PLENARY SPEAKERS AND THEIR ABSTRACTS

Dr. Pitsuwan to keynote  8th Asean IUC  in Manila

ASEAN Secretary–General Dr. Surin Pitsuwan is to keynote the 8th  ASEAN Inter-University Conference to be held  at the Century Park Hotel in Manila from May 28 to 31.

The University of the Philippines College of Mass Communication (CMC) and the School of Labor and Industrial Relations (SOLAIR ) with the support of the Department of Sociology of the National University of Singapore, are hosting this bi-annual conference considered as the biggest gathering of academics and social scientists in the region.

The Union Network International-Asia Pacific Regional Office (UNI-APRO)  is among the non-academic bodies invited to participate in the conference with the theme, “ASEAN as a Community: Solidarity in a Globalizing World.”

Some 300 delegates from 23 countries, including the Philippines are expected to attend the conference which was established in 1993 to “promote common pursuits in exploring social issues in the Asean.”

In a message sent to the Conference Organizing Committee, President Gloria Macapagal –Arroyo hailed  the tapping of educational centers to speed up regional integration and sharpen the vision of an ASEAN community.

In a separate message, Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto G. Romulo  was optimistic that the conference will serve as a “stepping stone towards the realization of a more people-centered ASEAN.”

CITIZEN JOURNALISTS AND NEW MEDIA TECHNOLOGY IN THE ASEAN REGION:  Actions, Reactions & implications

James E. Katz

Rutgers University

This paper discusses citizen journalists and related volunteer news co-creation activities in the ASEAN region in order to understand their implications.  These implications include, in rising order of abstractness, the operations of news organizations, the ability of governments to influence domestic and international perspectives, the information resources of citizens, and the formulation of public policy. 

The paper begins by reviewing a small number of case studies of citizen journalism activities from across the ASEAN region.  The paper then suggests possible reasons why some endeavors were successful and others not.  The paper next analyzes the relationship between citizen journalism activities and issues that are critical to the future of the region: freedom of information, human rights, self-determination, certification of professional journalists, democratic participation, security, and cultural harmony. 

The paper concludes by exploring likely future prospects for citizen journalism as the ASEAN's social conditions and technological infrastructure rapidly change.

Dr.  James  E. Katz is a Professor at the Department of Communication, School of Communication, Information and Library Studies (SCILS) at the Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey.  He earned his academic degrees, Ph.D  and M.Ed. at the Rutgers University while his  M.A. and  B.A. at the Northern Illinois University.  He is the Chair  of the Department of Communication, Rutgers University and concurrently the Director of the  Center for Mobile Communication Studies.

He has taught in prestigious universities such as, the  University of Texas, George Mason University, Clarkson University, Harvard University, Indiana University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

As a prolific writer, he has to his name, countless publications, notably, Magic in the Air: Mobile Communication and the Transformation of Social Life and Machines that Become Us: The Social Context of Personal both published by Piscataway, NJ: Transaction Publishers; Social Consequences of Internet use: Access, Involvement and Expression and Perpetual Contact: Mobile Communication,Private Talk, Public Performance, both published by Cambridge, MA: MIT Press; and Internet and Health Communication: Experience and expectations by Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

He has a forthcoming publication, Katz, James E. (Ed.), Handbook of Mobile Communication Studies. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

PORK, PIETY AND POLITICS:

Social and Political Conflict In SE Asia

Bryan S. Turner

National University of Singapore

 The study tries to connect the development of religious identitites and practices (the habitus) of religion at the everyday level with broader changes in the macro-environment of politics and religion. The globalisation of religion is radically changing identities within the nation state, but we need as social scientists to study these at the micrfo everyday level. Pierre Bourdieu's work is very helpful in this context. I argue that there are three broad changes to religion : the growth of spirituality which is individualistic and post-institutional; the development of pietisation or the spread of personal discipline as an anti-traditional development; and fundamentalisation of social groups. Much of the definition of groups and their exclusiveness is defined by diet. Pork or not pork that is the question. The sociological interest should be focused on how states manage these religious developments in the framework of different legacies of colonialism and secularisation. The lecture can therefore be seen as a reflection on Charles Taylor's recent publication on secularism but applied to SE Asia.

Dr. Bryan S. Turner, BA, MA, PhD, D.Litt, FASSA was professor of sociology at the University of Cambridge (1998-2005) and is currently professor of sociology in the Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore. He is the research leader of the cluster on globalisation and religion. He edited the Dictionary of Sociology (2006) for Cambridge University Press and is currently writing a study of the sociology of religion for the Press. Professor Turner is a research associate of GEMAS (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris), an honorary professor of Deakin University, Australia, and an adjunct professor at Murdock University Western Australia.

His long term research interest concerns the human body and vulnerability with special reference to religion, medicine and law. He published Vulnerability and Human Rights  (2006) with Penn State University Press. He is currently editing the Handbook of Globalization for Francis and Taylor.

<< PLENARY SPEAKERS | PARALLEL SESSIONS

LIST OF PARALLEL SESSIONS, PRESENTERS AND CHAIRS

Parallel Session A/ Panel 1                : Literary As Political

Chair                                      : Dr. Roland B. Tolentino, CMC / UPFI[1]

Date/ Time and Venue        : May 29, 2008/ 10:15 to 12:00pm/  MAYON A   

Parallel Session A/ Panel 2                : Bridging the Arts and Cultural Traditions

Chair                                      :  Dr. Nicanor Tiongson, CMC

Date/ Time And Venue       :  May 29, 2008/ 10:15 to 12:00pm/ MAYON B

Parallel Session A/ Panel 3                :  Deconstructing Terrorism

Chair                                      :  Dr. Roland Simbulan, UPM

Date/ Time And Venue       :  May 29, 2008/ 10:15 to 12:00pm/ CENTURY ROOM

Parallel Session A/ Panel 4                :  Women Issues in SEA

Chair                                      :   Dr. Leticia Tojos,CSWCD, UP

Date/ Time And Venue       : May 29, 2008/ 10:15 to 12:00pm/ PARK ROOM

Parallel Session A/ Panel 5                :  Cinema as a Social Discourse

Chair                                      :  Carlitos Siguion Reyna, DGPI

Date/ Time And Venue       : May 29, 2008/ 10:15 to 12:00pm/  KANLAON   

ORGANIZED PANEL

Parallel Session A/ Panel 6                : Institutions Without Borders (I) : Cyberspace, Inclusive Civil Society And Market

Convener Chair                   :  Dr. Manjeet Chaturvedi, Banaras Hindu University

Date/ Time And Venue       : May 29, 2008/ 10:15 to 12:00pm/ BADJAO

Parallel Session B/ Panel  7               : Religious Practices and Movements in SEA

Chair                                      :  Prof. Anne Raffin, NUS

Date/ Time and Venue        : May 29, 2008/ 1:30 to 3:00pm MAYON A

Parallel Session B/ Panel  8               : SEA Cultural Studies and  Practices

Chair                                      :  Prof. Eric Thompson

Date/ Time And Venue       : May 29, 2008/ 1:30 to 3:00pm/  MAYON B

Parallel Session B/ Panel 9                :  Peace-Making and Conflict Situations

Chair                                      :  Dr. Jennifer Jarman, NUS (TBC)

Date/ Time And Venue       : May 29, 2008/ 1:30 to 3:00pm/  CENTURY ROOM

Parallel Session B/ Panel 10              : Queer Studies and Feminism in in SEA

Chair                                      :  Dr. Eufracio Abaya, UP

Date/ Time And Venue       : May 29, 2008/ 1:30 to 3:00pm/  PARK ROOM

Parallel Session B/ Panel 11              :  Subaltern Use of the Mobile Phone and Internet

Chair                                      :  Dr. Raul Pertierra, ADMU (TBA)

Date/ Time And Venue       : May 29, 2008