THE RISE OF ASIA 2018 CONFERENCE REPORT

Dimanche 4 novembre 2018, par DK // CONFERENCES

THE RISE OF ASIA CONFERENCE 2018 took place in Paris and Le Havre, France, on March 14-16, 2018. Around 60 papers were presented and discussed in plenary and parallel sessions of the conference. The parallel sessions were organised in the following clusters : ARCHITECTURE-CULTURE-CITY-ECOLOGY, ASIA-AFRICA, ASIA-ASIA, ASIA-WEST, ASIA-WORLD, BRICS, ECONOMY, FRENCH SESSION, GENDER, STUDENT SESSION, WELLBEING. The presenters came from 22 countries : Australia, Brazil, China, Congo Brazzaville, Ethiopia, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Portugal, Russia, Senegal, South Africa, UK, Uruguay, USA. This report contains the conference concept, programme, abstracts, speeches, hosting and co-organising institutions, Scientific Board composition, sponsors, photos.

PHOTOS


OPENING SESSION : Amphitheatre Turgot, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, March 14, 2018.


OPENING SESSION : Theatre Raymond Queneau, Université Le Havre Normandie, March 15, 2018.


SOCIO-CULTURAL EVENING : Gymnase Sport Centre, Université Le Havre Normandie, March 16, 2018.

THE RISE OF ASIA IN GLOBAL HISTORY AND PERSPECTIVE
What local and global changes in diversity of life ?
LA MONTEE DE L’ASIE EN HISTOIRE ET PERSPECTIVE GLOBALES
Quels changements locaux et globaux dans la diversité de vie ?

  • Paris, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, March 14, 2018
  • Le Havre, Université Le Havre Normandie, March 15-16, 2018

HOSTING INSTITUTIONS

  • CHAC (Centre d’Histoire de l’Asie Contemporaine), Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, Paris, France
  • GRIC (Groupe de recherche identités et cultures), Université Le Havre Normandie, Le Havre, France, in collaboration with Master’s Degree in Exchanges with Asia and Master’s Degree in Excanges with Latin America, Université Le Havre Normandie, France

CO-ORGANISING INSTITUTIONS

  • Tsinghua Institute for Advanced Study in Humanities and Social Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China
  • Universitas Airlangga, Surabaya, Indonesia
  • Institute of Social Sciences, New Delhi, India
  • African Studies Center,Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, Tokyo, Japan
  • Department of Political Sciences, Jamia Millia Islamia University, New Delhi, India
  • Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies, Shanghai University, Shanghai, China

SCIENTIFIC BOARD
CONSEIL SCIENTIFIQUE

PARIS PROGRAMME, March 14, 2018
Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne
08:30-11:30 : Amphithéâtre Lefebvre, 14 rue Cujas, Paris 75005
Plenary Roundtable on The Rise of Asia seen from inside Asia
14:00-16:30 : Amphithéâtre Turgot, 17 rue de la Sorbonne, Paris 75005
Plenary Roundtable on The Rise of Asia seen from outside Asia

LE HAVRE PROGRAMME, March 15-16, 2018
Université Le Havre Normandie
25 rue Philippe Lebon 76600 Le Havre

THURSDAY MARCH 15 : LE HAVRE
08:00-10:00 : Paris-Le Havre by train
10:00-11:00 : Hotel check-in
11:00-11:30 : Welcoming coffee
11:30-12:30 : Opening session
12:30-14:00 : Lunch Break
14:00-15:30 : Parallel Sessions (4-5 rooms)
15:30-15:45 : Coffee break
15:45-17:15 : Parallel Sessions (4-5 rooms)
17:15-17:30 : Coffee break
17:30-19:00 : Parallel Sessions (4-5 rooms)

FRIDAY MARCH 16 : LE HAVRE
09:00-10:30 : Parallel Sessions (4-5 rooms)
10:30-10:45 : Coffee Break
10:45-12:15 : Parallel Sessions (4-5 rooms)
12:15-14:00 : Lunch Break
14:00-15:30 : Plenary Report from every panel/roundtable/workshop
15:30-15:45 : Coffee break
15:45-17:15 : Plenary Closing Remarks
17:15-17:30 : Closing Words
18:00-22:00 : Socio-Cultural Evening with dinner : dances, demonstration of Asian martial arts, défilé of Asian dresses, buffet of Asian cuisines (University Gymnase Sport Centre)

SATURDAY MARCH 17 : LE HAVRE
Le Havre visit, back to Paris

ITINERARY
13/03/2018 : Arrival in Paris. First night in France (Paris).
14/03/2018 : First day conference in Paris. Second night in France (Paris).
15/03/2018 : Moving to Le Havre. Second day conference. Third night in France (Le Havre)
16/03/2018 : Le Havre. Third day conference. Fourth night in France (Le Havre)
17/03/2018 : Moving back to Paris

INTRODUCTION
The rise of the West transformed the world. The rise of Asia will bring about an equally significant transformation. […] The rise of Asia will be good for the world. Hundreds of millions of people will be rescued from the clutches of poverty. China’s modernization has already reduced the number of Chinese living in absolute poverty from six hundred million to two hundred million. India’s growth is also making an equally significant impact. Indeed, one key reason why the United Nation (UN) will actually meet one of its Millennium Development Goals of reducing global poverty by half by 2015 will be the success of China and India in reducing poverty significantly. By the standards of any Western moral philosopher, from the British utilitarian philosophers of the nineteenth century to the moral imperatives of Immanuel Kant, it is clear that the rise of Asia has brought more “goodness” into the world. In purely ethical terms, the West should welcome the transformation of the Asian condition. (Kishore Mahbubani, The Asian Hemisphere : The Irresistible Shift of Global Power to the East, USA, Public Affairs, 2008, pp. xiv-xv).

The statement of Kishore Mahbubani quoted above raises many questions. “The rise of Asia will be good for the world.” What does it mean ? Good for whom or for what ? For peoples, nations, states ? For culture, ecology, economy, politics, religions ? In what way ? “Hundreds of millions of people will be rescued from the clutches of poverty.” Does it mean that the “rise” is an economic question ? How about human rights, animal rights, vegetal rights, ecological rights ? “In purely ethical terms, the West should welcome the transformation of the Asian condition.” Does it mean that the rise of Asia is an ethical challenge for the West ? Does it mean that the rise of Asia is not in the interest of the West ? But who is the “West” ? Is it a cultural, political, economical and ideological entity ? Is it the incarnation of capitalism, imperialism, colonialism ? Is it a former power block during the Cold War ? And who is the “Non-West” ? Is it an entity formerly colonised by the West ? Is it including or consisting of exclusively Africa and Asia ? How about Australia and America, which were colonies of the West ? And how about Russia and Central and Eastern Europe, which where the core of the “East” during the Cold War ? And so on and so forth….

It is to discuss those questions and many others that the conference is organised. Consequently it encourages the participation of scholars from a wide range of scientific disciplines (area studies, cultural studies, ecology, economics, geography, history, humanities, languages, management, political and social sciences…) and practitioners from diverse professional fields (business, civil society, education, enterprise, government, management, parliament, public policy, social and solidarity movements…), based in diverse geographical areas (Africa, North and South America, Australia, Asia, Europe, Pacific…). Those willing to participate in the conference as presenters are invited to send their abstract before February 2018 (see below for other dates and instructions). Selected papers will be published in a book.

SUB-THEMES
The following sub-themes are not exhaustive :
- The Rise of Asia : myth and reality
- The Rise of Asia : history and perspective
- The Rise of Asia seen from inside Asia
- The Rise of Asia seen from outside Asia
- The Rise of Asia and new world order
- The Rise of Asia : impacts, risks and opportunities for the rest of the world
- The Rise of Asia : local and global changes for peoples, nations and states
- Cultural and religious issues in the Rise of Asia
- Ecological, architectural and urban issues in the Rise of Asia
- Economic issues in the Rise of Asia
- Political issues in the Rise of Asia
- Gender and women issues in the Rise of Asia

SPECIAL SESSIONS/ROUNDTABLES/WORKSHOPS
Special sessions/Roundtables/Workshops will be organised on the following topics :

FINANCING
The presenters as well as simple participants of the conference are supposed to find the necessary fund for their own participation (visa, international and national transport, accommodation).

PRACTICAL MATTERS
The organising committee will provide practical information related to local hotels and transport in Paris and Le Havre. The participants will be accompanied by students of the Université Le Havre Normandie in Master’s Degree in Exchanges with Asia (with their language proficiencies in Chinese, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean and Russian, in addition to English and French) and Master’s Degree in Exchanges with Latin America (with their language proficiencies in Portuguese and Spanish, in addition to English and French).