The 12th Asian Conference on the Social Sciences (ACSS2021)

Join us online for ACSS2021!

May 24-26, 2021 | Held online from Tokyo, Japan

Held in partnership with the IAFOR Research Centre at the Osaka School of International Public Policy (OSIPP) at Osaka University, this international conference encourages academics and scholars to meet and exchange ideas and views in a forum stimulating respectful dialogue. This event will afford an exceptional opportunity for renewing old acquaintances, making new contacts, networking, and facilitating partnerships across national and disciplinary borders.

Since its founding in 2009, IAFOR has brought people and ideas together in a variety of events and platforms to promote and celebrate interdisciplinary study, and underline its importance. Over the past year we have engaged in many cross-sectoral projects, including those with universities (the University of Barcelona, Hofstra University, UCL, University of Belgrade and Moscow State University), a think tank (the East-West Center), as well as collaborative projects with the United Nations in New York, and here, with the Government of Japan through the Prime Minister’s office.

With the IAFOR Research Centre, we have engaged in a number of interdisciplinary initiatives we believe will have an important impact on domestic and international public policy conversations. It is through conferences like these that we expand our network and partners, and we have no doubt that ACSS2021 will offer a remarkable opportunity for the sharing of research and best practice, and for the meeting of people and ideas.

The 12th Asian Conference on the Social Sciences (ACSS2021) is a multidisciplinary conference held concurrently with The 12th Asian Conference on Arts & Humanities (ACAH2021). Speakers will provide a variety of perspectives from different academic and professional backgrounds.

We look forward to seeing you online!

– The ACSS2021 Organising Committee

Grant Black Black Inc. Consulting, Japan
Clementina Cardoso CIHRC Research and Development
Joseph Haldane The International Academic Forum (IAFOR), Japan
Donald E. Hall University of Rochester, USA
Hiroshi Ishida University of Tokyo, Japan
Fan Li LePing Social Entrepreneur Foundation & Stanford Social Innovation Review (SSIR), China
James W. McNally University of Michigan, USA & NACDA Program on Aging
Sela V. Panapasa University of Michigan, USA
Haruko Satoh Osaka University, Japan

Special Themes and Areas of Focus

Authors have the optional opportunity of identifying whether their paper addresses either the 2021–2022 IAFOR Special Theme and/or one of the ongoing IAFOR Special Areas of Focus.

IAFOR 2021–2022 Special Theme: “Resilience”

Resilience is the ability to resist being affected, or to recover readily from setback and adversity, and the past year has been one of enormous turbulence and upheaval. Nobody has been left untouched by the impact of the global pandemic, and great change has been forced upon us all.

COVID-19 has underlined the extent to which we suffer together as one, but also how the experience of a global pandemic has been very different and unequal. This has had a woeful impact on the already marginalised and dispossessed, further evidencing that countries are not equal in their ability to provide for and protect their people. The pandemic has also created questionable narratives and false dichotomies in approaches to finding solutions to the myriad problems that COVID-19 has either caused or exacerbated.

Humans can be by turn extraordinarily delicate, and remarkably resilient and we are now living through and witnessing an extraordinary period of history. However, as with any period of great change, there is a window of opportunity that follows where one has the chance to enact and bring about change for the better. The pandemic has also allowed many of us the space to rethink our relationship with both ourselves and those immediately around us, but also with the wider world. This is a crisis both global and local, both shared and individual.

That time to rethink and reimagine is now as we attempt to regroup and rebuild. We need to build back, but do so in a way that is better, stronger and fairer. Forged by adversity, we have the opportunity to follow divergent paths towards a future that we help create, and where, to borrow Heaney, hope and history may rhyme.

IAFOR Special Areas of Focus

In line with its organisational mission, IAFOR encourages, facilitates and nurtures interdisciplinary research, with an emphasis on international and intercultural perspectives. Current areas of focus of the organisation include the following ongoing collaborative programmes and initiatives.

About IAFOR

“Inspiring Global Research Collaborations”

Founded in 2009, The International Academic Forum (IAFOR) is a politically independent non-partisan and non-profit interdisciplinary think tank, conference organiser and publisher dedicated to encouraging interdisciplinary discussion, facilitating intercultural awareness and promoting international exchange, principally through educational interaction and academic research. Based in Japan, its main administrative office is in Nagoya, and its research centre is in the Osaka School of International Public Policy (OSIPP), a graduate school of Osaka University. IAFOR runs research programs and events in Asia, Europe and North America in partnership with universities and think tanks, and has also worked on a number of multi-sector cooperative programs and events, including collaborations with the United Nations and the Government of Japan. Read more about IAFOR.

International | Intercultural | Interdisciplinary