The book launch for the research monograph, Taiwan in Net-Zero Transition: An East Asian Perspective on Developmental Environmentalism (2025), authored by Dr. Kuei-Tien Chou, Director of the Risk Society and Policy Research Center (RSPRC) and Professor at the Graduate Institute of National Development, National Taiwan University (NTU), was held in late October, 2025.
The East Asian environmental sociology network originated from the ISESEA network, co-founded in 2007 by scholars from Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, and other regions. This community organizes a biennial Symposium , with hosting duties rotating among Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, and China. This year (2025) marked the 10th Symposium , with NTU’s RSPRC once again serving as Taiwan’s host institution after previously hosting the event in 2017.
On July 23, 2025, Professor Jusen ASUKA from Tohoku University visited our center and engaged in in-depth discussions with Assistant Professor Jiun-Da LIN from the Graduate Institute of National Development, Assistant Professor Chung-Hsien LEE from the Department of Political Science, and colleagues at the center.
Associate Professor Gregory Trencher of the Graduate School of Global Environmental Studies at Kyoto University, Japan, visited the Risk Society and Policy Research Center (RSPRC) of National Taiwan University (NTU) from November 20-22, 2024, for academic exchange and discussions on potential research collaboration.
On the 24th of January 2024, the Risk Society and Policy Research Center (RSPRC) of National Taiwan University (NTU) hosted an open forum titled “Developmental Contributory Risks? Reconfiguring Citizenship in a Developmental Risk Society.” The keynote speaker was Kyung-Sup Chang, distinguished professor in the Department of Sociology at Seoul National University. The event was chaired and moderated by Kuei-Tien Chou, the RSPRC’s director, and also featured commentary from Professor Shiuh-Shen Chien of NTU’s Department of Geography.
On the 30th of November 2023, the Risk Society and Policy Research Center (RSPRC) of National Taiwan University hosted an open forum by Associate Professor Pietro Lanzini from Ca' Foscari University of Venice, Italy. His research interests include consumer behavior and sustainability, with a special focus on mobility, the food sector and spillover-related phenomena. The title of his presentation was "The Electrification of Mobility in Italy: A Commuter-based Perspective."
On 26th of July 2023, the Risk Society and Policy Research Center (RSPRC) of National Taiwan University hosted a lecture by distinguished Professor Andreas Klinke from the Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada. He has been exploring different topics like cosmopolitanism, globalization, risk society, sustainable development, and transnational democracy for years. The captivating lecture was about post-normal politics.
In the beginning, Professor Klinke said we are experiencing epochal changes at all socio-political levels, like the Industrial revolution, predicted by Ulrich Beck. The old and new uncertainties and different sort of risks were inevitably interwoven during the transformation. He then referred to "global socio-material system," by the sociologist John Urry, to describe the inevitable natural-social interrelations between issues and unmet needs. Typical examples were the climate, energy, biological diversity, world economy, and world politics issues.
The COVID-19 pandemic that has swept across the planet in 2020 has reinforced the need for scientists and policymakers to co-develop solutions to tackle future challenges, which is increasingly important as the global community strive toward sustainability goals.
The Risk Society and Policy Research Center (RSPRC) conducted an interview with CWind Taiwan's Deputy General Manager Tom Manning this week to learn more about CWind's experience in developing renewable energy in Taiwan, as well as the opportunities and challenges in Taiwan's renewable energy landscape.
The book launch and forum for the new book, "Climate Change Governance in Asia" was held at the Annual Conference of the Taiwanese Sociology Association on November 29, 2020 at the Department of Sociology, National Taiwan University.
The 3rd International KLASICA Taipei Symposium was organized last month by our center, the Risk Society and Policy Research Center (RSPRC), National Taiwan University, in collaboration with the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS) in Germany. The symposium was joined by over 50 participants from 20 countries in the Asia-Pacific, Europe and the Americas, and was held online this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
