Communities
magazine
is now seeking articles for issue #153, “Permaculture.”
The issue will be out in December 2011.
Please
send your article idea to editor@ic.org
by
Friday,
June 24, 2010,
or sooner if possible.
Your
final article must reach us by Friday,
August 19, 2011.
1. Theme articles: Permaculture
possible questions to address (feel free to pick and choose or innovate):
Permaculture is a design system that seeks the harmonious, sustainable integration of people with the natural world. Its principles and practical applications encompass not only the development of enduring agricultural systems but all aspects of “permanent culture,” from shelter, energy, and water systems to economic and social institutions to human and ecological well-being. Does your group aspire to incorporate permaculture in your lives? If so, in what areas? And how?
- Are you involved in permaculture education, or in teaching people about practices that are aligned with permaculture (even if you don’t use that specific term)? How does a community setting lend itself (or not) to teaching people about permaculture?
- Does your community or group embody and demonstrate aspects of permaculture, even if you don’t offer formal courses?
- What practical applications of permaculture have you or your group been able to enact?
- Has “permaculture” proven problematic or challenging for you or your group? Do you find other systems more useful? What are the pitfalls of a permacultural approach?
- In land management, food growing, or other areas, have permaculturalists in your community clashed with advocates of other approaches? For example, have you debated the merits of introduced nonnative plants in the landscape, forest gardening vs. production agriculture, sheet mulching vs. tractor tillage?
- What social aspects of permaculture does your group embody?
- Does your group have a high rate of turnover? If so, what are the implications for your permacultural aspirations? Can a shifting population achieve social or ecological sustainability?
- Does permaculture align or conflict with your contemporary local culture? With indigenous traditions in your area? With “settler” traditions in your area? With your country’s broader culture? With global culture?
- What are the challenges and reasons for hope in enacting permaculture in our own lives, in our communities, and in the wider world?
Please
remember that we are looking for stories, personal
experiences, and
concrete examples in your answers—these are what will make
your
ideas and observations most “real” and relevant to
readers.
[Please
forward this email to anyone you think has a good story on
this theme
for Communities.]
2.
We are also seeking articles about:
Suggested
submission length is from 300 to 2500 words. We invite
submissions
ranging from short vignettes to extensively-developed
articles, and
also invite suggestions of recommended resources and
article leads.
We’re seeking articles written in a reader-friendly,
popular-magazine style, rather than in an academic style.
We ask
contributors
to share stories and experiences, not just ideas; write
about
challenges, not just successes; and describe specific
situations that
will help your story come alive for the reader. Before you
start
writing, please check http://communities.ic.org/submit.php
or contact us
for
our full Writers’
Guidelines—and let us know your article idea so
that we can give
feedback on how it may fit into Communities.
Contact Chris Roth at editor@ic.org.
If
you don’t want to write an article but want to submit
photos,
please check http://communities.ic.org/submit.php
or
contact Yulia Zarubina at layout@ic.org
for
our Photo Guidelines.
I.
What “Submitting
an Article”
Means.
We
will promise to read your article, but we may respectfully
decline it
and not publish it, or save it and publish it in a future
issue. We
also reserve the right to edit, shorten, or revise your
article. Most
of the time we contact authors about this ahead of time
and get their
comments, corrections, etc.
II.
Getting Permission Ahead of Time. Please
send the article only when you have permission from anyone
you need
it from, such as fellow community members. We
endeavor to present a diversity of views on community,
including
controversial or critical views, in a respectful and
cooperative
manner. If your article may generate controversy or strong
reactions,
or if the group(s) would want the chance to review it,
please share
your draft with group members to get their input before
sending it to
us. (Please
see our Writers’ Guidelines for additional details.)
III.
Publication Rights.
Once
your article appears in Communities,
we own first North American Publishing Rights. This means
your
article appears in Communities
the
first time it appears in North America. In
addition to appearing in Communities,
your article may also appear on our website or in future
compilations. You
retain all other rights to it. If you’d like to use it
elsewhere,
you can, and we would appreciate your using an attribution
line
saying, “This article first appeared in Communities:
Life in Cooperative Culture,
(date); for further information on Communities:
communities.ic.org.”
IV.
Photos. If
we publish your article, we want to accompany it with
compelling
images that illustrate your subject. You know your subject
best, so
we are appealing to you for images. If others in your
community or
group like taking pictures, they might already have great
images to
go with your article. If
you would like to submit an article but cannot supply
photos, that’s
fine; however, please give us plenty of advance notice so
that if we
use your article we can get an illustrator. Please check
http://communities.ic.org/submit.php
or
email us for our full Photo Guidelines. We also appreciate
an author
photo to accompany your short (several-line) author bio.
Thanks for
your contributions!
Chris
Roth
Editor,
Communities
editor@ic.org
-- Chris Roth Editor, Communities 81868 Lost Valley Lane Dexter, OR 97431 editor@ic.org 541-937-5221 communities.ic.org for Communities advertising, please contact Tanya Carwyn: ads@ic.org 828-669-0997 for photos and layout, please contact Yulia Zarubina: layout@ic.org 910-617-6136