CALL FOR ABSTRACTS / PAPERS The University of the Philippines, Diliman Campus (Joint hosts: College of Mass Communication and School of Labor & Industrial Relations)
in collaboration with
The Department of Sociology, National University of Singapore
invite Abstracts for the 8th ASEAN Inter-University Seminars on Social Development, which will take place on May 28 to June 1, 2008, Manila, Philippines
Theme: ASEAN as a Community: Solidarity in a Globalizing World
The IUC is the biggest bi-annual gathering of academics and social scientists in Southeast Asia. Backstopped by its Regional Secretariat based in the National University of Singapore, the IUC has helped advanced the understanding of the human condition in all its dimensions in Southeast Asia. It is able to enlist the participation of leading scholars and researchers from different centers of learning all over the region.
As a backgrounder, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), in its Leader's Summit in 2003 in bali, adopted a historic vision to transform the region into an 'ASEAN Community'. Based on Bali Concord II, ASEAN shall be an integrated community by 2020 built on three integration pillars - economy, socio-cultural and security. Since then, ASEAN, which is marking its 4oth year in 2008, has advanced the economic integration program to 2015 and is now drafting an ASEAN Charter that will dramatically transform the ASEAN into rules-based institution.
The academe, with its intellectual resources, can contribute a lot in
Sharpening the vision of an ASEAN community,
Fleshing out the plans and programs of regional integration,
Identifying problems and prospects in the integration process, and
Insuring a human-centered ASEAN integration.
However, the 8th IUC has also introduced another innovation. It has accepted the formal involvement in the IUC of ASEAN working people as participants. The newly-formed ASEAN Service Employees Trade Union Council (ASETUC) based in Singapore and Kuala Lumpur shall participate as a co-sponsor. Through the ASETUC, other trade unions and civil society organizations (CSOs) or non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from the region shall be invited.
