Announcing North Atlantic Forum (NAF) 2015
10th North Atlantic Forum | 27th CRRF Rural Conference
Hosted by the Institute of Island Studies
in association with the Canadian Rural Revitalization Foundation
Building Community Resilience: Innovation, Culture, and Governance in Place
Summerside, Prince Edward Island, Canada
September 17-18-19, 2015
NAF 2015 invites explorations of how various ‘dark horses’ in the broad North Atlantic – including minorities, small towns, peripheries, aboriginal communities, those with little money, status, voice or political leverage – can rise to the occasion and chart liveable futures.
NAF 2015 will examine opportunities for sustainable living that are more likely to emerge from small and peripheral communities – rural, coastal or island – that would otherwise struggle in a McWorld driven by scale economics.
North Atlantic Forum 2015 will serve as a platform for the critical and inter-disciplinary discussion of experiences where those living ‘on the edge’, however defined, show unexpected ingenuity and mettle; and respond cleverly to dire economic straits or public policy negligence. Including:
- Politically, by developing suitable governance practices; flexing jurisdictional powers; and engaging in multi-level political and (para)-diplomatic relations;
- Economically, by facilitating small-scale entrepreneurship; promoting investment; creating skill-rich jobs; encouraging inward and circular migration; and developing new forms of human-scaled, place-based, no-growth economies, sensitive to environmental needs;
- Culturally, by nourishing strong communities that celebrate traditions and encourage artistic expression; sustaining suitable environmental practices; and welcoming newcomers in their rooted yet routed ways of life.
Contact iis@upei.ca for more information
RETURN TO PAST CONFERENCES PAGE