Abstract

In this contribution my aim is to discuss how the permaculture movement promotes, through its concepts and practices, an understanding of human health as inseparable from the health of the environment – primarily intended as the health of the soil – and strictly dependent on the re-grounding of human subsistence activities within the environment of proximity. This process of re-grounding should not be conceived simply as the increase in self-reliance and self-sufficiency in providing for basic needs. It is better understood as a more engaged process of “reinhabitation,” meaning by this term a normative orientation of all life activities toward doing what is best for the long-term health and viability of the area where one lives.In this article, I analyze the recovery of a sense of place, through developing bonds to a specific spot on the earth we can know intimately, which is crucial to the vision of permaculture. I argue that this recovery can be more precisely understood if we take into account that there are various ways of valuing the environment. One of these, we may describe as “emplaced,” develops in the “conscious design” of human permaculture settlements. In permaculture thinking, humans are seen as responsible ecosystem managers within, rather than separate from nature, and their ways of cohabiting with the multiplicity of beings inhabiting their environments must be oriented by care. As a concluding remark, I will discuss the political implications of the permaculture vision of human health and flourishing.