Evaluation
of "Visioning" as Used in Community Planning
and Comparing it to "Visioning" for a Sustainable Future.
(the very start of a draft)
"Visioning"
is being used quite widely by cities and communities to help them
to define their future, to become a good place to live at least for
those who participate in creating of the "vision". In this article
the focus is on the use of "visioning" by the Sonoran
Institute for the creation of a "Master Plan" for the Planning
Commission of Crestone-Baca area (Colorado), and comparing it to
what "visioning" could really be.
So far I have not been able to find out when the term "visioning"
(in the sense it is being used in planning of communities future)
started being used, but a truly meaningful definition of the term
started, with all certainty, with Donella Meadows in the Limits
to Growth: The 30-Year Update (Meadows 2004). The Systems
Thinker--"Moving Toward a Sustainable Future" includes
chapter 8 from Limits to Growth: The 30-Year Update in which
on page 4 of "Moving Toward a Sustainable Future" Donella Meadows
explains "visioning":
Visioning
Visioning means imagining, at first generally and then with
increasing specificity, what you really want. That is, what you
really want, not what someone has taught you to want, and not what
you have learned to be willing to settle for. Visioning means
taking off the constraints of "feasibility," of disbelief and past
disappointments, and letting your mind dwell upon its most noble,
uplifting, treasured dreams.
In Donella
Meadows' use of the term, "visioning" exists in the context of
achieving nothing less than a sustainable future for the Earth. A
goal that ought to be known and approved of by everyone. The
urgency of this is known to some, but not to enough many yet.
Limits to Growth: The 30-Year Update (Meadows 2004),
especially Chapter 8, puts across the importance of the world
becoming sustainable clearly.
The article, "Donella
Meadows' 'Visioning': Global Citizens Designing a Sustainable World
Together", has more information on what Donella Meadows'
"visioning" is, and about the origins of the concept (as understood
by Donella Meadows).
Donella Meadows' "visioning" is an instrument for creating of a
sustainable future, whereas "visioning", as used by the various
communities for planning of their future (at least the ones I came
across, please alert me if there are any noble exceptions), might
only superficially mention "sustainability" here and there (without
acknowledging the urgency of the whole Earth to become truly
sustainable), present but a ghost of Donella Meadows' "visioning"
at best; The Sonoran Institute's furnished "visioning", used by
Baca-Crestone Planning Commission to create a liveable future for
the Baca-Crestone area, is no different from the other ones whose
results, in most cases, represent short-sightedly mere cosmetic
improvements over the current reality (in comparison with visioning
that generates a vision of a truly sustainable world).
One of the reasons that "visioning" is not used in a way that would
lead to true sustainability is that Donella Meadows died
prematurely and there was no one left to develop the concept to
where it would become a useable tool (there still is nothing in
evidence, to date).
For "visioning" to be of a true use in planning of any social
entity (in size from a local community to the whole of humanity), a
"vision" produced by the visioning process should in fact be
the "Master Plan" for any geo-political entity what-so-ever,
one that would be being updated, evolved continuously; In this way
people who had nothing to contribute to the "vision" at one time,
could do so whenever they would feel that they have anything to
contribute later on--the "vision", the "Master Plan" would be open
to meaningful improvements always.
Bibliography and recommended
reading:
Fritz, Robert
1984 The Path of
Least Resistance. Salem, MA: DMA Inc., ISBN:
0-930641-00-0.
Global Footprint Network
2009 "September 25
2009 Earth Overshoot Day".
<http://www.footprintnetwork.org/images/uploads/EO_Day_Media_Backgrounder.pdf>
(accessed June 21,
2011).
Global Footprint Network shows probably most clearly how serious
our eco-social situation is--" ... In 2007, the most recent year for which data
are available, humanity used the equivalent of 1.5 planets to
support its activities. ... " -
http://www.footprintnetwork.org/en/index.php/GFN/page/2010_living_planet_report/
.
Our complacency is deadly.
Hearthstone, Jan
2010 "Donella
Meadows' 'Visioning': Global Citizens Designing a Sustainable World
Together"
ModelEarth.Org
Meadows, Donella H. , Jørgen Randers, and Dennis Meadows
1972 The Limits to
Growth.
New York: Universe
Books
Meadows, Donella H., Dennis L. Meadows, and Jørgen
Randers
1992 Beyond the
Limits: Confronting Global Collapse, Envisioning a Sustainable
Future.
White River
Junction, VT: Chelsea Green Publishing Company
Meadows, Donella H.
1996 "Envisioning a
Sustainable World." written for the Third Biennial Meeting of
the
International
Society for Ecological Economics, October 24-28, 1994, San Jose,
Costa Rica
In Getting Down to
Earth, 1996 Practical Applications of Ecological
Economics
editors Robert
Costanza, Olman Segura and Juan Martinez-Alier Washington DC:
Island Press
Meadows, Donella H. "Envisioning a Sustainable World." is
online:
<www.sustainer.org/pubs/Envisioning.DMeadows.pdf>
(accessed 10/06/2009)
It is a must read document; it explains best what Donella Meadows'
"visioning" is.
Meadows, Donella H., Jørgen Randers and Dennis Meadows
2004 Limits to
Growth: The 30-Year Update.
White River
Junction, VT: Chelsea Green Publishing Company
A synopsis of Limits to Growth: The 30-Year Update. Online
at the Sustainability Institute (founded by Donella Meadows):
<http://www.sustainer.org/pubs/limitstogrowth.pdf>
(accessed 10/06/2009)
The Systems Thinker--"Moving Toward a Sustainable Future."
includes chapter 8 from Limits to Growth: The 30-Year Update
<http://www.thesystemsthinker.com/V16N9.pdf>
(accessed 10/06/2009)
More on designing of a sustainable Earth at ModelEarth.Org
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