Jointly convened by the Centre for Asia Pacific Social Transformation Studies (CAPSTRANS) and the UNESCO-MOST (Management of Social Transformations) Program. This will be the first of an international series of five UNESCO-MOST sponsored conferences exploring the specific characteristics of globalisation and social transformation in the various world regions.

The complex multi-level process of mediation between the global and the local is the focus of a new inter-disciplinary field of research: social transformation studies. Unlike traditional development studies, this new approach does not take the western model as the aspired goal, but rather sees social transformation as an open-ended process affecting all parts of the world.

Conference Program includes:

Keynote session: Global Trends and Asia Pacific Responses
Plenary sessions:
- From Development Studies to the Analysis of Social Transformation: new perspectives
- Improving the Development Performance of the International Community
- Democracy, Civil Society and the State
- Eastern and Western Philosophies in the Transformation Process
- Globalisation from Below
Roundtable Discussion: Responding to Social Transformations: Researchers, Policymakers and Communities Working Together

CALL FOR PAPERS for contributions to the following parallel session:

- Migration, multicultural societies and the post-colonial Nation-State
- Technological innovation and societal effects
- Human resource development
- Asian labour in the era of globalisation
- Social policy and welfare in post-crisis Asia
- Culture, identity and community in the transformation process
- The human costs of development
- Asian values, modernisation and development

All abstracts will be refereed and prospective participants for the parallel sessions should send a 500 word abstract (hard copy or e-mail), a brief CV indicating their current position, qualifications, most recent publications, contact address, e-mail and fax number.

For further details contact:

Professor S. Castles (Director) or Dr Jan Elliott (Research Fellow)
Centre for Asia Pacific Social Transformation Studies (CAPSTRANS)
University of Wollongong, 2522, Australia
Email: capstrans@uow.edu.au
Ph: 61 2 4221 3780, Fax: 61 2 4228 6313
URL: http://www.uow.edu.au/research/centres/capstrans