CALL FOR CONTRIBUTIONS

Ninth Asia Pacific Regional Conference of the International Society for Third Sector Research (ISTR)

 Exploring Frontiers of Civil Society, Social Capital and Social Enterprises

27-28 August 2015,

Nihon University

Tokyo, Japan

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1.        OVERVIEW

Public and private awareness on global and local issues such as global sustainability, eradication of poverty, the robust practice of social and human security, social inclusion, and redistribution policies are generally high, and multiple actors in international and regional communities have reinforced their capacities for addressing these issues, as well as made high-profile commitment to the issues. While confronting recent global political insecurity, economic crisis and unexpected disaster, civil society is rechallenged and at multiple crossroads in coping with this complex turmoil.

Civil society in the Asia Pacific region is thriving and vibrant in its structure and organization with its geographic and historical linkages, as well as each country’s unique institutional, economic, social, and cultural characteristics. At the same time, its large and dynamic nature leads us to reconsider the value and significance of civic engagement, emergence of new forms of social business or entrepreneurship, and the potential power of social capital. It is a good time to explore frontiers of these powerful but still uncertain values and impacts, in constructive and collaborative ways, for the future development of civil society in this region.

ISTR’s ninth Asia-Pacific regional conference will be held in Tokyo, Japan, the national capital with. The conference offers an excellent opportunity for encouraging in-depth discussion on these key issues and advancing authentic and creative research works from multidimensional approaches. Tokyo is a city of gearing up for and coordinating political, economic and sociocultural engagement both at the national and local level. It is also a city of exuberance and soaring ambition in convening roundtables and dialogues on arrangement of policy and business domains in the civil society sector. Organization of civic engagement has become more diversified, strategic, and even goal-driven. At the same time, we are challenged how to develop normative instruments for understanding and assessing activities in such a vigorous environment. The city’s energetic and borderless atmosphere with a fusion of modern culture and tradition of civil society will attract conference participants and presenters to research settings and conversation both in the international and regional context. In the conference, plenary sessions will be delivered to share questions and motivations that drives our third sector research, as well as to encourage us to deal with policy-and-business implication towards the sector’s evolvement. Also, paper, panel and poster proposals both from theoretical and practical perspectives are invited with a wide range of themes for providing the conference participants fresh stimulus and driving our regional community towards enhancement of research and business performance.

2.        CONFERENCE THEMES

The conference provides a variety of themes relevant to the third sector

■        Government, laws, and the third sector

■        Tax regime and the third sector activities

■        Third sector and policy making: Impact and evaluation

■        Wellbeing/welfare systems and the role of the third sector

■        Social capital and civil society

■        Corporate Social Responsibility

■        Fundraising

■        Governance

■        Collaborative governance and its implications to the third sector

■        Profit and non-profit sector partnerships and policy implications

■        Innovations in the third sector governance

■        Environment, sustainability, and the third sector

■        Social enterprise

w  The Conference Program is likely to include working group meetings on

w   The challenges of forming and maintaining third sector networks

w   The skills and issues in undertaking comparative third sector research.

w  There will also be sessions showcasing the ISTR and its activities, and other national and regional research associations, their activities and accomplishments.

w  Display of posters of, visits of the delegates to, and talks about local third sector organizations will be in the agenda.

3.        SUBMISSION AND SELECTION OF PROPOSAL

Proposals for papers and panels (pre-arranged) of 3-4 papers are solicited.

Format of proposals:

■        All proposals should;

-    indicate the problems or issues the research addresses relating it to the literature.

-　 briefly outline the methodology used in the research.

-    provide indication of main findings to date.

-    Include bibliographies.

■        Abstracts should be between 300 and 600 words in length (excluding bibliography).

■        All proposals should be prepared and written in English using the PAPER/PANEL SUBMISSION FORM. You can download the forms from here:
Paper submission form (word)
Panel submission form (word)

■        Authors' details should be included with the proposal. See the attached forms for submission templates.

■       Only submission using the forms is considered for review.

■        Only submission to the designated email address is accepted. Please sent the submission form to the ISTR Asia Pacific Regional Network Office at <istr-ap@ml.osipp.osaka-u.ac.jp>.

w  Papers and panels will be presented in parallel sessions.

w  Submissions by practitioners, young scholars, and doctoral students engaged in research are very welcome.

w  Authors for paper presentation accepted and invited to participate will have to submit their final complete version of paper by the end of July 2015.

w  All authors and presenters must formally register for the conference.

To download the submission forms and submit a proposal, go to ISTR Asia Pacific Regional Network Office website: http://www.osipp.osaka-u u.ac.jp/npocenter/ISTR/index.htm, and click on the tab for “CALL FOR PAPERS”. Questions can then be directed to the ISTR Asia Pacific Regional Network Office to <istr-ap@ml.osipp.osaka-u.ac.jp>.

All submissions meeting the requirements (paper, panel, or poster) will be subject to a blind review. Only proposals of sufficient research quality and that are relevant to the aforementioned conference themes will be accepted.

4.        IMPORTANT DATES 

28 February 2015       Deadline for proposal submission

Early April 2015        Notification of acceptance/rejection to authors

End of June 2015      Deadline for conference registration

End of July 2015       Deadline for final papers' submission

27 August 2015         Conference starts

5.        REGISTRATION FEE

Registration fee will be $US200 (ISTR members); US$325 and US$250 (including one-year ISTR membership fee for middle/high income and low income country institution/affiliation, respectively). The fee will include conference materials, lunch, and dinner for two days.

More information including accommodation and scholarships will be available on the conference website later.

6.        QUESTIONS

Any questions on abstract submissions for papers, panels, and posters, and any other information of the ISTR Ninth Asia-Pacific Regional Conference should be directed to ISTR Asia Pacific Regional Network Office:  

ISTR Asia Pacific Regional Network Office
Center for Nonprofit Research and Information
Japan Institute of Policy Studies (JIPS)
E-mail: istr-ap@ml.osipp.osaka-u.ac.jp