Overview
To accomplish the mission, goals and objectives of the NARFI Program Update 2003-2005 (225K in HTML format, 626K in PDF format), a number of NARFI-led Projects and NARFI Collaborations are already underway. The title of each project and collaboration description below includes a link that will will take you directly to the appropriate section of the HTML version of the NARFI Program Update.
NARFI-led Projects
The following projects are under the direct leadership of the North American Rural Futures Institute (NARFI). These projects are currently being seed-funded by the Congressional Award as they get underway. Detailed information can be found on each project in the NARFI-led Projects in Detail section of the NARFI Program Update (225K in HTML format, 626K in PDF format).
Futures Thinkers Mini Grants
This project funds individuals from rural regions in Montana to attend information events on alternative energy, emerging technology, etc., and skill-building events in futures studies methodologies.
MSU-N alumnus and rural Northcentral Montana native, Kristie Smith, was our first NARFI Future Thinker. Read Kristie's 'Wind and Biodiesel Energy In Our Rural Future' experience report based on her participation in Montana's 'Energy From The Farm' Bus Tour.
Rural Futures Information and Community Outreach Project
NARFI’s downtown Havre location provides rural futures information - brochures, pamphlets, informative events (speakers, films, discussions, etc.) and suggested sites to visit in Montana to see innovative futures-oriented projects already underway.
NARFI Interactive Rural Futures On-line Portal
This project provides in-depth information on emerging technologies, events and conferences, white papers,
articles and research in any way related to rural sustainability.
NARFI On-line Rural Futures Directory
The Rural Futures Directory provides annotated links to information sources, organizations, research, field tests, best practices, legislation, value-added agendas, etc., on any and all issues related to rural future issues across North America.
Future Futurists Outreach Project
This project engages rural youth and the adults involved in their education in information-based exhibits, hands on experiences, contests, classroom projects, field trips, etc., focused on current issues and emerging trends in various aspects of rural Montana life.
NARFI Communities of Practice
The Communities of Practice project stimulates the creation of grassroots-based special interest groups on rural futures issues and facilitates local and regional expertise in emerging knowledge areas essential to future rural economic sustainability.
Futures Planning – Skills Workshops
This project for educators, community leaders, economic development stakeholders and rural citizens, provides basic skills in the methodologies of futures studies, e.g., environmental scanning, scenario building and assessment, and forecasting.
Rural Futures Institute Conference
This project for educators, community leaders, economic development stakeholders and rural citizens, provides education, information and hands-on opportunities to explore best practices, innovations and on-going research on rural futures issues.
NARFI Collaborations
The following Collaborations are already underway with key researchers and
stakeholders from across North America and Australia. Detailed information on
these Collaborations can be found in the NARFI Collaborations in Detail
section of the NARFI Program Update (in PDF format).
NWAF Poverty Reduction Proposal
In the Spring of 2002 the 11-county region of North Central Montana was selected as
one of four regions in the U. S. with a high level of poverty, yet potential,
to which the North West Area Foundation (NWAF) provided seed funds to develop a
10-year plan proposal to reduce poverty.
At the end of 2003, NWAF will select 1-2 of the 4 contending regions
with which to partner over the next ten years, providing seed funding for the
poverty reduction 10-year plan for that region.
The key NWAF criteria for proposal
selection is for regional citizens and community and organization leaders to
develop a region-wide plan that would move forward with or without NWAF funds.
Poverty Reduction in North Central Montana
Since February 2003, NARFI has been
a key participant on the Economic Development Strategy Team of the North
Central Montana Community Ventures Coalition – the Montana regional group
working on this NWAF proposal. NARFI will continue to work closely with the
Poverty Reduction Agenda team.
North Central Montana Brand and Portal
Development of a rich network of economic developers, marketing and
technology specialists to focus on regional, national and global marketing of
North Central Montana agricultural, arts, crafts, cultural, history-related,
and tribal products through deployment of a North Central Montana Internet
portal. This is the key project in the 10-year plan in which NARFI
will participate.
The Network Economy Research Theme
The Network Economy focus within
NARFI’s applied futures research program brings together a collection of
communities of practice, projects, and research collaborations that address the
social and economic opportunities for rural citizens and communities to “Live
locally, think globally.” How do we tap the inherent creativity and independent
spirit of rural entrepreneurs and rural communities to find ways to effectively
participate in the global economy without succumbing to the too-often
self-destructive trends toward over-consumption and unchecked growth that
plague urban areas?
NARFI’s initial projects and
collaborations within the Network Economy theme address innovations in small
business and workforce independence that tap what Richard Florida, Carnegie
Mellon’s distinguished professor of regional economic development, calls “the
rise of the Creative Class.”
The 'Rise of the Creative Class in the Small' Research Agenda
Knowledge workers of the last
twenty years have transformed to become members of what Richard Florida calls
the Creative Class. In his best-selling book of the same name, Florida suggests
that we are witnessing “The Rise of the Creative Class” (the book and
theory being widely referred to by the acronym, tROCC). Necessarily
independent in a world where employment relationships are measured in months
rather than years, members of the Creative Class value “place” above the “job.”
Where folks live is increasingly more important than for whom they work.
tROCCits Creativity Index Project
NARFI, together with its
collaborative partners Sohodojo and The Richard Florida Creativity Group, will
engage in fundamental research to identify and understand the dynamics of “the
Rise Of Creative Class in the small” (tROCCits) to complement and extend
Richard Florida’s social and economic theory. Dr. Florida recognizes the extension of his theory into rural
regional economies as vital and timely to the growth of his research.
tROCCits On-Line Conference
As part of an initial awareness
program and to stimulate collateral research projects related to the Creativity
Index Project, the tROCCits partners will host and sponsor a web-based, on-line
conference to network researchers, local and regional rural economic developers
and graduate students wanting to intern and otherwise participate in this
research agenda.
Microenterprise Networks Research Agenda
With the erosion of life-long, career
employment, especially in rural economies, we are seeing the reinvigoration of
solo and family-based entrepreneurship. Multi-job “portfolio” work-lives and
the growth of owner-operated (no employee) small businesses are as much a
return to the past as they are a reflection of 21st Century rural
lifestyles where independence and a can-do spirit are vital to personal and
community sustainability.
The Chandler Guild and Big Sky Chandlers
ME-nets applied research is being
most actively pursued by NARFI collaborator, Sohodojo, the non-profit applied
R&D lab supporting solo and family-based entrepreneurship in rural and
distressed urban communities. Sohodojo co-founder and research director, Jim
Salmons, is currently NARFI’s Entrepreneur and Futurist In Residence. He brings
a deep understanding and practical experience to this position that is helping
to create and shape the research focus of NARFI’s Rural Entrepreneurism
Community of Practice.
Sohodojo has strategically
partnered with Iowa-based Soyawax, Inc. on the development of The Chandler
Guild, a microenterprise network of soybean wax candlemakers. NARFI’s Rural
Entrepreneurism Community of Practice will mentor and support the creation of
Big Sky Chandlers, a statewide hub within the larger Chandler Guild
microenterprise network.
Montana Scatterlings Project
As the employment system, social
relations and regional economic opportunities increasingly are driven by the
dynamics of the emerging global network economy, social networks and local
economies are transcending the limits of place and moving toward extended
networks of trust and mutual interdependence. NARFI calls this extended social
and economic network the Montana Scatterlings – Montanans who have the best
interest of Montana at heart but who do not currently reside in Montana.
This collaborative
project will map the distribution of Montanans within the extended social and
economic networks that transcends geographic borders. By first mapping the
composition and extent of this extended network, NARFI will seek to articulate
and advocate programs and business strategies that maximize the effectiveness
of the participation of rural small businesses in the network economy.
