The Risk Society and Policy Research Centre of National Taiwan University (hereinafter RSPRC ) held the 6th International Symposium on Environmental Sociology in East Asia (ISESEA) 2017, inviting major international academic institutions and relevant university departments to participate in the ISESEA. ISESEA was launched in 2007 by a group of sociologists of East Asian environmental studies from the Research Committee in Environment and Society (RC24) of the International Sociological Association (ISA) and is held biennially among Japan, Taiwan, South Korea and China.
This is the second time the ISESEA held in Taiwan and this time was held at Taiwan University from October 19 to October 22th, 2017. The organising committee includes RSPRC, the College of Social Sciences, the Institute of National Development, NTU, and the ISA-RC24. The biennial ISESEA is not only attended by scholars from all over East Asia, but also many from various countries in Europe and the United States showing considerable interest in the issues such as ecological and environmental debates in East Asia. At present, Taiwan faces the problems of climate change and environmental problems (such as PM2.5 and farmland pollution, etc.), risks of nuclear disaster and nuclear waste management, food safety and other risks, especially during the recent controversy over the import of the potential radiation-polluted-food after the nuclear disaster in Fukushima, Japan. How the international community would ensure social security and a sustainable future is a topic of importance.
The theme of the 6th ISESEA is "Transboundary Risk Governance in East Asia". From the perspective of East Asia, it explores a wide range of cross-border risk management issues in the face of climate change, air pollution, nuclear disaster and nuclear waste management, food safety and emerging technologies. The symposium was opened by Shun-Kuei Chan, the Deputy Minister of the EPA (Taiwan) and Ching-Ray Chang, the Vice President of the NTU, encouraging exchanges among scholars and showing the importance of the topics was going to be discussed in the sessions.
Professor Riley E. Dunlap, Department of Sociology, Oklahoma State University, the US, was invited as the first keynote speaker and the session was moderated by Professor Hsin-Huang Hsiao, the former Director of the Institute of Sociology, Academia Sinica and the former faculty of the Department of Sociology, NTU. Benefiting from Prof. Dunlap's ecological outlook on the environment and Prof. Hsiao's in-depth analysis of environmental conservation, the audience has a better understanding of the transforming environmental risk. Prof. Dunlap explained how the US affects international climate governance and examined the long-standing denial of climate change observed in the US in the 1990s, resulting in the global warming evolves into a major issue for all mankind.
This was followed by the second keynote speaker, Professor Juju Chin-Shou Wang from the Centre for General Education and the Institute of Sociology, Tsinghua University, and the moderator was Professor Koichi Hasegawa from the Graduate School of Art and Letters, Tohoku University; he is also the acting chair of RC24. Both of them are the veterans in the study of environmental issues. Through this conference, East Asia countries can learn from each other and strengthen their strategies of environmental conservation, turning them to the transboundary environment preservation. Professor Wang pointed out that, in sociology, natural agriculture should be considered as a form of social movement, rather than agricultural practices. The natural farming movement (NFM) must mobilise resources and empower stakeholders to achieve "a common good".
In the following, Professor Ilan Chabay, the Head of International Fellowships, Incubator, and the Knowledge, Learning, and Societal Change International Research Alliance (KLASICA) at the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies, Germany, gave the final keynote speech. The host of this session was Professor Kuei-Tien Chou, the Director of RSPRC and the Head of the Institute of National Development, NTU. IASS-KLASICA and RSPRC are both the academic research institutes focusing on social risk research and governance issues, establishing a platform of communication and research exchange between German and Taiwan. Prof. Chabay mentioned that mankind is facing an urgent global environmental impact. It not only needs to set the ideal national pledges and paths with the support of natural sciences, social sciences and humanities but also needs individuals, organisations and agencies to make changes together.
In addition to the above documented three intriguing thematic keynote speeches, this symposium also has five regular sessions, including 20 panels and 65 papers-presentation. Through the sharing of experience among scholars from different countries, it has created an arena for encouraging further mutual understanding and stimulating the discussion over emerging areas of environmental sociology, climate change and environmental issues in East Asia, sustainable development, and environmental risks and governance, nuclear issues in various countries, etc., facilitating the exploration of a meaningful contextual comparison. The 7th ISESEA will be held in South Korea in two-year time and we look forward to the innovation and academic exchange of environmental studies in the future.
