DOCSLIB.ORG

Carol Koziol Phd Dissertation with Final Revisions.Pdf

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Carol Koziol Phd Dissertation with Final Revisions.Pdf An Exploration of Four Ecovillages through the Ecoresilient Lens of Spirituality by Carol Ann Koziol A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Human Studies The Faculty of Graduate Studies Laurentian University Sudbury, Ontario, Canada © Carol Ann Koziol, 2020 THESIS DEFENCE COMMITTEE/COMITÉ DE SOUTENANCE DE THÈSE Laurentian Université/Université Laurentienne Faculty of Graduate Studies/Faculté des études supérieures Title of Thesis Titre de la thèse An Exploration of Four Ecovillages through the Ecoresilient Lens of Spirituality Name of Candidate Nom du candidat Koziol, Carol Ann Degree Diplôme Doctor of Philosophy Department/Program Date of Defence Département/Programme Human Studies Date de la soutenance October 14, 2020 APPROVED/APPROUVÉ Thesis Examiners/Examinateurs de thèse: Dr. Brett Buchanan (Co-Supervisor/Co-directeur de thèse) Dr. William Crumplin (Co-supervisor/Co-directeur de thèse) Dr. Philippa Spoel (Committee member/Membre du comité) Approved for the Faculty of Graduate Studies Approuvé pour la Faculté des études supérieures Dr. Lace Marie Brogden Madame Lace Marie Brogden Dr. Manuel Riemer Acting Dean, Faculty of Graduate Studies (External Examiner/Examinateur externe) Doyenne intérimaire, Faculté des études supérieures Dr. Émilie Pinard (Internal Examiner/Examinateur interne) ACCESSIBILITY CLAUSE AND PERMISSION TO USE I, Carol Ann Koziol, hereby grant to Laurentian University and/or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or for the duration of my copyright ownership. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also reserve the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. I further agree that permission for copying of this thesis in any manner, in whole or in part, for scholarly purposes may be granted by the professor or professors who supervised my thesis work or, in their absence, by the Head of the Department in which my thesis work was done. It is understood that any copying or publication or use of this thesis or parts thereof for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. It is also understood that this copy is being made available in this form by the authority of the copyright owner solely for the purpose of private study and research and may not be copied or reproduced except as permitted by the copyright laws without written authority from the copyright owner. ii Abstract Ecovillages worldwide continue to develop processes and solutions to face the known and unknown, social and ecological, climate-related challenges confronting communities. After a review of resilience concepts, the term ‘ecoresilience’ is defined. This research explores ecovillages through the lens of ecoresilience, specifically, the under-studied aspect of spirituality. Spirituality is framed as the simple conviction that there is more to life than we can materially observe. The exploration of four ecovillages develops through mixed data collection methods of site visits, interviews, guided tours, and a historical review. A case study approach comparatively evaluates and analyzes the ecoresilience of the four ecovillages La Cité Écologique in Quebec, Whole Village Ecovillage in Ontario, The Park at Findhorn in Scotland, and The Federation of Damanhur in Italy. A significant finding uncovered how spirituality positively impacts ecovillage ecoresilience. Beginning with the purpose of an ecovillage, and continuing through individual and collective activities, spirituality supports and builds spiritual capital in communities. Spiritual capital creates a shock absorber to help community members manoeuvre through adverse events. The case studies displayed many unique examples of building spiritual capital through the three spiritual themes, including connection to the web of life, engaged spirituality through social-ecological efforts, and the arts. Spirituality ensures a strong connection to the web of life, builds community cohesion, and both are essential ingredients for future ecovillage ecoresilience. Other mainstream lessons gleaned from this research are intergenerational governance, cooperative living, low-impact lifestyles, nature-based education, the ability to adapt to change, and the importance of individual and communal spiritual activities to ecoresilience. Keywords: Ecovillage, Intentional Community, Resilience, Community Resilience, Transformative Resilience, Ecoresilience, Spiritual Capital, Engaged Spirituality iii Table of Contents Abstract ....................................................................................................................................................... iii Table of Contents ....................................................................................................................................... iv List of Illustrations ................................................................................................................................... viii Preface .......................................................................................................................................................... x Chapter 1 - Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 1 1.1 Background ......................................................................................................................................... 2 1.2 Research Questions ............................................................................................................................. 5 1.3 Interdisciplinarity ................................................................................................................................ 6 1.4 Thesis Outline ..................................................................................................................................... 8 Chapter 2 - What are Ecovillages? .......................................................................................................... 10 2.1 Intentional Communities ................................................................................................................... 10 2.1.1 Other Communities .................................................................................................................... 11 2.2 Definition of Ecovillage .................................................................................................................... 13 2.2.1 Global Ecovillage Movement .................................................................................................... 16 2.2.2 Characteristics of an Ecovillage ................................................................................................. 19 2.2.3 Ecovillage Sustainability ............................................................................................................ 21 2.2.4 Ecovillage Challenges ................................................................................................................ 23 2.3 Why Study Ecovillages? ................................................................................................................... 26 Chapter 3 - What is Ecoresilience? ......................................................................................................... 29 3.1 Resilience Defined ............................................................................................................................ 29 3.1.1 Psychological Resilience ............................................................................................................ 31 3.1.2 Social-Ecological Resilience ...................................................................................................... 32 3.1.3 Adaptive Cycle and Panarchy .................................................................................................... 34 3.2 Transformative Resilience ................................................................................................................ 38 3.2.1 Community Resilience ............................................................................................................... 41 3.2.2 Inner Resilience.......................................................................................................................... 43 3.3 Sustainability vs. Resilience ............................................................................................................. 45 3.4 Ecoresilience Defined ....................................................................................................................... 47 3.5 Spirituality and Ecoresilience ........................................................................................................... 49 3.5.1 Community Impacts ................................................................................................................... 50 3.5.2 Cultural/Spiritual Principles ....................................................................................................... 53 3.5.3 Connection to the Web of Life ................................................................................................... 55 3.5.4 Engaged Spirituality ..................................................................................................................
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Philosophical Foundations of Health Education
    PHILOSOPHICAL FOUNDATIONS OF HEALTH EDUCATION BL ACK FURNEY Philosophical Foundations of Health Education covers the philosophical and ethical foundations of the practice of health education in school, community, work site, and GRAF hospital settings, as well as in health promotion consultant activities. The book presents NOLTE personal philosophies of health educators, essential philosophical perspectives, and a range of philosophical issues that are relevant to health education practice. Philosophical PHILOSOPHICAL Foundations of Health Education is organized around the fi ve major philosophical traditions: cognitive-based, decision-making, behavior change, freeing/functioning, and social change. Co-published with the American Association for Health Education, this important work is an essential resource for student and professional. Each section contains a challenge to the reader that suggests critical thinking questions to reinforce the key points of the chapter, EDUCATION HEALTH FOUNDATIONS invite comparison with other perspectives, refl ect on the implications of the perspective, note themes that run through the chapters, and consider practical applications of the OF FOUNDATIONS PHILOSOPHICAL various philosophical approaches. The Editors OF Jill M. Black, PhD, CHES, is an associate professor in the Department of Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance at Cleveland State University and coordinator of the Community Health Education Program. She is a fellow of the American Association for Health Education. Steven R. Furney, EdD, MPH, is a professor of Health Education and director of the Division of Health Education at Texas State University. He is a fellow of the American Association for HEALTH Health Education. Helen M. Graf, PhD, is an associate professor and undergraduate program director in the Department of Health and Kinesiology at Georgia Southern University.
    [Show full text]
  • Hinduism and Hindu Philosophy
    Essays on Indian Philosophy UNIVE'aSITY OF HAWAII Uf,FU:{ Essays on Indian Philosophy SHRI KRISHNA SAKSENA UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII PRESS HONOLULU 1970 Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 78·114209 Standard Book Number 87022-726-2 Copyright © 1970 by University of Hawaii Press All Rights Reserved Printed in the United States of America Contents The Story of Indian Philosophy 3 Basic Tenets of Indian Philosophy 18 Testimony in Indian Philosophy 24 Hinduism 37 Hinduism and Hindu Philosophy 51 The Jain Religion 54 Some Riddles in the Behavior of Gods and Sages in the Epics and the Puranas 64 Autobiography of a Yogi 71 Jainism 73 Svapramanatva and Svapraka!;>atva: An Inconsistency in Kumarila's Philosophy 77 The Nature of Buddhi according to Sankhya-Yoga 82 The Individual in Social Thought and Practice in India 88 Professor Zaehner and the Comparison of Religions 102 A Comparison between the Eastern and Western Portraits of Man in Our Time 117 Acknowledgments The author wishes to make the following acknowledgments for permission to reprint previously published essays: "The Story of Indian Philosophy," in A History of Philosophical Systems. edited by Vergilius Ferm. New York:The Philosophical Library, 1950. "Basic Tenets of Indian Philosophy," previously published as "Are There Any Basic Tenets of Indian Philosophy?" in The Philosophical Quarterly. "Testimony in Indian Philosophy," previously published as "Authority in Indian Philosophy," in Ph ilosophyEast and West. vo!.l,no. 3 (October 1951). "Hinduism," in Studium Generale. no. 10 (1962). "The Jain Religion," previously published as "Jainism," in Religion in the Twentieth Century. edited by Vergilius Ferm.
    [Show full text]
  • Eco-Collaboration Between Higher Education and Ecovillages A
    Partnerships for Sustainability: Eco-Collaboration between Higher Education and Ecovillages A PROJECT SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA BY Kiernan Jeanette Gladman IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF LIBERAL STUDIES February 2014 ©Kiernan Jeanette Gladman 2014 For John May the soles of our shoes wear down together. i Paradise (John Prine) When I was a child, my family would travel Down to western Kentucky where my parents were born And there's a backwards old town that's often remembered So many times that my memories are worn Chorus: And Daddy, won't you take me back to Muhlenberg County Down by the Green River where Paradise lay Well, I'm sorry, my son, but you're too late in asking Mister Peabody's coal train has hauled it away Well sometimes we'd travel right down the Green River To the abandoned old prison down by Adrie Hill Where the air smelled like snakes and we'd shoot with our pistols But empty pop bottles was all we would kill Chorus And the coal company came with the world's largest shovel And they tortured the timber and stripped all the land Well, they dug for their coal till the land was forsaken Then they wrote it all down as the progress of man Chorus When I die let my ashes float down the Green River Let my soul roll on up to the Rochester dam I'll be halfway to Heaven with Paradise waitin' Just five miles away from wherever I am Chorus ii CONTENTS ILLUSTRATIONS ...............................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Life Divine Chapter XXIV: Spiritual Evolution of Man 1. Allegory of the Aeonic Visitor to Earth A. the Purpose Is Not Apparent T
    Life Divine Chapter XXIV: Spiritual Evolution of Man 1. Allegory of the aeonic visitor to Earth A. The purpose is not apparent though might be perceived by a careful observer. 2. Man & Evolution A. Double Movement of Evolution . Evolution of Forms . Evolution of Consciousness . At each stage the form and consciousness have developed in harmony B. Science concludes life, mind and spirit are only forms of material activity . Like assuming electricity is a product of water and clouds because lightning occurs then . Energy of electricity is the foundation of energy substance . What seems to be a result is the cause C. Psychological progress of humanity is a fact – evolution in consciousness within the type D. Social evolution through three stages E. Appearance of human mind and body on earth marks a crucial step to conscious evolution F. Tradition assumes Mind is the last step . Tradition misses the teleology of creation 3. What is spiritual evolution? -- stages A. Action of spirit in our life B. Conscious experience of the touch of spirit on our being C. Discovery and realization of Spirit D. Ascent to Supermind and Supramental transformation of our Nature 4. Four needs and four aids to spiritual evolution A. Occultism . He must know himself and discover his potentialities 1 . Man must know his inner mental, vital, physical being and its powers and movements and the universal laws and processes of occult Mind and Life B. Religion – ethics . He must know the hidden Powers that control the world – the Cosmic Self or Spirit or Creator C. Philosophy – metaphysics . His thinking mind must know and accept the principles of things and observe the truth of the universe D.
    [Show full text]
  • The Philosophers' Stone: Alchemical Imagination and the Soul's Logical
    Duquesne University Duquesne Scholarship Collection Electronic Theses and Dissertations Fall 2014 The hiP losophers' Stone: Alchemical Imagination and the Soul's Logical Life Stanton Marlan Follow this and additional works at: https://dsc.duq.edu/etd Recommended Citation Marlan, S. (2014). The hiP losophers' Stone: Alchemical Imagination and the Soul's Logical Life (Doctoral dissertation, Duquesne University). Retrieved from https://dsc.duq.edu/etd/874 This Immediate Access is brought to you for free and open access by Duquesne Scholarship Collection. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Duquesne Scholarship Collection. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THE PHILOSOPHERS’ STONE: ALCHEMICAL IMAGINATION AND THE SOUL’S LOGICAL LIFE A Dissertation Submitted to the McAnulty College and Graduate School of Liberal Arts Duquesne University In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy By Stanton Marlan December 2014 Copyright by Stanton Marlan 2014 THE PHILOSOPHERS’ STONE: ALCHEMICAL IMAGINATION AND THE SOUL’S LOGICAL LIFE By Stanton Marlan Approved November 20, 2014 ________________________________ ________________________________ Tom Rockmore, Ph.D. James Swindal, Ph.D. Distinguished Professor of Philosophy Professor of Philosophy Emeritus (Committee Member) (Committee Chair) ________________________________ Edward Casey, Ph.D. Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at Stony Brook University (Committee Member) ________________________________ ________________________________ James Swindal, Ph.D. Ronald Polansky, Ph.D. Dean, The McAnulty College and Chair, Department of Philosophy Graduate School of Liberal Arts Professor of Philosophy Professor of Philosophy iii ABSTRACT THE PHILOSOPHERS’ STONE: ALCHEMICAL IMAGINATION AND THE SOUL’S LOGICAL LIFE By Stanton Marlan December 2014 Dissertation supervised by Tom Rockmore, Ph.D.
    [Show full text]
  • Children of the New Age’ – Is Qualitatively Rich but Quantitatively Limited
    9 THE END OF ‘NEW AGE’ The church dissatisfies me. I know all the things they teach. I want more, you know? (Alison, Unit of Service, 1997) We are trained to listen to experts in our culture and not to ourselves. The premise of the New Age is the other way around. (Spangler 1996: 184) The whole point is our journey,not our destination. (Edwards 1993: 63) Recapitulation In this book I have reconstructed the genealogy of a multivalent emblem,‘New Age’,within interconnected networks of ‘alternative’spirituality from the 1930s to the 1990s. In the first part, called ‘Emblem’, I examined Peter Caddy’s career in the Rosicrucian Order, the activities of Sheena Govan’s group and the early years of the Findhorn settlement. I found evidence of other networks active in England, New Zealand and the US in the late 1950s and early 1960s – George Trevelyan, the Heralds of the New Age, the North American ‘subculture’ delineated by David Spangler – for whom ‘New Age’ was an apocalyptic emblem within a cocktail of occult, psychic and spiritualistic ideas and practices. In this early period the expression had objective historical status among communicants: a ‘New Age’ was imminent, its apocalyptic harbingers were on the horizon and groups had to prepare themselves spiritually in response. In the second part, ‘Idiom’, I traced the diffusion and disintegration of this emblem in the 1970s and beyond under the influence of a youthful counter culture and a concomitant decline in the authority of grand narratives (Lyotard 1979) in the culture at large. ‘New Age’ became, as it were, adjectival, a loose ‘quality’ of a person, act or social process rather than a negotiated emblem.As a 195 IDIOM sign of this shift it became self-consciously problematised by both participants and observers – one informant in Lowe and Shaw (1993: 227) said vehemently ‘I hate that cliche “New Age” ’.
    [Show full text]
  • Visions of Universal Identity in World Religions: from Life-Incoherent to Life-Grounded Spirituality
    PHILOSOPHY AND WORLD PROBLEMS- Vol..III – Vision of Universal Identity in World Religions: From Life-Incoherent to Life-Grounded Spirituality – John McMurtry VISIONS OF UNIVERSAL IDENTITY IN WORLD RELIGIONS: FROM LIFE-INCOHERENT TO LIFE-GROUNDED SPIRITUALITY John McMurtry University of Guelph,Guelph NIG 2W1, Canada Keywords: atman, breath, Buddhism, capitalist religion, civil commons, death, dream model, dualities, externalist fallacy, false religion, God, the Great Round, I- consciousness, idolatry, illusionism, integral yoga, invisible hand, incentives, Islam, Jesus, Krishna, Lao, life necessities/needs, life-coherence principle, prophets, sacrifice levels, self/self-group, social orders, spiritual ecology, structures of life blindness, suffering, Sufis, sustainability, Tantric, theo-capitalism, Vedas/Vedanta, war Contents 1. Understanding False Religion across History and Cultures 2. From Life Sacrifice for Selfish Gain to Sustain of the Great Round 3. The Animating Breath of Life: The Unseen Common Ground of the Spiritual as Read 4. Sacrificing Self to Enable Life across Divisions: The Ancient Spiritual Vision 5. What Is the I That Has a Body? Rational Explanation of the Infinite Consciousness Within 6. Counter-Argument: How Analytic Philosophy and Science Explain Away Inner Life 7. From the Soul of the Upanishads to the Ecology of Universal Life Identity 8. Reconnecting Heaven to Earth: The Inner-Outer Infinitude of Spiritual Comprehension 9. Re-Grounding Spirituality: From the Light-Fields to Universal Life Necessities 10. Redeeming
    [Show full text]
  • The Perennial Philosophy and the Recovery of a Theophanic View of Nature
    The Perennial Philosophy and the Recovery of a Theophanic View of Nature Jeremy Naydler The Forgotten Tradition We suffer from a peculiar kind of cultural amnesia today. Since the time of the Reformation and the Scientific Revolution, we have increasingly lost awareness of the rich wisdom tradition that for hundreds of years nourished the inner life of contemplatives and seekers of truth. This wisdom tradition is often referred to as the philosophia perennis or ‘perennial philosophy’. In both the West and East it is articulated in manifold works of spiritual philosophy, visionary poetry and mystical literature, harboured within pagan, Judaeo-Christian, Islamic, Hindu, Buddhist and Taoist worldviews, and in the oral traditions of many indigenous peoples. While it is expressed in distinctive and different ways, the perennial philosophy articulates truths that are essentially universal and timeless, which help us to understand our place in the cosmos and the deeper purpose of human life. Central to the perennial philosophy is the recognition that there is a spiritual dimension of existence that is the primary reality from which all of creation derives. All creatures seek to express in their own way this reality, and all of creation seeks ultimately to unite with it. The perennial philosophy reminds us that our fundamental orientation as human beings should be towards spirit, that we should revere the natural world as the manifestation of the divine, and that we should affirm the possibility of an ever more conscious union between ourselves and the spiritual source of existence. It is important to understand that the perennial philosophy is not a ‘philosophical system’ produced by abstract reasoning.
    [Show full text]
  • The Theosophist
    THE THEOSOPHIST VOL. 131 NO. 1 OCTOBER 2009 CONTENTS On the Watch-Tower 3 Radha Burnier Theosophy for a New Generation of Inquirers 7 Colin Price An Emerging World View 12 Shirley J. Nicholson What is Theosophy? 15 H. P. Blavatsky Theosophy for a New Generation of Enquirers 23 Surendra Narayan The Eternal Values of the Divine Wisdom 28 Bhupendra R. Vora The Theosophist: Past is Prologue 32 John Algeo Fragments of the Ageless Wisdom 37 The Theosophical Society for a New Generation of Enquirers 38 Dara Tatray Back to Blavatsky will Fossilize Theosophy Forwards with Blavatsky will Vitalize Theosophy 43 Edi D. Bilimoria Statement by Members Assembled in Brasilia, July 2009 51 International Directory 54 Editor: Mrs Radha Burnier NOTE: Articles for publication in The Theosophist should be sent to the Editorial Office. Cover: H. P. Blavatsky. Montage including cover of The Theosophist, 1882 Adyar Archives Official organ of the President, founded by H. P. Blavatsky, 1879. The Theosophical Society is responsible only for official notices appearing in this magazine. THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY Founded 17 November 1875 President: Mrs Radha Burnier Vice-President: Mrs Linda Oliveira Secretary: Mrs Kusum Satapathy Treasurer: Miss Keshwar Dastur Headquarters: ADYAR, CHENNAI (MADRAS) 600 020, INDIA Emails: Below Secretary: [email protected] Treasury: [email protected] Fax: (+91-44) 2446-3464 Adyar Library and Research Centre: [email protected] Theosophical Publishing House: [email protected] & [email protected] Fax: (+91-44) 2490-1399 Editorial Office: [email protected] Website: http://www.ts-adyar.org The Theosophical Society is composed of students, belonging to any religion in the world or to none, who are united by their approval of the Societys Objects, by their wish to remove religious antagonisms and to draw together men of goodwill, whatsoever their religious opinions, and by their desire to study religious truths and to share the results of their studies with others.
    [Show full text]
  • Exploring the Zegg-Forum.Pdf
    Creation, Discovery and Community Formation in the ZEGG Forum by Thea Tupelo and Graham Meltzer In November 2005, we attended a five‐day course at ZEGG (Center for Experimental Cultural Design), located in Belzig, Germany. ZEGG is a large, well‐known, long standing intentional community that has featured in many Communities Magazine articles. The course, Forum I, was an introduction to the fundemental principles and practices of the Forum, a social technology developed and refined at ZEGG over 25 years; it is a critical component of their 'social glue'. We were both very moved and inspired by the experience and decided to jointly write this article as an expression of our appreciation. We came to the course from different directions and backgrounds. So we feel it's appropriate to write separately of our experiences and impressions. Graham's take is that of a social researcher and part‐time communal dweller. Thea has lived for many years at Twin Oaks, another long‐standing flagship community located in Virgina, USA. Thea's take ... For me, living in community has always been a personal and collective process of creating and discovering common values among diverse individuals. In my home community of Twin Oaks, it was a vision of a Walden. Two community (a la B.F. Skinner) that brought our founders together originally, but over the years we have emerged as one of the more philosophically diverse populations in the Intentional Communities Movement. We have developed many systems and practices over a period of nearly 35 years which have contributed to the creation of a stable and viable alternative to the mainstream society, and in my 6 1/2 years of membership here I've sought to understand the essential unity which underlies all the daily rituals that make up our communal life: our work, our self‐governance, our play, our art, and our support systems.
    [Show full text]
  • Tensions on Erraid: How the Need for “Human Sustainability” Challenges an Intentional Spiritual Community
    Tensions on Erraid: how the need for “human sustainability” challenges an intentional spiritual community By Karina Auclair A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Affairs in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts In Anthropology Carleton University Ottawa, Ontario © 2016 Karina Auclair Abstract The desire for an alternative to the lifestyles most commonly available in western societies continues to motivate individuals to search for intentional communities. The mandate of the small island community of Erraid, and its parent organization the Findhorn Foundation, is to provide service to the world by educating guests on living more in tune with nature, Spirit, and fellow human beings. In order to facilitate this experience, they require the presence of short-term participants and long-term members. My research showed that although most short-term guests were satisfied with their experiences of Erraid, members struggled with their aspirations to live there permanently. “Human sustainability”, as the members called it, was difficult to achieve because of the tensions created by the conflicting reality of the Findhorn Foundation presenting itself as an alternative to the lifestyles in the “West”, while relying on that very system in order to exist and have people to “educate”. ii Acknowledgements I first and foremost wish to thank the reader for taking such precious moments of their time to dive into this lengthy thesis! It is very humbling to have someone (anyone!) express curiosity about my work. I am grateful to professor Sophie Tamas who played an invaluable role in her contributions and inspiring suggestions.
    [Show full text]
  • University of California Santa Cruz Frontiers of Plant
    UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SANTA CRUZ FRONTIERS OF PLANT-HUMAN COLLABORATION A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in PHILOSOPHY by Linda Kealey June 2019 The Dissertation of Linda Kealey is approved: _________________________ Professor Nico Orlandi, Chair _________________________ Professor Karen Barad _________________________ Professor Abe Stone _________________________ Lori Kletzer Vice Provost and Dean of Graduate Studies Table of Contents Abstract iv Acknowledgements vi Chapter 1 Introduction 1 Chapter 2 Ontological, Anthropological, and Methodological 47 Considerations Chapter 3 The Findhorn Garden and its New Age Onto-World 97 Chapter 4 Making Sense of Plant-Human Collaboration 136 Chapter 5 Collaboration in an Agential Realist Onto-World 192 Chapter 6 Devas and Nature Spirits in an Agential Realist Onto- 248 World Chapter 7 Engaging Scientifically with Plant-Human 324 Collaboration Chapter 8 Conclusion 383 Appendix A Plant Sentience in the Scientific and Philosophical 393 Literature References 407 iii Abstract Frontiers of Plant-Human Collaboration Linda Kealey In Findhorn, Scotland, as part of the “New Age” in the 1960s, a novel form of plant-human collaboration developed in which humans collaborated with “nature”, or specifically with “devas” and “nature spirits”, beings that are not physical and cannot be engaged with in the usual physical manner, but that through this collaboration made a meaningful difference in the lives of the humans and in the physical reality of their gardens. In a “modernist” world, defined such that only the “physical” is scientifically real, where the physical is that which can be observed and measured with the physical senses and their technological extensions, it is not possible to make sense of non-physical beings such as devas and nature spirits.
    [Show full text]