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2024/2025  BA-BHAAA2403U  Permaculture: A Regenerative Solution for Business, Community and Lifestyle

English Title
Permaculture: A Regenerative Solution for Business, Community and Lifestyle

Course information
Language English
Course ECTS 2.5 ECTS
Type Elective
Level Bachelor
Duration Summer
Start time of the course Summer
Timetable Course schedule will be posted at calendar.cbs.dk
Min. participants 30
Max. participants 60
Study board
Study Board for BSc in Economics and Business Administration
Course coordinator
  • Isabel Froes - Department of Management, Society and Communication (MSC)
  • Maribel Blasco - Department of Management, Society and Communication (MSC)
Main academic disciplines
  • CSR and sustainability
  • Sociology
Teaching methods
  • Face-to-face teaching
Last updated on 07/11/2024

Relevant links
Learning objectives
At the end of the course, students should be able to:
  • Identify a real-life problem facing businesses/community/lifestyle when it comes to living up to sustainability goals, and formulate this problem as a research question
  • Describe how the permaculture framework can support regenerative approaches in the chosen domain of study
  • Apply the permaculture framework to a case selected by the student group within one of the three course themes
  • Critically evaluate the applicability of the permaculture framework for addressing the problem in question
  • Apply the PC principles in designing/organising your own project and/orgroupwork process, and reflect on the benefits and challenges of doing this
Examination
Permaculture: A regenerative Solution for Business, Community and Lifestyle:
Exam ECTS 2.5
Examination form Active participation

The completion of this course is based on active student participation in class. The course will be considered as passed if the students participation - based on an overall assessment - in the class activities fulfill the learning objectives of the course. The individual student’s participation is assessed by the teacher.
The student must participate in A combination of assignment and presentation
Individual or group exam Individual exam
Grading scale Pass / Fail
Examiner(s) Assessed solely by the teacher
Exam period Summer and Summer
Make-up exam/re-exam Oral exam based on written product
In order to participate in the oral exam, the written product must be handed in before the oral exam; by the set deadline. The grade is based on an overall assessment of the written product and the individual oral performance.
Size of written product: Max. 5 pages
Assignment type: Essay
Duration: 20 min. per student, including examiners' discussion of grade, and informing plus explaining the grade
Examiner(s): If it is an internal examination, there will be a second internal examiner at the re-exam. If it is an external examination, there will be an external examiner.
Description of activities
A combination of assignment and presentation: The student must participate in minimum 80 % of the scheduled teaching.

In addition, the student must do a presentation, in groups, of a project in which students apply the permaculture ethics and principles to a selected problem in one of the  following areas: i) business ii) community iii) lifestyle. The goal of the presentation is to show whether and how permaculture could enhance sustainable and/or regenerative practices and approaches.
Course content, structure and pedagogical approach

The course will offer an introduction to the permaculture design framework as a tool for thinking innovatively and critically about sustainable and regenerative approaches to business, community and lifestyle.  

 

‘Permaculture’ offers a holistic design framework for creating regenerative ways of living that aim to maximize beneficial relationships, through observing, emulating and working with rather than against nature (broadly defined) to enhance resilience, diversity, productivity and stability.  The permaculture framework is increasingly being applied worldwide to support and inspire more sustainable lifestyles and communities, to improve biodiversity, energy efficiency, mental health, sanitize consumption, and design livable, humane social systems.  Permaculture principles can be used foster responsible production and consumption through a whole-systems approach. In a business context, the principles have been applied to support sustainable business development and circularity; in communities they have been used to enhance wellbeing and strengthen social networks as well as alternative forms of social organization; and in lifestyles they have been used to inspire more humane and sustainable consumption, among others.

 

The course will address ways in which permaculture is being used to rethink the three course areas: i) business ii) community iii) lifestyle. Critical perspectives on permaculture will also be addressed.  

 

 

 
Description of the teaching methods
Students will learn and apply theories, methods and tools applied to real cases, and hands-on course activities.

Teaching methods will consist of: interactive lectures, student participation and presentations, on-site teaching in CBS’ own permaculture garden, Permahaven. Students will also be required to use the permaculture design framework in organising/managing their own groupwork and/or project process.
Feedback during the teaching period
Students will receive feedback on their presentation ideas both from the teacher and from peers, during the course practice presentations.
Student workload
Teaching 18 hours
Preparation 52 hours
Further Information

This is a 2 weeks course (2,5 ECTS) running during weeks 26 + 27, summer 2025

 

Short 2 weeks courses cannot be combined with any other course

Expected literature

Holmgren, D. (2020). Essence of permaculture. Seymour, VIC, Australia: Melliodora Publishing.

 

Everett, E. (2022). Combining the circular economy, doughnut economy, and permaculture to create a holistic economic model for future generations. Environmental Sciences Proceedings, 15(1), 19.

 

Macnamara, L., & Storch, R. (2012). People and permaculture. Hampshire, United Kingdom: Permanent Publications. Chapters on the Permaculture  ‘Working in Groups'

Schumacher, E. F., & Schumacher, V. (1996). Buddhist economics. Valuing the earth: economics, ecology, ethics.

 

Hahn, T., & Tampe, M. (2021). Strategies for regenerative business. Strategic Organization, 19(3), 456-477.

 

Aiken, G. (2017) Permaculture and the social design

of nature, Geografiska Annaler: Series B, Human Geography, 99:2, 172-191

 

Centemeri, L. (2019). Rethinking environmentalism in a ‘ruined’world: Lessons from the permaculture movement. In The Role of Non-state Actors in the Green Transition (pp. 95-113). Routledge.

 

Abiral, B. (2019). Permaculture and Ecological Lifestyle: A Restricted Radicalism? In Routledge Handbook of Radical Politics (pp. 477-491). Routledge.

 

Haney, T. J., & Morrow, A. (2024). “We’re Still on That Treadmill”: Privilege, Reflexivity, and the Disruptive Potential of Permaculture. Capitalism Nature Socialism, 35(2), 96-115.
Last updated on 07/11/2024