Biocratic Governance - Letting Land Speak First in Local Governance
→ For those interested in public governance & policy. See open call for MVP prototyping at the end
We have reached the point where we can see the limitations of asking nature and the more-than-human to inform governance without changing the epistemological and procedural basis from which governance operates. Many have come to similar conclusions, although what is currently still absent in most jurisdictions is an instrument that makes the living system the starting condition of local decision-making.
In this Reframe we lay out a _4-part strawman_ as a means to provide inspiration, invite discussion, and jointly explore pathways that turn theory into practice, setting out a proposition for a Biocratic Governance mechanism that would act as a generative and foundational layer for local governance:
- Re-story the landscape - re-story-ing a living, accumulating ledger of place, of the land we inhabit, bringing together scientific data, local knowledge, lived experience, historical memory and other ways of knowing.
- Derive and validate its guiding logic - surfacing the patterns, relationships, rhythms, and conditions that emerge from the living ledger, and validating them using diverse knowledge stakeholders and situated experience.
- Make that logic foundational through a living Covenant - creating an instrument through which the place-based living logic can enter governance and act as a foundational layer, becoming the first filter through which material decisions are formulated.
- Hold the relationship through a caretaker - integrating responsibility into an existing, local government role to keep the living ledger, guiding logic and Covenant alive as day-to-day governance unfolds.
The question is therefore not simply whether a municipality, council, waterboard or other territorial authority considers the land alongside other factors when making a decision. Rather, we ask: What happens and what becomes possible when the land itself becomes the starting point, organising our decisions from within that nested relationship?
Open invitation for prototyping a Minimum Viable Proposition at the end of the article