“Building Community Resilience” Conference: Call for papers, presentations, and stories
The Steering Committee for the 10th North Atlantic Forum is pleased to announce that this year's conference, 'Building Community Resilience: Innovation, Culture, and Governance in Place,' will be held from September 16 to 19, 2015 in Summerside, PEI. The North Atlantic Forum is a network of researchers, policy-makers, and development practitioners focused on best practices in social and economic development and governance. We believe in and celebrate the power of small, and the innovations that come out of unlikely places. The conference is hosted by UPEI's Institute of Island Studies in partnership with the Canadian Rural Revitalization Foundation (CRRF).
The Building Community Resilience Conference invites explorations of how various 'dark horses' in Canada and 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 livable futures. The conference will examine opportunities for sustainable living that are more likely to emerge from small and peripheral communities - rural, coastal, or island.
Conference organizers welcome submissions from community organizations, community leaders, nonprofit organizations, government, students, researchers, and businesses to share information on the topic of building resilient communities or regions. Each presentation will be allocated 15 minutes for sharing information and 5 minutes for questions. Conference organizers also welcome suggestions for panel discussions on topics related to building resilient communities and regions.
The conference 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; and
• 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.
Completed abstracts are to be emailed to Ryan Gibson (ryan.gibson@smu.ca). Contributors will be notified by the end of April 2015 regarding the acceptance of their submission. Inquiries and questions about presentations, panels, or themed sessions can be sent to Ryan Gibson.
We invite participants from academia, government, NGOs, and communities to join us this fall in Summerside, which itself has demonstrated resilience in a big way. We will use this opportunity not only to learn from other jurisdictions, but to explore rural and small-town Prince Edward Island through a lively and community-engaged program. For more information on the Building Community Resilience Conference, please visit www.pei2015.crrf.ca or contact naf2015@upei.ca.
