Resources substitution situations and training: Working with living in permaculture

Abstract

Doesn't the notion of coupling between subject and situation, and more broadly between subject and environment, deserve to be extended? It is no longer just a question of considering an environment that allows the subject to develop, but also the role of the subject who in turn is able to act for the environment as an ecological milieu. The analysis of the activity of permaculturists based on an observation and an increased conceptualization of the systemic and dynamic processes of the living world, in partnership with them, can constitute an avenue in this sense. Based on the observation of the permaculturists' resource system, through an approach that is not only functional but also developmental in terms of resource substitution, we propose avenues for training. These combine the contributions of the instrumental approach (Rabardel, 2005) with those of professional didactics, particularly when it studies work with living things (Mayen, 2014).