcing of Danish jobs", and called for a boycott
of
'Danish' pork products.
http://www.awionline.org/ht/d/ContentDetails/i/1904/pid/2506
http://www.themeatrix.com/intl/poland/aboutpoland_english.html
http://www.ccb.se/pdf/CCB%20Press03-03-04%20Helsinki.pdf

DIRTY MONEY (EU POLICY)
Another massive pork producer, Smithfield, financed its acquisition of
industrial pig farms in Poland using $100m dollars in loans from the
European
Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and other banks. Anna
Roggenbuck,
of Green Federation Gaja, says that the role of the EBRD is especially
important, since the Bank is supposed to follow an environmental mandate
rather
than, as in this case, fund ecocidal agricultural practices and
industrialised
cruelty to pigs. For more on this, check out CEE Bankwatch Network;
its mission is "to prevent environmentally and socially harmful impacts of
international development finance, and to promote alternative solutions
and public participation".
http://www.bankwatch.org/

AGRO-ECOLOGICAL FOOD SYSTEMS (POLAND and CALIFORNIA)
Denouncing dastardly Danes, and the EU, is therapeutic, but will not of
itself
change the bigger picture. Poland has 33,000 food processing companies, for
example. Anyone wishing to be taken seriously has to address the question:
what are they to do, if not what they do now?
Polish agriculture, with its 1.6 million small farms, vast tracts of land,
numeous watersheds, and rich biodiversity, can be a model of diverse
agro-ecology for the rest of the world - but how? For its small-scale system
to
survive, there's a need radically to reconfigure relationships between food
growers and consumers. Transparent economic relationships need to replace
attenuated private supply chains. Change this radical sounds, and is, hard.
But
there are numerous new models and schemes that might be seeded in Poland.
In my talk I gave, as examples of adpatable models, Fair Tracing and
California's FarmLink. The latter is a social venture that supports the
development, expansion, and succession of local farms and sustainable land
use;
FarmLink provides microfinance for projects between $1,000 and $100,000.
The EU's scandalous $100m soft loan to Smithfield could, on its own,
have been used to support tens of thousands of small farmers in Poland.
http://www.californiafarmlink.org/joomla/index.php

FAT IS AN URBANIST ISSUE (ALSO POLAND)
Luckily, I had talked with Geoff Mulgan at the Young Foundation in London on
my
way to Poland. He told me not to waste my breath warning politicians about
agribusiness or food security; they don't think these issues, or the
sustainability angle, are important. Tell people about the health impacts of
industrialised food instead, he counselled. This is because the on-costs of
obesity, in terms of chronic illnesses such as diabetes, really do alarm
policy
makers. By some estimates 20 per cent of the already out-of-control health
expenditures in the US can be traced back to diet - especially, poor people
eating over-processed food. So, for my talk in Poznan, I showed them a chart
on
which Polish chldren come third in a global league table of childhood
obesity -
behind US and British children.

FISH SYSTEMS
A grim new film, The End of the Line, reveals the impact of overfishing on
our
oceans. It exposes the extent to which global stocks of fish are dwindling;
features scientists who warn we could see the end of most seafood by 2048;
and
includes chefs and fishers who seem indifferent to the ecocidal consequences
of
their business practices. "We must act now to protect the sea from rampant
overfishing" says Charles Clover, author of the book of the film. Must,
must.
The difficulty with films like The End of the Line - as with 'An
Inconvenient
Truth', Michael Pollan's 'Food, Inc' - and my own story about pigs, above -
is
that so much bad news obscures positive developments. The End of the Line
received far more publicity, for example, than the launch of FishChoice.com
FishChoice.com is one of many business-to-business (B2B) innovations that
begin
to unlock an intractable problem: how to reconfigure food systems that lock
their participants into ecocidal behaviour. Read more at:
http://www.doorsofperception.com/archives/2009/08/post_50.php
http://fishchoice.com/About-FishChoice/Collaborating-Organizations.aspx
http://www.bsr.org/reports/BSR_EMI_Tools_Application.pdf

INTER-CITY BUS AS A PRODUCT-SERVICE SYSTEM
Plug-in electric cars are very popular with politicians and car companies:
they
embody the myth that we can all carry driving around in private vehicles as
normal, and the planet gets saved. It's a dangerous con: the true costs of
electric cars - from the heavy metals in their batteries, to the
coal-generated
power needed to run them - mean that their viability as a long-term
alternative
to unsustainable mobility is an illusion. My other unsolicited proposal in
Poznan, therefore, was that Poland should develop inter-city coach travel as
a
Product Service System [PSS]. Buses are by far the most envronmentally
friendly
form of public transport: they produce 29g of CO2 for every passenger
kilometre
travelled, compared with 52g for trains and 170g per passenger km for cars
and
airplanes. There's a huge opportunity here for Poland to take a global lead.
Car, road, and aviation industries have a death grip around the necks of
policy
makers in most countries, so bus travel is not developed. Poland already
makes
a lot of buses; what's needed next is an integrated combination of vehicles,
enhancements to existing infastructure, informatics - plus web 3.0 platforms
and social innovation to enable bus-to-home car sharing.

NEXT GENERATION DESIGN CENTRES
Whether it be agro-ecological food systems, or inter-city bus travel as a
PSS,
the individual components are available. The missing element is an entity
that
will coordinate the actors and components of a Product Service System.
It occurs to me that Europe contains a growing number of regional design
centres, innovation centres, enterprise observatories, cluster support
offices
and the like. Policy makers could usefully change their brief and tell them
to
focus on sustainable, multi-actor food and moblity systems, instead of
often-purposeless high tech.
http://www.eif.org/jeremie/

GREENING DESIGN EDUCATION
If design centres don't seize this opportunity, could design schools?
Poznan's
Academy of Fine Arts is in a project called DEEDS whose aim is to speed up
the
diffusion of sustainable development practice in Europe's design schools.
Bogumila Jung, the Academy's Dean, told me that they focus on experiential
learning in which students engage with real-life situations. These
experiences
help designers develop the holistic thinking needed if they are to be useful
when working among complex, multi-layered and interconnected systems.

DE-CARBONISED MOBILITY: URBAN SPORTS IN URBAN DESIGN
I was thrilled to receive an email from Claire Alleaume, Skate Champion of
France, no less. As well as being an ultra-modern form of de-carbonised
mobility, skateboarding is also Claire's job: she works for a communication
agency that works with architects, urban planners, and street furniture
designers on new ways to integrate urban sports like skateboarding,
rollerblading and bmxing. Anyway, Claire asks, "Is there anything I can read
which could help me reflect on this issue, make the right choices, and
concretely act with councils so as to work in the right direction?". My sad
reply to Claire was that I know more about urban composting than bmxing -
but
what about you, dear readers? Please suggest *the* best book or site for
Claire
that will help her develop these activities in cities. Send your suggestions
please to: john at doorsofperception dot com - and I'll pass them along.

BERLIN: "POOR BUT SEXY"
One reason Berlin's mayor calls the city "poor but sexy" is the city's art
scene. Anna Krenz inspired us in Poznan with a talk on how her tiny 20
square
metre shop-front and art space, Galerie Zero, has generated social and
cultural
energy in the Kreusberg area of Berlin. Krenz and her partner, Jacek Slaski,
have produced 100 pioneering art shows, installations and events over a six
year
period. I calculate that these 100 events cost less than building the men's
toilets in a Frank Gehry-type art museum. The importance of projects like
Galerie Zero is not just that they cost less than fancy museum buildings;
their
activities, being created in and by a community, also create a lot of the
social
capital that policy makers are so keen to foster. Urban planners and policy
makers should all get hold of of their new book: Zero, Berlin, 2003-2009 .
http://www.zero-project.org

SWORDS INTO PLOUGHSHARES - WELL, NEARLY (ST ETIENNE, FRANCE)
A TGV-full of of political and business leaders travelled from Paris to St
Etienne for the opening of Cite du design. Sixty four million euros ($93m)
has
been invested in the conversion of a former armaments manufacturing complex
into
a new design centre and design school. Everyone from the Minister of Culture
(a
big deal in France) to St Etienne's Mayor turned up to celebrate this
ambitious
project. They all agreed that design is a key ingredient in urban design,
high
tech innovation, and regional development. One suspects that that they all
had
different ideas about what those words mean, but that probably doesn't
matter.
At a conference in St Etienne next month called "Cities of Design" the
design-minded cities of Minneapolis, Montreal, Quebec, Toronto, Seoul,
Portland,
Eindhoven and Dortmund will all be represented. 30 November and 01 December,
St
Etienne. Info: camile.vilain at citedudesign.com

PLOUGHSHARES AS TECHNOLOGICAL DISOBEDIENCE (CUBA)
Cite du design is a broad church. Whilst hordes of courtiers flocked around
the
Minister like starlings at sunset, copies of a subversive new book, by
Ernesto
Oroza, were being distributed by Cite's publications team. Rikimbili - "a
study
of technological disobedience and other forms of re-invention" - describes
how
Cubans have adapted and recycled industrial objects during fifty years of US
sanctions. The book's title, Rikimbili, is named after a two-wheeled vehicle
that started its life as a bicycle. The book is subversive because, for me
anyway, it describes the kind of design we'll be doing in the coming age of
scarcity industrialism (a phrase of John Michael Greer). Design shows filled
with shiny objects, by contrast, are best perceived as historical events
about a
pardigm that has passed. Write direct to obtain your copy of Rikimbili to:
emilie.chabert at citedudesign dot com
http://citedudesign.com/sites/Editions/index.php?page=87&article=112
http://oroza.net/

MENTALISTS AND MATERIALISTS
I was at a most interesting conference in Plymouth, Making Futures, about
the
crafts in the context of sustainability. We discussed the prospects for
people
who can make things in an era of scarcity industrialism. I was especially
impressed by an organisation called Ethical Metalsmiths. Its founder, Susan
Kinglsey, told us that 20 tonnes of waste, among them river-poisoning
sulphides,
and mercury, are needed to produce one gold ring. A significant amount of
gold
(40%) is supplied by an estimated estimated twelve million artisan (ie, by
hand)
miners around the world. Many mining operations bring about environmental
degradation, involve child labor, and lead to the exploitation and further
impoverishment of these workers and communities. Kinglsey described a horror
phenomenon called Acid Mine Drainage as a "perpetual pollution machine".
http://www.ethicalmetalsmiths.org/
http://makingfutures.plymouthart.ac.uk/index.php?page=Conference-Home&pag_id=2
http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.com/2007/10/age-of-scarcity-industrialism.html

]    FORTHCOMING EVENTS

DO TRUE COST ECONOMICS SPELL FINITO FOR THE MILAN DESIGN SCENE?
(MILAN, 8 OCTOBER)
Few artefacts embody so much mental, but also material energy, as a high
design
furniture from Milan. Will this sector be viable when the true social and
environmental costs of industrial production start to be charged, rather
than
hidden? Well maybe, and maybe not: my lecture is followed by a debate.
Thursday 8 October, Design Library, via Savona 11, Milan. Tel +39 02 894
21225

DESIGN FOR DEVELOPMENT (LONDON. 10 OCTOBER)
The poster asks, ""How can the benefits of design be extended beyond the
worlds
wealthy to everyone?" This question begs many questions, as will be evident
in
this discussion chaired by Alastair Fuad-Luke, author of Design Activism.
Speakers include Guy Robinson, Director of industrial design consultancy
Sprout,
Ann Thorpe, researcher and author of The Designer's Atlas of Sustainability,
and me. 15-17h, 10 October, Bargehouse, London.
http://designfordevelopment.eventbrite.com/

2012 IMPERATIVE TEACH-IN (LONDON, 12 OCTOBER)
This Global Emergency Teach-in for ecological literacy in design education
will
be "a massive social learning project" based on the example of a similar
teach-in, held in 2007 at the New York Academy of Science, that reached a
quarter million people from 47 countries. Any university or college can
participate in this new Teach-in by hosting a viewing of the event. If
you're in
the London area, you need to obtain tickets for the Teach-in at the V&A.
http://www.teach-in.eco-labs.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=73&Itemid=94

DOES THE IDEAL ECO CITY EXIST? (CAEN, FRANCE, 14 OCTOBER)
This event is in France and will be in French so here's the blurb in French
(I'm
in a round table there on 14 October): Quelle sera la forme de la ville de
demain? Comment construire plus vite des logements à la fois moins chers et
plus
économes en énergie ? Comment concilier la qualité de vie et une forme
d'habitat
plus dense et plus durable ? La voiture sera-t-elle encore la reine des
villes
dans 50 ans ? L'éco-cité idéale existe-t-elle ? Autant de questions à
l'ordre du
jour de "Caen Les Rencontres, Première", qui feront de Caen une vaste agora
citoyenne sur l'urbanisme, l'architecture et le développement durable durant
tout le mois d'octobre. Autour de l'exposition "voisins - voisines", et sous
la
présidence de François Barré, les Caennaises et les Caennais sont invités à
échanger avec les plus grands architectes-urbanistes lors de quatre journées
de
conférences, de débats et de convivialité.
http://www.caen-lesrencontres.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=57:seconde&catid=38:rencontres&Itemid=160

THE NEW ECONOMICS (BOOK LAUNCH, LONDON, 14 OCTOBER)
Why do modern Britons work harder than medieval peasants? Why are Malawi
villagers paying the mortgages of Surbiton stockbrokers? And why did China
pay
for the Iraq war? A new approach to economics - deriving as much from Ruskin
and
Schumacher as from Keynes or Smith - has begun to emerge. Skeptical about
money
as a measure of success, this new economics turns our assumptions about
wealth
and poverty upside down. It shows us that real wealth can be measured by
increased well-being and environmental sustainability rather than just
having
and consuming more things. This new book by David Boyle and Andrew Simms
is published on 14 October.
http://www.earthscan.co.uk/?tabid=74731

POPULAR E-GOVERNMENT (MALMO 19-20 NOVEMBER)
Are you full of aspirations about what e-enabled government could do for us
in
Europe but also a little frustrated by official conferences and Ministerial
pronouncements? Then perhaps this is the chance you've been waiting for. The
first popular European e-government conference, which takes place in Malmö,
Sweden 19-20 November 2009, "aims to offer a memorable creative statement of
what Europeans really want from e-enabled government". It is particularly
aimed
at European digital-rights organisations, consumer advocates, and those with
a
political, academic, artistic or design interest in e-government. No
presentation will last longer than eight minutes.
http://malmo09.org/

FOUR DAYS IN HALIFAX (NOVA SCOTIA, 21-24 OCTOBER)
If you're in or near Halifax Nova Scotia during 21-24 October, we're part of
an
event called 4 Days Halifax that will explore the ways design can help this
lively region in its transition to sustainability. I told the organisers,
Peter
Wuensch and Rachel Derrah, to think of Doors of Perception as a "Hubble
Telescope turned backwards" - the idea being that it often takes an outsider
to
help grassroots people and groups, who are the acorns of a sustainable
future,
become better known or visible in their own backyard. 21-24 October,
Halifax.
http://4days.ca/
http://www.facebook.com/pages/4-Days/137754558339

ANY MORE QUESTIONS?
I did an interview with Design21, a social design network:
http://www.design21sdn.com/feature/6355



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-- 
Work: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhurakij_Pundit_University - Research:
http://www.dpu.ac.th/dpuic/info/Research.html - Think thank:
http://www.asianforesightinstitute.org/index.php/eng/The-AFI

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