The Bioregional Paradigm

The Bioregional Paradigm

Selected text and a table that appear in Kirkpatrick Sale's "Dwellers in the Land: The Bioregional Vision," a treatise on the bioregionalism subject. Although Peter Berg coined the term, Sale served as one of bioregionalism's leading theorists. In the text, he advocates not only for a profound, place-based connection, but also a different form of governance - or lack thereof. That is, he defines a bioregion as an area "governed by nature, not legislature." The bioregional paradigm rejected urbanization and encouraged people to "return to the land," often in the most physical sense of the phrase. Newspaper articles in the late 1980s included images of average Americans at work in their gardens, underscored with clever captions such as "Ron and Jane Grunt are sinking their roots in the Morongo Valley" (L.A. Times, Sept. 3 1987, Ann Japenga).

Kirkpatrick Sale

Dwellers in the Land: The Bioregional Vision

University of Georgia

1985