Chris Marsh

Taking new apprentices?
No
About me

For 30 years, I have been involved in aspects of radical world change, its theory and its ‘praxis’. In the 1980s my focus was on revolutionary (pacifist and educational) socialism. In the 1990s I carried out research into worldwide land degradation, seeing permaculture as offering solutions. For ten years I have been exploring the ‘rural reconstruction’ alternative to parliamentary democracy advocated by Tagore. I have concluded that permaculture can be more than a lifestyle choice for a minority; its time has come!
I discovered permaculture in the late 1980s, seeing it as a remedy for worldwide land degradation. I’ve been involved with the Association since at least 1991 when I attended a full design course. I am a life member. I was a trustee of the Association from 2003 to 2007. I was a Consultant Editor of Permaculture Magazine from its foundation until 2006. My interest has always been in the potential permaculture offers for fundamental change in society and ecology. Since 2005, I have been a trustee of the charity Plants For A Future, which was set up to support a ground-breaking permaculture research project.
For my doctorate (University of Exeter, 2013) I carried out research into the rural reconstruction and progressive education projects of the Indian poet and polymath Rabindranath Tagore. Tagore’s approach to rebuilding Indian society ‘one village at a time’ resembles permaculture and transition in many respects, and his ideas and practice are relevant to world change today.
Within the work of the Association I would like to see more emphasis on the education of the wider public in what permaculture has to offer, as well as serving the current membership. I would also be interested in helping the Association to develop partnerships and information sharing with other organisations and groups concerned with the effects on ordinary people of the economic, social and ecological crisis.