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Home > Events -Back Number- > 2012.12.13-12.14

International Symposium on Future Asia
“Bridging Science, Technology and Society: Practices of Transdisciplinary Implementation on Sustainability and Environmental Change in Future Asia”

Organizers:GEC-Japan Platform
Japan National Committee for IGBP/WCRP/DIVERSITAS
Science Council of Japan
Research Institute for Humanity and Nature (RIHN)
Dates:13 (Thu)- 14 (Fri) December 2012
Venue:RIHN Lecture Hall, Kyoto, Japan (arrow Access)
Program:PDF file
Materials:

Agenda


Panel 1

Panel 2.1

Panel 2.2


Panel 3

Panel 4

Panel 5

Participation List: PDF file
Photos:

Objectives:

New strategies on global environmental change and sustainability have been continuously discussed during last years through initiatives of ICSU (International Council for Science), Belmont Forum, national science councils and at venues like Planet under Pressure Conference and Rio+20. Due to aggravating complexities of these problems and elusive separation (/interaction) between the attitudes of science and society towards these transitions, innovative and potential research frameworks like co-design and co-produce, top-down framing and bottom-up processing, and transdisciplinary practices have been under close scrutiny for better understanding and realization of sustainability models with global environmental and societal change. In the meantime, the need for regional strategies and young scientists' involvement in these processes has never been this articulate that there is an urgent call from both decision making bodies and scientific communities to promote discussions on regional differences in terms of perspectives, science practices and implementations, and inclusion of young researchers as well as other stakeholders of sustainability research. Asia Vision is one of these attempts initiated by GEC (Global Environmental Change)- Japan Platform to enhance linkages and collaboration on transdisciplinarity approaches to sustainability research in Japan and Asia in its larger context.

In this symposium, one-year experience of the newly launched GEC-Japan will be introduced and discussed in order to exchange ideas and get attention on our call for establishment of a rather extensive networking framework of the Asia Vision initiative with the new GEC-Japan/Asia Platform. This Future Asia Symposium will be one crucial occasion with participation of the leading figures, on environmental change research and science-society interaction with transdisciplinary background, in order to discuss and compare regional as well as global environmental change and sustainability research experiences and direct our attention towards regional potentials for transdisciplinary and global sustainability solutions. We also plan to discuss further processes and Asian particularities of transdisciplinary global sustainability research by reflecting on the recent developments on the Future Earth and Belmont Forum initiatives. Our target audience is researchers, students and other groups who are interested in discussing their regional (or Asia focused) as well as country-based collaborative research initiatives and willing to contribute to further activities of the GEC-Japan/Asia Platform and Asia Vision.

For this reason, we are inviting experts with wide spectrum of research interest ranging from social and natural sciences to humanities with an interest in environmental change and sustainability as well as with an understanding and expertise of working within interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary frameworks. Discussions and main findings of the symposium will be compiled in an edited volume to contribute to the international and regional development of environmental change and sustainability research and lead to further discussions and collaboration through GEC-Japan/Asia Platform.

Symposium Program:
Day I (13 December 2012, Thursday) 09:00 - 17:15
Opening (09:00 - 09:20)

Welcome Remarks (RIHN) Narufumi Tachimoto
Opening Remarks (International Council for Science) Yuan Tseh Lee
Opening Remarks (Science Council of Japan) Fumiko Kasuga
Agenda setting (RIHN&GEC-Japan/Asia) Makoto Taniguchi

Panel 1: Missing questions (09:20 - 10:50)
Purpose: Figuring out the missing questions in sustainability and environmental change research

Moderator: (RIHN&GEC-Japan/Asia) Aysun Uyar
Missing questions at international level (International Council for Science) Steven Wilson
Missing questions at international and regional levels (International Social Science Council) Mathieu Denis
Missing questions at regional and national levels (Nagoya University&GEC-Japan/Asia) Tetsuzo Yasunari

Break (10:50 - 11:05)
Panel 2.1: Sub-regional potentials and initiatives (11:05 - 12:35)
Purpose: Elaborating sub-regional potentials and country experiences

Moderator: (Science Council of Asia & University of Tsukuba)) Cindy Yoshiko Shirata
Cases from South Asia: India (M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation) Anil Kumar
Cases from Central Asia: Mongolia (RIHN) Zamba Batjargal
Cases from East Asia: China (Michigan State University) Jiaguo Qi
Cases from East Asia: South Korea (Korea Polar Research Institute) Seong-Joon Kim
Lunch (12:35-13:45) / (Optional RIHN Tour, 13:20-13:40)

Panel 2.2: Country-based initiatives: The case of Japan (13:45 - 15:30)
Purpose: Presenting recent research initiatives on sustainability and environmental change in Japan

Moderator: (International Social Science Council) Mathieu Denis Science
Science Council of Japan perspectives (Science Council of Japan) Takashi Onishi
DIVERSITAS-Japan initiatives (DIVERSITAS-Japan & Hokkaido University) Takashi Kohyama
WCRP-Japan initiatives (WCRP-Japan & The University of Tokyo) Teruyuki Nakajima
IGBP-Japan initiatives (IGBP-Japan & The University of Tokyo) Mitsuo Uematsu Mitsuo Uematsu
IHDP-Japan initiatives (IHDP-Japan & Hokkaido University of Education) Yukio Himiyama Yukio Himiyama

Break (15:30 - 16:00)
Panel 3: Feedback from Future Earth and Belmont Forum initiatives (16:00 - 17:30)
Purpose: Follow-up of recent discussions on Future Earth and Belmont Forum initiatives

Moderator: (Asia-Pacific Network for Global Change Research) Linda Anne Stevenson
Messages from Future Earth regional workshop for Asia-Pacific (ICSU Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific) Mohd Nordin Hasan
GEC-Japan/Asia Platform perspectives on Future Earth and Belmont Forum (RIHN&GEC-Japan/Asia) Makoto Taniguchi
Recent agenda of Future Earth and Belmont Forum initiatives (Future Earth Transition Team & Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research) Tandong Yao

Day II (14 December 2012, Friday) 09:00 - 14:00
Panel 4: Regional diversity of transdisciplinary initiatives (09:00 - 10:30)
Purpose: Sharing experiences of regional and international transdisciplinary platforms

Moderator: (Monsoon Asia Integrated Regional Study) Ai Likun
Asian experiences and international linkages (Monsoon Asia Integrated Regional Study) Michael Manton
European experience on regional research dynamics (National Committee on Global Change Research) Gernot Klepper
Comparative perspectives towards transdisciplinarity (MEXT) Soichi Mori

Break (10:30 - 11:00)
Panel 5: Is there any Asian type of “Science-Society Interface”? Vision(s) from Asia for sustainability and environmental change research (11:00 - 13:00)
Purpose: General discussion and future interface of the GEC-Japan/Asia Platform

Moderator: (RIHN&GEC-Japan/Asia) Makoto Taniguchi
Comments: International Council for Science (Yuan Tseh Lee), MEXT (Takashi Kiyoura), GEC-Japan/Asia (Tetsuzo Yasunari), NIES (Nobuko Saigusa), IGES (Takashi Otsuka), ICSU-WDS (Yasuhiro Murayama)

General Discussion
Closing Remarks (RIHN) Yo-ichiro Sato
Lunch (13:00 - 14:00)
End of Symposium (14:00)

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