PlacerSustain: Voices of Placer County's Sustainability Community

No doubt there are many efforts around the globe that are working in one way or another on creating a story about their place: vision, values and principles, and so on.  Here, by "Story of Place" I mean a Story that reflects a deep pattern language of community grounded in nature in a particular Place.  This kind of Story of Place is created by an integration of good information on natural / social / and economic qualities of a place and creative imagination about what this information reveals about the deep patterns that are this Place.  The information about Place is about how systems are functioning.  With a knowledge of deep systemic patterns, values, principles, and themes are creatively developed that then inform the ecological and community design process. 

I only had limited exposure to this Story of Place process at the recent Bioneers convention, but it strikes me as a way of engaging a community in creating a future that is much more dynamic and deep value driven that what typically occurs in conventional community planning efforts, where all too frequently Visions, Goals, Objectives, Implementation Strategies, etc. are developed into static Plans that sit on a shelf, and rather than inspire a community, they become either irrelevant or a magnet for polarized ideological conflicts.

Here are some links to information about Story of Place:

• Story of Place Institute
• Regenisis:  Story of Place
• Integrative Design Collaborative
• A Mad River "Story of Place" -- You Tube