Theme

The main theme is 'Welfare Reform in East Asia: Meeting the Needs of Social Change, Economic Competitiveness and Social Justice'. As widely recognised, there have been dramatic welfare developments and reforms in East Asia along with socio-economic-political transformations. In the era of globalisation and also post-industrialisation, each East Asian government has been facing a huge task to compromise satisfying social needs and maintaining economic competitiveness. This conference will address a range of issues relating to recent welfare reforms in East Asia and examine the role of social policy in these rapidly changing economies.Call for paper

Papers are invited which address the main theme or sub-themes as below. Papers may examine these issues from divergent perspectives that include theoretical and empirical angles. Papers may be comparative, or case studies which have broader implications for East Asian countries and/or for the development of research methods.

Particularly, papers with gender and/or minority sensitive approaches are encouraged.

• Stream 1: Changing political/economic configurations and policy reforms
• Stream 2: Income, poverty and social assistance
• Stream 3: (In)equality, inclusion and/or exclusion and social development
• Stream 4: East Asian welfare regime debates
• Stream 5: Family and childcare
• Stream 6: Immigration: new challenge
• Stream 7: Ageing, long-term care and pensions
• Stream 8: Urban and housing policy
• Stream 9: Health and disability across the life-course
• Stream 10: Education and social policy

Those wishing to present in the conference should submit a 250-300 word abstract or a panel proposal to the EASP (easpconferences@gmail.com) by 30 August 2008. Information enclosed with your abstract should include: title of paper; your name; institution; and email address.

The final papers and contributed papers should be submitted to the same address by 20 October 2008.Plenary Speakers

• Prof Gordon Chan (Chair for the Naional Policy Foundation, Taiwan)
• Prof Sven E O Hort (Södertörn University College, Sweden)
• Prof Yong-Ik Kim (Seoul National University)
• Prof Taro Miyamoto (Hokkaido University)
• Prof Ka Ho Mok (University of Hong Kong) and Prof Ramesh Mishra
• (National Singapore University)
• Dr Martin Seeleib-Kaiser (University of Oxford, United Kingdom)