International Futures Forum
The International Futures Forum is a think tank cum PR agency funded by big business and with links to the Futures Forum of the Scottish Parliament and to the California based Global Business Network with which they have several members in common.
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Pro-Nuclear
In 2004/05, IFF / Praxis was paid £32,000 by Nirex "to provide corporate communications advice in relation to the Managing Radioactive Waste Safely (MRWS) consultation programme". [1] (http://www.nuclearspin.org/index.php/International_Futures_Forum#endnote_jean) As part of its "programme of support" for Nirex, IFF has produced a "present and future strategy mural" for "thinking through the intractable issues of waste management over long timescales". [2] (http://www.nuclearspin.org/index.php/International_Futures_Forum#endnote_mural)
Other Activities
In 2001, the Scottish Council Foundation (SCF), a New Labour-esque think-tank based in Edinburgh, undertook an interesting move by founding a new organisation they called the International Futures Forum (IFF).
Its purpose was 'to bring international thinking to bear on our [the SCF's] work', with a 'generous grant' from British Petroleum (BP). Today, the IFF is independent from the SCF and tries to bring together so-called 'deep thinkers' in order to 'examine[s] deep structures in the modern global system in its search for a second enlightenment'.
Still supported by BP it 'explore[s] new ways of operating effectively and responsibly in a world of boundless complexity, a world we no longer fully understand and cannot control' [3] (http://www.internationalfuturesforum.co.uk/index.php) (Accessed 17 February 2005).
This world is seen as a challenge for business, government and society and confronts them with the task of 'restor[ing] the capacity to act effectively and responsibly and thereby revive and foster a culture of human aspiration'. Based on this view of today's world, the IFF seeks to create a new 'paradigm' by renouncing 'traditional' ways of making sense of the world.
How does the IFF view its role in the spread of the Second Enlightenment? A diagram in one its first reports shows a "dialogue" between a variety of actors ([4] (http://www.internationalfuturesforum.co.uk/reports/IFF1_prospectus.pdf) Accessed 17 February 2005): 'Core dialogue thinkers' disseminate knowledge, specialist information and support to a 'tier of converters', who 'convert the insights from the dialogue into practical form and who disseminate it to a wider audience'.
This group is composed of a broad variety of organisations and actors, such as the Department for Trade and Industry (DTI), business corporations, artists and writers, the BBC, unspecified 'social entrepreneurs', policy makers, the OECD and also BP.
Finally, a further group of agents, who will 'make things happen on the ground', should use the information provided through the dialogue.
In spite of the emphasis on 'dialogue', the IFF appears to see its role almost in a Hayekian tradition of 'original thinkers' who inform policy entrepreneurs or 'second hand dealers in ideas'(Friedrich A.Hayek; Edwin J.Feulner and John Blundell. The Intellectuals and Socialism. London : Institute of Economic Affairs, 1998) with their theoretical knowledge so that they can utilise it to influence the wider society, including policy-makers. And, in fact, the IFF makes 'no apology for taking seriously Margaret Mead's conviction that a small group of individuals can change the world'('Project Prospectus' December 2000, p. 5. [5] (http://www.internationalfuturesforum.co.uk/reports/IFF1_prospectus.pdf) (Accessed 2 March 2005).
This small group convening for the IFF's first meeting in April 2001 included among others former Director of the OECD International Futures Programme and 'futurist' Wolfgang Michalski; Kees van der Heijden (director of the scenario and strategy consultancy Global Business Network, Emeritus Professor of General and Strategic Management at Strathclyde University, former head of the Business Environment Division in Group Planning at Royal Dutch/Shell, London), Arun Mairo from Boston Consulting Group India, Biologist Brian Goodwin, Pat Kane from the Sunday Herald, and Mark Woodhouse, a philosopher interested in 'scientific, spiritual, and healing communities'[6] (http://www.markwoodhouse.com/01_index.html).
Funding
According to the IFF website (http://www.internationalfuturesforum.co.uk/partners.php) it enjoys "a variety of productive and mutually beneficial relationships with sponsors, clients, subscribers, research funders and others". What they label "core support" comes from BP and BT. Other organisations the IFF has worked with include
- Diageo
- Foreign and Commonwealth Office
- Scottish Parliament
- Scottish Executive
- UK Nirex Ltd
- Scottish Enterprise
- World Economic Forum
- Tayside Health Board
- Glasgow Centre for Population Health
The IFF has a number of subscribers to their research output, among which are
- World Economic Forum
- Henley Centre
- Diageo
- Falkirk Council
- Audit Scotland
- AOL (Europe) Ltd
- Cultureshift Co-operative, Australia
Research funding has come from
- Scottish Enterprise Glasgow
- Society for Organisational Learning (Scotland)'
Contact
International Futures Forum PO Box 29207 St Andrews Fife KY16 8YU UK T: +44 1334470090 E: editorial@internationalfuturesforum.com
External Links
- ^ David Wild, Freedom of Information Request, Letter to Jean McSorley, Senior Advisor to Greenpeace UK (http://www.spinprofiles.org/images/9/94/Jean.PDF), July 15, 2005.
- IFF, 'How Nirex is Thinking About the Safe Long-term Management of Radioactive Waste in the UK", November 19, 2007 (http://www.internationalfuturesforum.com/iff_publications.php?go=dl&id=8&file_ref=ydabkvophy).
- International Futures Forum website [7] (http://www.internationalfuturesforum.co.uk/)