International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability

International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability 5 (2007) 280–294

Article

A holon approach to agroecology

William L. Bland and Michael M. Bell

Systems thinking contributes to envisioning agricultural sustainability. However, it faces two dilemmas, recently highlighted by complexity theory: the problems of boundary and change. We propose that interpreting Koestler's holon as an intentional entity embedded in an ecology of contexts provides an ontological construct which addresses both of these issues. The holon is in some ways a whole and in other ways a part, and to see it simultaneously as both we suggest an epistemological tool that we term flickering. In our interpretation a holon is bounded by its intentionality to persist, and the imperative to do so in multiple, incommensurable, and ever-evolving contexts motivates – indeed, makes both possible and inevitable – change. Farms are compelling examples of holons, as their humans plan and act to maintain them as a source of livelihood, necessarily in contexts as diverse and shifting as climate, life histories, trade rules, subsidies, personal spirituality and public perceptions of agricultural practices.

Keywords: systems; complexity; theory; agriculture; sociology; human-environment systems; agroecology; holon