Society

Credentials and Credibility

PIJ #49, Dec ’93 – Feb’94

Michael Cowan argues that the rise of the ‘specialist’ or ‘expert’ has led to the surrender of individual and community responsibility for many social and environmental issues. In this article he discusses how permaculture can be the antidote for this trend, but his ideas also are fundamental to the way everybody operates in their local and global community.

I am troubled somewhat by the question of credentials.

The process of industrialisation which has occurred in the West over the past two centuries, particularly since World War Two, has increasingly entrenched the notion of the ‘specialist’ or person with ‘expert credentials’. Research papers in any given field have become more specialised to the extent that in this period, professional geologists, for instance, could no longer fully understand each other. This led to a movement away from general geological journals towards journals which were more specific in content in the areas of geochemistry or geophysics. This trend has repeated itself in most other scientific or professional fields.

Amongst other things, this movement towards an increasingly specialised workforce has led to the disenfranchisement of whole groups of people who in the past traditionally possessed practical knowledge. The English millwright is a good example. One description reads:

The millwright of former days was … an itinerant engineer and mechanic of high reputation. He could handle the axe, the hammer and the plane with equal skill and precision; he could turn, bore or force … and he could set out and cut furrows of a millstone with an accuracy equal or superior to that of the miller himself … he was a fair mathematician, knew something of geometry … he could calculate the velocities, strength and power of machines, could draw in plan and section, and could construct buildings, conduits, or water course in all forms and under all conditions required in his professional practice. He could build bridges, cut canals and perform a variety of work now done by civil engineers.

This description could be applied to a great variety of other work areas where skills once taken to be normal have been lost. This development has involved a new mind-set, or change in attitude in society at large, which is not usually acknowledged. Societies, especially in the West, now have quite a peculiar view of what is considered professional or scientific. In medicine we rely heavily on synthetic drugs, which are regarded as scientific, but homeopathy or herbal medicines which come from ancient and popular culture, are thought of as being unscientific. To quote another example:

When the research department of a large automobile firm puts a new engine on the market, this engine, of course is the produce of scientific expertise. But when a group of amateurs or craftsmen who have never been to university build an even better engine, using handmade parts, this, of course, is something unscientific.

Surrendering responsibility

The implications for permaculture and all of us are clear. The increase in ‘knowledge’ in recent times has gone hand in hand with a reduction in the power and autonomy of communities and individuals. This brings us to the notion of responsibility. The proliferation of experts has led to a surrender of personal or community responsibility for a whole host of issues.

If a creek is unkempt or polluted it is normal for its local community to assume the problem is the responsibility of local government. If a street in a given urban environment is treeless and untidy, again the responsibility lies with the local council. Modern drugs carry the implication that we are not responsible for our own bodies, and so on. It is true to say that there is still a massive element of ‘responsibility transference’ in a whole range of areas.

At the same time the world is full of so-called highly qualified experts and the problems confronting our planet have continued to increase. In an objective sense, ‘expertise’ in any one given field is often just ‘tunnel vision’.

Where does all this leave people without formal qualifications other than a design course who are looking for work as permaculture designers?

To begin with, as David Holmgren said, "… we are now in the vortex of multiple paradigm shifts", and quite simply, part of this process is the need to return practical knowledge to individuals and communities. In this sense, those working in permaculture can gain credibility by being active rather than passive. Credibility comes about through doing and by creating situations where design skills learnt in permaculture courses are both practised in the community and are passed on to other people. With regard to this second point, I believe the formal permaculture design course should definitely not be seen as the only medium of instruction. Many people do not have the time or money to do such a course and to many others, much of the design course content would be to a depth beyond their needs. Yet many of these same people would be happy to embrace and apply many permaculture principles if they knew about them.

Individual Power

I once taught permaculture ideas to groups of adult migrant students at Dandenong College of TAFE (Victoria, Australia). The majority of these students (all retrenched workers) had only a poor command of English and the classes were comprised of some videos, talks and plenty of blackboard diagrams relating to the home garden. After some initial uncertainty among the students I was struck by the level of excitement and involvement in the class. In all, the classes covered about five hours of teaching and I left with the firm impression that the majority of students had a changed attitude to the possibilities of food production in their own gardens. Again, the idea here is that such people would never attend a formal permaculture course and yet some permaculture ideas can be of great interest, value and benefit to them.

In terms of teaching or passing on permaculture ideas, it would seem that formal courses are only one such method. I also have taught an introduction to permaculture course over ten weeks (one and half hours per lesson). Again the students in this course would probably never have done a formal residential course but valuable ideas were passed on.

The idea of empowerment in permaculture literature is a good one. This idea involves taking full responsibility for a piece of land, a water system, a street, one’s own actions and so on.

To a large extent, modern industrial society has robbed us of such responsibilities but we should not let a lack of ‘formal credentials’ deter us from being active. Again, the world is beset with problems and our recent historical past has led to and ever-growing class of ‘experts’ who have demonstratively been able to achieve very little. Permaculture can be a vehicle for correcting this imbalance and returning practical knowledge to individuals and communities where it belongs and is of most value.

Further Reading:

 

3 Comments

  1. I agree 100% with everything in this article. I have been expressing this same opinion to many people refering to many different areas. It seems as if the secondary education system has created their degree programs based around a narrowing of the mind. I finished a B.S. in Accounting and a Masters in Financial Services just to learn in my own studies a lot of the information was irrelavent and false. I did acquire some knowledge throughout my college education; however, I have learned so much more outside of college by opening my mind and looking at the whole picture.

    I argue with doctors all of the time about this subject. Many of them know absolutely nothing about nutrition. How can some one correctly diagnose a problem and offer a treatment if they know absolutely nothing about the root of the problem. The same holds true in most systems of government. They have gotten so big and created so many specialized departments the ones who really control the governing laws are able to get by with everything they can think of to gain more control. This is because they are looking at the whole picture and directing the orchestra to get the sound they want.

  2. Oh man, this resonates with me.

    I recently volunteered to be on the OH&S Committee at my workplace. Little did I know that you can’t be a committee member until you are “qualified”. So they sent me away for four (4!) days of OH&S training.

    That training was over 90% fluff and filler. The whole thing could have been done in 2 hours. So why is it 4 days? Because that’s what the government has legislated!

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