Climate Change and the Transition Movement in Eastern Europe: The Case of Czech Permaculture

Abstract

This paper focuses on a grassroots community movement addressing climate change: the transnational Transition (Towns) movement. While this movement has mainly spread to Anglophone countries, it is almost entirely absent from Eastern Europe and the Czech Republic in particular. The aim of this paper is to explain why the Transition movement-a grassroots community initiative-has not been successfully adopted in the post-socialist Czech Republic, and why the issue of climate change has not become an important frame for the local permaculture movement which introduced the idea of Transition to the country. The paper presents an analysis of ideological frames and framing processes of the local movement. Reasons identified for the movement's absence from the Czech Republic include the fact that it was largely overshadowed by the broader post-socialist transformation in Eastern Europe, that there was little public awareness of climate change and no real culture of community organising in the post-socialist period, and that a strong climate scepticism was promoted by Czech political elites. Other reasons relate to the ideological frames of the local permaculture movement, which is centred more on prognostic and mobilising frames, combined with a positive agenda and an emphasis on practical activities, and revolves around individualised strategies and frames in which permaculture and a nature religion (Anastasian spirituality) are linked to the concept of a 'family homestead'. The research draws on in-depth interviews with permaculture practitioners, media analysis, the study of documents, and participant observation.

Permaculture and back‐to‐the‐land migration: Pursuing self‐sufficiency in Czech rural areas

“…These permaculturists express being influenced by various forms of religiosity or spirituality; some are Christians, some are atheists, and others are inclined towards Buddhism. However, the nature‐based spirituality of Anastasia transferred from Russia has been paramount in the influential discourses of the permaculture leaders, especially the teachings of Jaroslav Svoboda, the charismatic leader whose book Ecogarders is considered by many adherents as their ‘bible’ (Kolářová, 2020, p. 375). Svoboda claims to have brought several thousand followers to permaculture by teaching courses, talking to the media and publishing books and articles on his website since 2005.…”

“…The Czech permaculture movement mixes ideological influences -traditional permaculture ideas from Australia and other western countries and nature-based spirituality transferred from Russia (Kolářová, 2020). This article explores how back-to-the-land migrants practising permaculture integrate into the local communities where they settle, which has not yet been studied.…”

“…Research on permaculture is mostly focused on Anglophone countries, while the literature about Eastern Europe is largely underdeveloped (exceptions are Aistara, 2013, and Brawner, 2015). The Czech permaculture movement mixes ideological influences – traditional permaculture ideas from Australia and other western countries and nature‐based spirituality transferred from Russia (Kolářová, 2020). This article explores how back‐to‐the‐land migrants practising permaculture integrate into the local communities where they settle, which has not yet been studied.…”

Perspectivas para la aplicación de la permacultura en los páramos altoandinos

“…En Latvia, se lleva a cabo la construcción de prácticas basadas en tres grupos de transformación ecológica dentro de en granjas de permacultura, a través de cultivos o jardinería orgánica, construcción ecológica y prácticas de estilos de vida ecológicos. Incluyendo un activismo social y ambiental(Felcis & Felcis, 2021) En Hungría se cuentan con granjas para fines investigativos de conservación de biodiversidad por parte de la asociación Húngara de Permacultura, investigaciones que corroboran la riqueza nutricional y microbiológica de los suelos manejados con sistemas de permacultura por sobre los de otros sistemas de producción(Centeri et al, 2021), pues se lo considera como una solución futura de producción de alimentos aprovechando el microclima creado en bosques de abedules y el cultivo de flores nativas.En República Checa y Eslovaquia en la década de los 90, cuenta con asociaciones como la checoslovaca de Permakultura, quien emite certificaciones y cuenta con una red de sitios de demostración de la permacultura a traves de 35 proyectos(Kolářová, 2020).En Shipka, Bulgaria, destacan los jardines de permacultura en hogares rurales, donde se promueve el cultivo de especies para mantener la cubierta permanente del suelo con especies como ortiga, trébol blanco y muelle, además han desarrollado dietas, que las incluyen como ensaladas y fuente de vitaminas propias de los cultivos realizados en la zona, conceptualizando que todas las especies cumplen un rol en los jardines implementados(Brawner, 2015).En Inglaterra existen más de 1200 permacultores individuales, 67 asociaciones y 18 de carácter empresarial, e incluso organismos que dictan cursos acreditados y diplomados, también se cuenta con redes de aprendizaje de demostración entre ellos huertos (familiares y comunitarios), parques públicos, minifundios y granjas tanto para expertos o practicantes de permacultura y otros para el público en general(Ingram et al, 2014;Rhodes, 2015).En Alemania, la permacultura llega en la década de los 80, donde se instauran organismos de impartición de conocimiento y certificaciones de permacultura, además obtención de diplomados en proyectos de diseño de permacultura urbana(Ulbrich & Pahl-Wostl, 2019).En Rumanía se potencia el turismo rural, priorizando el conservar la belleza de la zona rural, con una práctica común de alojamiento de los turistas en hogares campesinos para vivir una experiencia rural(Epuran et al, 2021). Parte de ese potencial turístico es favorecido por el "downshifting" que significa conexión con la vida, la familia, lo espiritual y la naturaleza, enfocado principalmente en personas urbanas(Epuran et al, 2021).En Malawi se tiene una permacultura conocida como BGP que se basa en jardines con agua de pozo ya que es propenso a sequías, que se basa en el aprovechamiento y transformación del agua residual para regar jardines y huertos hortícolas (Hinton et al, 2021)…”

An Emerging Network for Sustainable Agriculture

“…The applications of permaculture core ethics and design principles were disseminated via the 72-hour Permaculture Design Certificate (PDC) course format which was generally considered as the de facto mode of entry into the permaculture network for most practitioners (Abiral, 2019). PDC courses were reported to have been offered in countries such as India (Suresh, 2010;Fadaee, 2019), Japan (Paull, 2011;Chakroun, 2020), Nepal (Upreti & Upreti, 2002;Bhandari & Bista, 2019;Mayer, 2019) as well as Continental Europe (Ulbrich, 2016;Kolarova, 2020;Oliveira & Penha-Lopes, 2020) and the Americas (Millner, 2017;Caraway, 2018) among many others.…”