Faculty of Natural Resources and Agricultural Sciences Paradoxical Permaculture? – The mainstreaming of permaculture in Sweden. An analysis of discursive practices in the niche-regime interaction. Guy Finkill Master’s Thesis • 30 HEC Sustainable Development - Master’s Programme Department of Soil and Environment Uppsala 2019 Paradoxical Permaculture? The mainstreaming of permaculture in Sweden. An analysis of discursive practices in the niche-regime interaction. Guy Finkill Supervisor: Michael Jones, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Centre for Biodiversity Examiner: Jan Bengtsson, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Department of Ecology Credits: 30 HEC Level: Second cycle (A2E) Course title: Master thesis in Environmental science, A2E, 30.0 credits Course code: EX0897 Course coordinating department: Department of Aquatic Sciences and Assessment Programme/Education: Sustainable Development – Master’s Programme Place of publication: Uppsala Year of publication: 2019 Online publication: https://stud.epsilon.slu.se Keywords: Permaculture, Niche, Regime Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences Faculty of Natural Resources and Agricultural Sciences Department of Urban and Rural Development Abstract Permaculture purportedly offers a range of solutions to the negative externalities that arise from the dominant processes of monoculture crop cultivation and industrialised food production. This thesis identifies the discursive practices used by Swedish permaculturists to communicate and promote the advantages of permaculture over the incumbent industrial food production regime. The study also assesses the identified discursive practices in Swedish permaculturists’ online presence in their bid to mainstream permaculture as a social movement and as an alternative form of food production. This assessment is achieved through a multi-modal discourse analysis. The analysis finds a lack of strategic planning and management of the permaculture movement within the niche-regime interaction with one notable exception. This thesis study looks to raise further questions concerning the socio-technological landscapes that the dominant food production regime currently resides in. This study has identified a pattern materialising where permaculture practitioners are (knowingly or unknowingly) bypassing the incumbent food production regime and directly interacting with the socio-technical landscape. This approach is haphazard and piecemeal in contrast to the specific techniques mentioned in the literature on Transition Management and Strategic Niche Management. Keywords: Permaculture, Niche, Regime. Popular Summary Permaculture purportedly offers a range of solutions to the negative externalities that arise from the dominant processes of monoculture crop cultivation and industrialised food production. This thesis identifies the online methods of communication by Swedish permaculturists to promote the advantages of permaculture over the current industrial processes that are used for food production. The study also assesses the identified practices in Swedish permaculturists’ online presence in their bid to mainstream permaculture as a social movement and as an alternative form of food production. The analysis finds a lack of strategic planning and management of the permaculture movement exhibited by the assessed permaculture practitioners. This study has identified a pattern materialising where permaculture practitioners are (knowingly or unknowingly) bypassing the incumbent food production regime and directly interacting with the broad socio-technical landscape that encompasses the food production regime. This approach is haphazard and piecemeal in contrast to the specific techniques mentioned in the literature on transformational transitions. Keywords: Permaculture, Niche, Regime. Contents Introduction ............................................................................................................................................................ 1 Permeating Permaculture ................................................................................................................................... 1 What is Permaculture? ................................................................................................................................... 1 Permaculture in Sweden ................................................................................................................................ 2 The Industrial Food Regime ............................................................................................................................... 3 History of niche experimentation ....................................................................................................................... 5 Social Media as a Tool for Change .................................................................................................................... 6 Aim ......................................................................................................................................................................... 6 Main Heading – Theoretical Framework & Analytical Approach .......................................................................... 7 Hegemony and Food .......................................................................................................................................... 7 Subheading – Socio-technical innovations ......................................................................................................... 9 Transition Management and Strategic Niche Management in the context of permaculture ............................. 14 Transition Management ............................................................................................................................... 14 Strategic Niche Management ....................................................................................................................... 16 Convention Theory ........................................................................................................................................... 18 Infiltrating the Regime - Identifying and assessing general discursive practices ............................................. 18 Multi-modal Discourse Analysis in the Niche-regime Interaction............................................................... 19 Methodology ......................................................................................................................................................... 21 Methods for Data Analysis ............................................................................................................................... 21 Methods for Data Collection ............................................................................................................................ 22 Results and Analysis ............................................................................................................................................. 26 Discussion............................................................................................................................................................. 38 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................................ 41 Bibliography ......................................................................................................................................................... 43 Appendix .............................................................................................................................................................. 49 Appendix A ...................................................................................................................................................... 49 Appendix A – I – Table of Assessed Webpages .......................................................................................... 49 Appendix A – II – Table of Webpages with Faulty Links ........................................................................... 49 Appendix A – III – Table of Non-assessed Webpages ................................................................................ 49 Appendix B ...................................................................................................................................................... 50 Appendix B - I – URLs. ............................................................................................................................... 50 Appendix BII – Thesis Work Plan Extract .................................................................................................. 52 Appendix B - III – Data Analysis Notes ...................................................................................................... 52 Appendix B - IV – Video Analysis Notes .................................................................................................... 65 Appendix B - V – Photo Analysis Notes ..................................................................................................... 77 Appendix C ...................................................................................................................................................... 77 Appendix C - I – Coding Pie Charts ............................................................................................................ 77 Introduction Permeating Permaculture Since