Call for papers and panel proposals

The 17th Annual Conference of the East Asian Social Policy Research Network
& 
The 27th Annual Conference of the Foundation for International Studies on Social Security

“BEYOND INEQUALITY? SOCIAL SECURITY AND SOCIAL WELFARE BETWEEN EAST AND WEST”

26-28 June 2020, Lingnan University, Hong Kong

New deadline for abstracts and panel proposals: 20 March 2020

The idea of social investment has received much attention from policymakers and social policy analysts in East Asia, Western Europe and globally. At the same time, debates have been ongoing about whether the focus on human capital formation, labour market inclusion and empowerment can effectively alleviate contemporary social and economic inequalities. Several studies have found that the middle classes are often the primary beneficiaries of social investment, that successful policy packages are difficult to implement and transfer across jurisdictions, and may be of limited value to address the impact of automation and the digitisation of daily lives. 

Despite much social policy innovation in Hong Kong and elsewhere across East Asia, income inequality has continued to increase sharply since the 1997 East Asian and 2008 global financial crises. Efforts to reduce poverty and address rising income inequality in many European countries have stalled. The EU Social Investment Package aims to secure ‘more adequate and sustainable social policies through investing in people’s skills and capabilities’ but has struggled to curb the variation of inequality levels and trends among its member states.

Against this background, in an exciting development, the 2020 annual conferences of the  East Asian Social Policy Research Network (EASP) and Foundation for International Studies on Social Security(FISS) are joining together toexamine ‘social security’ and ‘social welfare’ policies and to re-imagine the role of private and collective income transfer programmes in successfully alleviating contemporary social inequalities. New approaches to compare and contrast policy structures between East and West are warranted given the need to facilitate cross-regional policy learning in the context of increasingly shared processes of technological, demographic, and economic change.

We particularly welcome theoretical or empirical contributions studying how specific social security and social welfare structures may produce effective complementarities with existing regional social investment paradigms. We equally encourage contributions with a comparative and global perspective, particularly those including both East Asian and Western cases. It is a long tradition of EASP and FISS to invite papers by postgraduate students and early-career researchers as well as established scholars working in the field of social welfare, social security, and social policy analysis.

Keynote speakers:

  • Prof. Janet Gornick, City University New York, United States
  • Prof. HyeKyung Lee, Yonsei University, South Korea
  • Prof. David Gordon, University of Bristol, United Kingdom

The conference programme will include a special panel of local experts on ‘Hong Kong Social Policy at a Crossroads’ chaired by Prof. Bea Cantillon, University of Antwerp, Belgium

Depending on the final selection of submitted papers and panels, the conference will comprise the following streams (as well as any other aspects of social policy in an Open Stream):

  1.  Welfare States & Welfare Regimes
  2. Social Security & Social Justice
  3. Governance, Democracy & Participation
  4. Migration & Citizenship Stratification 
  5. Population & Demographic Change
  6. Health & Human Well-being
  7. Economic & Social Inequalities
  8. Poverty & Social Inclusion
  9. Education & Vocational Training
  10. Ageing & Gerontechnology
  11. Labour Markets & Employment
  12. Housing & Urbanization
  13. Gender Inequality & Work-Family Reconciliation
  14. Sustainability & Environmental Management

Those wishing to present a paper should submit an abstract of between 200 and 300 words. Information enclosed with any abstract should include: stream number, title of paper; author name(s); affiliation(s); and email address of one corresponding author. 

Those wishing to organise a panel should submit a panel proposal. Information enclosed with any panel proposal should include: title of panel; objective of panel (between 200 and 300 words); names and affiliations of all panel organiser(s) and participating members; along with abstracts of three or four papers (between 200 and 300 words each); an e-mail address of one corresponding panel organiser.  

Submissions for the 17th annual EASP conference should be sent to EASP2020HK@gmail.com. Submissions for the FISS 2020 Conference should be sent to FISS2020HK@gmail.com. The deadline for abstracts and panel proposals is 20 March 2020. 

The FISS Best Paper Prize of 300 Euros will be awarded by a selection committee from the FISS Board of Governors and the winning paper will be published in The Journal of Poverty and Social Justice. The author(s) will also receive two years free subscription to the journal.

Important dates:

  • Submission of abstracts and panel proposals: 20 March 2020
  • Notification of applicants: 31 March 2020
  • Early booking & registration will start from 1 April 2020

Further details about the conference programme and venue will be announced shortly. For any queries, please contact stefankuehner@LU.edu.hk or Julie.Janssens@uantwerpen.be. 

The East Asian Social Policy Research Network (http://welfareasia.org) is a regional association for facilitating research exchange among social policy analysts and providing a forum and network of communication for the development of social policy in East Asia and beyond.

The Foundation for International Studies on Social Security (http://fiss-socialsecurity.org/) is an independent, non-profit association that aims to promote international, multidisciplinary research on social security, including its relationships with other aspects of society (such as the labour market, unemployment, poverty, income redistribution, savings, housing, the family, health and well-being).

Call for Papers: the 17th EASP & the 27th FISS Annual Conference