Bisson. (2013). Forests for the people : resisting neoliberalism through permaculture design. Thesis (M.A.) – Carleton University, 2013.
Permaculture Ottawa (PO) is a local community group in the process of designing a Community Urban Food Forest (CUFF) in the Ottawa Greenbelt. This research engaged directly with PO to explore the experience of community groups resisting neoliberal land use management of public land owned by the National Capital Commission (NCC). This research investigates cases of wetland conservation in the Ottawa Greenbelt, which are analyzed and compared to PO’s current work. Such historical cases demonstrate how institutions like the NCC (operating under neoliberal
ideologies) advance causes such as wetland protection through market-based
mechanisms, causing new injustices such as the dispossession of farmland. This research explored how effectively the CUFF in particular and permaculture design in general, resists such processes through the restoration of the communal use of public property. Both my field work and the historical case studies suggest that permaculture design projects like CUFF are vulnerable to neoliberal co-optation, unless they adopt a radical direction for social justice.
