Re-imagining the City
Summary
This thesis is about urban permaculture and its method changing the current way that human needs are met: the globalized capitalist system. The capitalist system is causing environmental issues. In this thesis I argue that the main reason for this, is that the system is disembedded from social values. It is a socio-cultural problems. In order to change the system, culture needs to change first. Future development should focus on the city as this is where most of the world s population will live in the near future. Cities are often associated with an unsustainable way of living. At the same time, certain sustainable practices are only viable in places where a dense population lives, making the city an opportunity for sustainable living. This thesis is written after three months of ethnographic research among urban permaculturists in San Francisco, the United States. The term permaculture was coined by Bill Mollison and David Holmgren in Australia in the 1970s and has spread throughout the world. Permaculturists, and specifically, San Francisco s permaculturists have their own specific way of engaging with society. By altering their consumption pattern, growing their own food and buying locally, they try to subvert the capitalist system. The urban garden is their main tool for changing their surroundings and changing culture. They do this by helping people re-imagine the city as a place where food can be produced and the ecosystem can be supported.