International Futures Forum

This article is part of the Center for Media & Democracy's focus on the fallout of nuclear "spin."

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.

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". 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".

History

On its website IFF states that "We were established in early 2001 with a generous grant from BP to explore how to take more effective action in the face of the complex looming issues that threaten our future.We work in areas where there are no easy answers, where existing models fail to make sense of our confusing reality, where we are in over our heads, where we face an unacknowledged 'conceptual emergency'. We have developed a body of theory, practice and wide experience in taking on seemingly intractable challenges and developing the capacities in individuals, teams, organisations and communities to flourish in today's powerful times."

But, although BP provided the money, it was the Scottish Council Foundation which established The International Futures Forum (IFF) in 2001 "to bring international thinking to bear on our work"., i.e. to promote policy ideas derived from policy transfer. Today, the IFF is independent of the SCF and it seems as if it has not proven particularly valuable to the SCF's rather pragmatic approach to public policy. The IFF, which 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", has rather obscure aims and purposes.

Funding

On its website IFF states that "We now enjoy a variety of productive and mutually beneficial relationships with sponsors, clients, subscribers, research funders and others".

We are grateful to the following organisations for their core support

• BP
• BT
• Shell

These are some of the organisations we have worked with:

• 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

Our subscribers include:

• World Economic Forum
• Henley Centre
• Diageo
• Falkirk Council
• Audit Scotland
• AOL (Europe) Ltd
• Cultureshift Co-operative, Australia

We have enjoyed research funding from:

• Scottish Enterprise Glasgow
• Society for Organisational Learning (Scotland)

Activities

As Hartwig Pautz has written:

With support from BP it â??explore[s] new ways of operating effectively and responsibly in a world of boundless complexity, a world we no longer fully understand and cannot controlâ??[1] (Accessed 17

February 2005). This world is seen as a challenge for business, government and society and confronts them with the task of â??restor[ing] the capacity to act effectively and responsibly and thereby revive and foster a culture of human aspirationâ??. Based on this view of todayâ??s world, the IFF seeks to create a new â??paradigmâ?? by renouncing â??traditionalâ?? 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 ([2] Accessed 17 February 2005). â??Core dialogue thinkersâ?? disseminate knowledge, specialist information and support to a â??tier of convertersâ??, who â??convert the insights from the dialogue into practical form and who disseminate it to a wider audienceâ??. 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 â??social entrepreneursâ??, policy makers, the OECD and also BP.

Finally, a further group of agents, who will â??make things happen on the groundâ??, should use the information provided through the dialogue. In spite of the emphasis on â??dialogueâ??, the IFF appears to see its role almost in a Hayekian tradition of â??original thinkersâ?? who inform policy entrepreneurs or â??second hand dealers in ideasâ??(Friedrich A.Hayek; Edwin J.Feulner and John Blundell. The Intellectuals and Socialism. London : Institute of Economic Affairs, 1998) with their theoretical and rather abstract knowledge so that they can utilise it to influence the wider society, including policy-makers. And, in fact, the IFF makes â??no apology for taking seriously Margaret Meadâ??s conviction that a small group of individuals can change the worldâ??('Project Prospectus' December 2000, p. 5. [3] (Accessed 2 March 2005). This small group convening for the IFFâ??s first meeting in April 2001 included among others former Director of the OECD International Futures Programme and â??futuristâ?? 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 â??scientific, spiritual, and healing communitiesâ??[4].

Rather than being a permanent think-tank, the IFF is an attempt to facilitate an international network of thinkers, businesspeople and policy makers. During a case study trip to BPâ??s Grangemouth refinery â?? the IFF group also conducted case studies on the â??learning society in Dundeeâ?? ('IFF Learning in Dundee. A Second Enlightenment View' [5] Accessed 4 March 2005) and on health provision for â??deprived individuals and communities in Fifeâ?? (IFF Entreprise in Falkirk [6] Accessed 4 March 2005) â?? the IFF came up with a "vision" for the future of BP and Falkirk/Grangemouth.

When BP asked the IFF how it could combine the challenge of adjusting the plant to global competition bearing on mind the responsibility of BP to all local stakeholders ('Health in Fife' [7], p. 2 Accessed 4 March 2005). The IFF responded by proposing to understand the downsizing of the plant, which culminated in the lay off of about 1000 employees, as a creative act. As BP is a â??different kind of energy company, radiating energy of all kinds â?? intellectual, physical, creative â?? into the communityâ??, the sacking of workers equals â??releasing high quality resources into the communityâ?? ('Health in Fife' [8], p. 3 Accessed 4 March 2005). This rather interesting take on unemployment and economic restructuring is part of the IFFâ??s attempt to create new management and organisational approaches. It wants to act as a kind of "spiritual management consultancy" â?? although behind the airy language of challenges and creativity we find statements with stark consequences if put into practice: for example, the IFFâ??s stance on the NHS generated â??entitlement cultureâ?? which should be transformed into a more creative â??gift cultureâ??, would lead to significant changes in the allocation of resources, as gift cultures rely on their reciprocity rather than on solidarity and social contracts [9](p, 19,Accessed 4 March 2005). (Source: www.psa.ac.uk/2005/pps/Pautz.pdf)

Contact

International Futures Forum
PO Box 29207
St Andrews Fife KY16 8YU UK
Phone: +44 1334470090
Email: editorial AT internationalfuturesforum.com
Website: http://www.internationalfuturesforum.co.uk/

Articles and Resources

Related SourceWatch Articles

• Think tanks

External links

• Hartwig Pautz, "Think-Tanks in Scotland", Paper for the 55th Political Studies Association Annual conference, University of Leeds, 4-7 April 2005.