xxxi
Introduction to the Book
included in Agricultural and Ecological Knowledge Systems frameworks. Yet sourcing knowledge
and making sense of it, for the farmer, may involve not only standard reasoning, experiencing, sensory perceiving and communicating with other humans, but also, as we will see, conscious intention, intuition, direct knowing or communication with the other-than-human.
This transdisciplinary context, and the fact that many of the topics explored in this book have
not yet been widely researched, has necessitated extending the range of book contributors beyond
the formal research academy. The knowledge holders include skilled practitioners or practitionerresearchers who are quite literally operating in the field, and their non-academic contributions in
this book provide very different ontological perspectives or lenses through which the concept of
Subtle Agroecologies may be approached.
In this book, the challenges of multidisciplinarity and ontological diversity rested to a large
extent with the contributors themselves. With such a broad potential readership, they were required
to write as if for the layperson rather than for others in their particular discipline, and this necessitated setting aside discipline-specific terminology or an assumed prior knowledge of the subject. In some instances, the setting aside of ontologically-specific terminology was also required.
Therefore, some of what is communicated in these pages may be simplified versions of what contributors would share amongst their own peer groups.
BOOK OVERVIEW: A CONTRIBUTION OF PHILOSOPHIES,
TECHNOLOGIES, METHODOLOGIES AND PRACTICE
The book’s content is organised into four clusters or sections. The first section is dedicated to providing a range of philosophical and theoretical perspectives as a ‘way in’ to this subject. The second
section demonstrates existing, pioneering, commercial, largely wave-based applications in agriculture. The third explores innovative and appropriate methodologies for researching and working with
the hidden half of nature, whilst the fourth and final section is dedicated to the non-academic voices
of practitioners who are working directly in agriculture and associated fields.
Section 1: tranSformative epiStemological, philoSophical
and theoretical frameworkS
This section, and the whole book, kicks off with a provocative look at what may be behind the secular materialistic approach of the agricultural sector (Chapter 1, Wright). Drawing from the works
of two contemporary scholars of neurobiology and psychology, the chapter explores how Western
European culture and society may be a product of a left hemisphere-dominant brain and how
this irregularity, along with the widespread denigration of the feminine, may be both the cause –
and hold the keys to a way out of – the current industrial, secular-materialist paradigm, a way
out that would necessarily include the revival and reclaiming of whole-brain, indigenous worldviews. Through a critical examination of modernist, ecologically-based farming movements,
it deduces that to date, their science and taught practice also stems from this paradigm. The
chapter introduces the concept of Subtle Agroecologies as a means of re-enchanting or reviving
ecologically-based agriculture and argues that through its application, we might not only desist
from harming nature but might also be better equipped to co-create more harmonious farming
futures.
Chapter 2 (Haverkort) takes forward the issue of indigenous knowledge and worldviews though
the lens of the need for cognitive justice. It asserts that local ways of knowing are expressions of
science on their own, being based on a specific worldview, methodology of learning, epistemology
and values of their own knowledge community. Identifying the commonality amongst these worldviews of three dimensions – the spiritual, social and material – it provides examples of the spiritual
dimension of agricultural systems from different cultures. The chapter suggests that a constructive
combination of a diversity of sciences holds greater potential to address the multifaceted problems
Introduction to the Book
included in Agricultural and Ecological Knowledge Systems frameworks. Yet sourcing knowledge
and making sense of it, for the farmer, may involve not only standard reasoning, experiencing, sensory perceiving and communicating with other humans, but also, as we will see, conscious intention, intuition, direct knowing or communication with the other-than-human.
This transdisciplinary context, and the fact that many of the topics explored in this book have
not yet been widely researched, has necessitated extending the range of book contributors beyond
the formal research academy. The knowledge holders include skilled practitioners or practitionerresearchers who are quite literally operating in the field, and their non-academic contributions in
this book provide very different ontological perspectives or lenses through which the concept of
Subtle Agroecologies may be approached.
In this book, the challenges of multidisciplinarity and ontological diversity rested to a large
extent with the contributors themselves. With such a broad potential readership, they were required
to write as if for the layperson rather than for others in their particular discipline, and this necessitated setting aside discipline-specific terminology or an assumed prior knowledge of the subject. In some instances, the setting aside of ontologically-specific terminology was also required.
Therefore, some of what is communicated in these pages may be simplified versions of what contributors would share amongst their own peer groups.
BOOK OVERVIEW: A CONTRIBUTION OF PHILOSOPHIES,
TECHNOLOGIES, METHODOLOGIES AND PRACTICE
The book’s content is organised into four clusters or sections. The first section is dedicated to providing a range of philosophical and theoretical perspectives as a ‘way in’ to this subject. The second
section demonstrates existing, pioneering, commercial, largely wave-based applications in agriculture. The third explores innovative and appropriate methodologies for researching and working with
the hidden half of nature, whilst the fourth and final section is dedicated to the non-academic voices
of practitioners who are working directly in agriculture and associated fields.
Section 1: tranSformative epiStemological, philoSophical
and theoretical frameworkS
This section, and the whole book, kicks off with a provocative look at what may be behind the secular materialistic approach of the agricultural sector (Chapter 1, Wright). Drawing from the works
of two contemporary scholars of neurobiology and psychology, the chapter explores how Western
European culture and society may be a product of a left hemisphere-dominant brain and how
this irregularity, along with the widespread denigration of the feminine, may be both the cause –
and hold the keys to a way out of – the current industrial, secular-materialist paradigm, a way
out that would necessarily include the revival and reclaiming of whole-brain, indigenous worldviews. Through a critical examination of modernist, ecologically-based farming movements,
it deduces that to date, their science and taught practice also stems from this paradigm. The
chapter introduces the concept of Subtle Agroecologies as a means of re-enchanting or reviving
ecologically-based agriculture and argues that through its application, we might not only desist
from harming nature but might also be better equipped to co-create more harmonious farming
futures.
Chapter 2 (Haverkort) takes forward the issue of indigenous knowledge and worldviews though
the lens of the need for cognitive justice. It asserts that local ways of knowing are expressions of
science on their own, being based on a specific worldview, methodology of learning, epistemology
and values of their own knowledge community. Identifying the commonality amongst these worldviews of three dimensions – the spiritual, social and material – it provides examples of the spiritual
dimension of agricultural systems from different cultures. The chapter suggests that a constructive
combination of a diversity of sciences holds greater potential to address the multifaceted problems