Developing a Transdiciplinary Research Methodology for Documenting and Studying Permaculture Designs*

*ongoing research

Jabez Joshua Flores

Ara Kathleen Bagunu

Criselda Dorothi Mercado

Permaculture is a holistic system of design that encompasses many disciplines in the natural and social sciences.  Originally intended by its founders, Mollison and Holmgren (1978), as an alternative to large-scale, monocropped agricultural systems, permaculture has evolved over the years into an international social movement and design philosophy for a sustainable and eco-centric way of life.

But because of the diversity of topics and complex nature of permaculture as a design discipline, formal research on the subject matter has been overlooked in the academe for many years. The current interest in interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research by the fields of environmental science and agroecology has paved the way for researchers to have a more holistic scientific paradigm of systems-thinking. This paradigm can be used in the study of permaculture design. 

What exactly is being studied in a permaculture design? Biodiversity? Food systems? Socio-economic relations? Or socio-political structures? The research aims to give focus on what to look for in a permaculture site by providing a methodological framework on how to observe, document, and gather data on the dynamic multicomponent and multifunctional nature of a permaculture design.