Paradoxical Permaculture? : the mainstreaming of permaculture in Sweden. An analysis of discursive practices in the niche-regime interaction

Abstract: Permaculture purportedly offers a range of solutions to the negative externalities that arise from the dominant processes of monoculture crop cultivation and industrialised food production. This thesis identifies the discursive practices used by Swedish permaculturists to communicate and promote the advantages of permaculture over the incumbent industrial food production regime. The study also assesses the identified discursive practices in Swedish permaculturists’ online presence in their bid to mainstream permaculture as a social movement and as an alternative form of food production. This assessment is achieved through a multi-modal discourse analysis. The analysis finds a lack of strategic planning and management of the permaculture movement within the niche-regime interaction with one notable exception. This thesis study looks to raise further questions concerning the socio-technological landscapes that the dominant food production regime currently resides in. This study has identified a pattern materialising where permaculture practitioners are (knowingly or unknowingly) bypassing the incumbent food production regime and directly interacting with the socio-technical landscape. This approach is haphazard and piecemeal in contrast to the specific techniques mentioned in the literature on Transition Management and Strategic Niche Management.