IAFOR > The European Conference on the Social Sciences (ECSS) > ECSS2019 Overview

ECSS2019 Overview

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Conference Theme: "Independence & Interdependence"

July 9-10, 2019 | The Jurys Inn Brighton Waterfront, Brighton, UK

The technological and logistical advances of globalisation have enabled us to become independent and empowered as never before, but at the same time made us more dependent on the very things allowing autonomy. While technologies allow us to communicate with those on the other side of the world, they can also make us detached from those immediately around us, and in some cases alienated, or lonely. And yet this increased interconnectedness offers great opportunities to work together to solve some of the world’s most pressing issues, and reminds us of our responsibilities towards each other. Our independence is contextualised in the relations we enjoy with others; in our families and communities, shared institutions, in our wider societies, geographical and political entities, and finally as a part of the one world we all share.

The conference theme for ECSS2019 is Independence & Interdependence, and we hope and expect this important thematic lens to encourage wide reflections on the importance and interrelation of such concepts as autonomy and identity, rights and responsibilities, and power and control; and within a variety of contexts from politics and geopolitics to energy, sustainability and the environment; and from education, technology and logistics, to culture and language; from psychology and security, to considerations of equity and justice.

In conjunction with our Global Partners, including the University of Sussex and Birkbeck, University of London, we look forward to extending you a warm welcome in 2019.

– The ECSS2019 Organising Committee

Kwame Akyeampong, University of Sussex, UK
Anne Boddington, Kingston University, UK
Eddie Bruce-Jones, Birkbeck College School of Law, University of London, UK
Evangelia Chrysikou, University College London, UK
Joseph Haldane, The International Academic Forum (IAFOR), Japan
Tom Houghton, Curtin University, Australia
Ljiljana Markovic, University of Belgrade, Serbia
James W. McNally, University of Michigan & NACDA Program on Aging, USA

Click to download as a PDF

Speakers

  • David James Cantor
    David James Cantor
    University of London, Refugee Law Initiative, UK
  • Haruko Satoh
    Haruko Satoh
    Osaka University, Japan
  • Tom Houghton
    Tom Houghton
    Curtin University, Australia

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Programme

  • Why Do We Protect Refugees?
    Why Do We Protect Refugees?
    Keynote Presentation: David James Cantor
  • Ensuring Equality from the “Low Carbon Dividend”
    Ensuring Equality from the “Low Carbon Dividend”
    Featured Presentation: Tom Houghton

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Organising Committee

The Conference Programme Committee is composed of distinguished academics who are experts in their fields. Conference Programme Committee members may also be members of IAFOR's International Academic Board. The Organising Committee is responsible for nominating and vetting Keynote and Featured Speakers; developing the conference programme, including special workshops, panels, targeted sessions, and so forth; event outreach and promotion; recommending and attracting future Conference Programme Committee members; working with IAFOR to select PhD students and early career academics for IAFOR-funded grants and scholarships; and overseeing the reviewing of abstracts submitted to the conference.

  • Anne Boddington
    Anne Boddington
    Kingston University, UK
  • Joseph Haldane
    Joseph Haldane
    The International Academic Forum (IAFOR), Japan
  • Tom Houghton
    Tom Houghton
    Curtin University, Australia
  • Kwame Akyeampong
    Kwame Akyeampong
    University of Sussex, UK
  • Ljiljana Markovic
    Ljiljana Markovic
    University of Belgrade, Serbia
  • Eddie Bruce-Jones
    Eddie Bruce-Jones
    Birkbeck College School of Law, University of London, UK
  • James W. McNally
    James W. McNally
    University of Michigan, USA & NACDA Program on Aging
  • Evangelia Chrysikou
    Evangelia Chrysikou
    University College London, UK

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ECSS2019 Review Committee

  • Dr Carl Fraser, Coventry University, United Kingdom
  • Dr Carmina Serrano-Lanzuela, Universidad Complutense De Madrid, Spain
  • Dr Israel Patiño, Universidad La Salle Noroeste, Sonora, Mexico, Mexico
  • Dr Joanna Kepka, University of Nevada, United States
  • Professor José Miguel Soares, ISEG - Lisbon School of Economics & Management, Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal
  • Dr Mohamed Ghanem, Faculty of Law, Tanta University, Egypt
  • Dr Subir Rana, Independent Scholar, India

IAFOR's peer review process, which involves both reciprocal review and the use of Review Committees, is overseen by conference Organising Committee members under the guidance of the Academic Governing Board. Review Committee members are established academics who hold PhDs or other terminal degrees in their fields and who have previous peer review experience.

If you would like to apply to serve on the ECSS2019 Review Committee, please visit our application page.

Apply to Join the Review Committee

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IAFOR Research Centre (IRC) – “Innovation and Value Initiative”

The IAFOR Research Centre (IRC) is housed within Osaka University’s School of International Public Policy (OSIPP), and in June 2018 the IRC began an ambitious new “Innovation and Value Initiative”. Officially launched at the United Nations in a special UN-IAFOR Collaborative Session, the initiative seeks to bring together the best in interdisciplinary research around the concept of value, on how value can be recognised, and measured, and how this can help us address issues and solve problems, from the local to the global.

Learn more about the Innovation and Value Initiative

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David James Cantor
University of London, Refugee Law Initiative, UK

Biography

Professor David James Cantor is the founding Director of the Refugee Law Initiative (RLI) at the School of Advanced Study, University of London.

Trained originally as a social anthropologist, Professor Cantor worked as a practitioner in the legal field during the 2000s for organisations such as the Refugee Legal Centre, a London-based public law centre where he litigated refugee and human rights cases until 2007, and UNHCR. In a consultancy capacity, he has advised, trained and undertaken research for a range of governments mostly from the global south, as well as numerous INGOs and northern and southern NGOs. During 2016–2017, Professor Cantor worked part-time as Senior Advisor to the UNHCR Americas Bureau.

Professor Cantor’s research has a strong legal and policy focus. Current and past topics include: returns by refugees and IDPs; reparations for displacement; IDP protection during armed conflict and organised criminal violence; human mobility in disasters linked to natural hazards; refugee law and its relationship to human rights law, IHL and IDP law. He has a long-standing connection with Latin America, where he has carried out fieldwork since 1998 in Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela, Panama, Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Uruguay and Mexico. Since completing his PhD in 2010, he has published five books, two special issues and over 30 journal articles and book chapters.

Whilst running the RLI, Professor Cantor has organised over 100 conferences, workshops and seminars, founded the International Refugee Law book series (where he remains editor) and the distance-learning MA in Refugee Protection and Forced Migration Studies. He has led international collaborations and secured competitive research funding for almost 20 projects as PI or Co-I (including AHRC, ESRC, GCRF, Leverhulme Trust). He was selected as an ESRC Future Research Leader in 2012 and sits on the Research Council Peer Review College. In 2017–2018, he won the prestigious Times Higher Education (THE) Award for Research Project of the Year (Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences).

Keynote Presentation (2019) | Why Do We Protect Refugees?
Haruko Satoh
Osaka University, Japan

Biography

Haruko Satoh is Specially Appointed Professor at the Osaka School of International Public Policy (OSIPP), where she teaches Japan’s relations with Asia and identity in international relations. She is also co-director of the OSIPP-IAFOR Research Centre and she was previously part of the MEXT Reinventing Japan project on “Peace and Human Security in Asia (PAHSA)” with six Southeast Asian and four Japanese universities.

In the past she has worked at the Japan Institute of International Affairs (JIIA), Chatham House, and Gaiko Forum. Her interests are primarily in state theory, Japanese nationalism and identity politics. Recent publications include: “China in Japan’s Nation-state Identity” in James DJ Brown & Jeff Kingston (eds) Japan’s Foreign Relations in Asia (Routledge, 2018); “Japan’s ‘Postmodern’ Possibility with China: A View from Kansai” in Lam Peng Er (ed), China-Japan Relations in the 21st Century (Palgrave Macmillan, 2017); “Rethinking Security in Japan: In Search of a Post-‘Postwar’ Narrative” in Jain & Lam (Eds.), Japan’s Strategic Challenges in a Changing Regional Environment (World Scientific, 2012); “Through the Looking-glass: China’s Rise as Seen from Japan”, (co-authored with Toshiya Hoshino), Journal of Asian Public Policy, 5(2), 181–198, (July 2012); “Post- 3.11 Japan: A Matter of Restoring Trust?”, ISPI Analysis No. 83 (December 2011); “Legitimacy Deficit in Japan: The Road to True Popular Sovereignty” in Kane, Loy & Patapan (Eds.), Political Legitimacy in Asia: New Leadership Challenges (Palgrave Macmillan, 2011), “Japan: Re-engaging with China Meaningfully” in Tang, Li & Acharya (eds), Living with China: Regional States and China through Crises and Turning Points, (Palgrave Macmillan, 2009).

Professor Satoh is a member of IAFOR’s Academic Governing Board. She is Chair of the Politics, Law & International Relations section of the International Academic Advisory Board.

Tom Houghton
Curtin University, Australia

Biography

Dr Tom Houghton is Director of the MBA (Oil & Gas) at Curtin Graduate School of Business, Australia, and was previously a Research Fellow at the University of Strathclyde, UK. His principal field of research is sustainable energy economics and he has a keen interest in energy for development, having established a training program in Renewable Energy for Developing Countries with UNITAR. Dr Houghton is a Visiting Professor at Nagoya University of Commerce and Business, Japan, where he provides courses in sustainable energy to MBA students. Before joining Strathclyde he spent more than five years in the power industry and a further eight in the banking sector, latterly as director at the Japanese bank Nomura. With colleagues in Asia and the United States, he established a consulting company in the renewable energy sector in 2011. Dr Houghton holds an MEng from Imperial College, an MBA from London Business School and a PhD from the University of Strathclyde.

Featured Presentation (2019) | Ensuring Equality from the “Low Carbon Dividend”

Previous Presentations

Keynote Presentation (2018) | Innovation for Low Carbon Energy: Are Power Utilities Ready?
Why Do We Protect Refugees?
Keynote Presentation: David James Cantor

Why do we protect refugees? Is there something about refugees that singles them out for special attention? Does the refugee condition somehow make them deserving of the distinctive forms of assistance that they receive? For practitioners, policy-makers, academics, students and concerned citizens working directly with refugee issues, the ‘specialness’ of refugees is often taken for granted as self-evident. But this assumption is ever more questioned by others, including high-profile political figures and movements. Is it true? Are refugees special and, if so, why?

The question of why we protect refugees speaks directly to enquiries into wider currents of human ‘independence and interdependence’ that form the theme of this year’s ECSS conference. In his talk, Professor David James Cantor aims to step back from the discussion of policy and technical detail that often governs debate on refugee protection. Instead, connecting to these broader overarching themes, he offers a personal reflection on the more fundamental underlying question of whether there is a philosophical basis for asserting that there is indeed something ‘special’ about refugees that makes them distinctive in the present day and which justifies their protection globally.

Read presenter biographies on the Speakers page.

Ensuring Equality from the “Low Carbon Dividend”
Featured Presentation: Tom Houghton

Climate change has been described as the most pressing issue of the age and research shows that its effects will be felt unequally across the globe with the poor south more likely to suffer from rising sea levels and disruption of food production than the richer north. Mitigating actions, especially the replacement of fossil fuels with alternative forms of energy, could reduce this inequality and the continuing fall in the cost of renewables offers the prospect of cheaper energy for all, increasing energy access and reducing the incidence of energy poverty.

With reference to two recent studies into energy poverty in Western Australia, we show that the advantages described above are by no means guaranteed. While many are enjoying a “low carbon dividend” as they switch to more energy efficient appliances and install solar panels, the most vulnerable in society are often unable to access these benefits, owing to their income status or housing tenure, and may actually see their energy bills increasing as fossil fuel prices rise and measures to price carbon take effect. We explore the effects of decarbonisation and rising energy costs across different household types and discuss the implications for future policy.

Read presenter biographies on the Speakers page.

Anne Boddington
Kingston University, UK

Biography

Anne Boddington is Professor of Design Innovation, Pro Vice Chancellor for Research, Business and Innovation at Kingston University in the UK and recently appointed as the Sub Panel Chair for Art & Design: History, Practice & Theory for the UK’s Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2021. Professor Boddington has extensive experience of the leadership, management and evaluation of art and design education and art and design research in higher education across the UK and internationally. She is an experienced chair and has held trustee and governance roles across the creative and cultural sector including as trustee of the Design Council, an independent Governor, Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (RSA), an affiliate member of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), a member of the executive of the Council for Higher Education in Art & Design (CHEAD) and a member of the advisory board of the Arts & Humanities Research Council. She has an international reputation in creative education and research and has been a partner, a collaborator, a reviewer and evaluator for a wide range of international projects and reviews across Dofferemt nations in Europe, the Middle East, Southern and east Asia and North America.

Plenary Panel Presentation (2017) | Sustaining the City
Joseph Haldane
The International Academic Forum (IAFOR), Japan

Biography

Joseph Haldane is the Chairman and CEO of IAFOR. He is responsible for devising strategy, setting policies, forging institutional partnerships, implementing projects, and overseeing the organisation’s business and academic operations, including research, publications and events.

Dr Haldane holds a PhD from the University of London in 19th-century French Studies, and has had full-time faculty positions at the University of Paris XII Paris-Est Créteil (France), Sciences Po Paris (France), and Nagoya University of Commerce and Business (Japan), as well as visiting positions at the French Press Institute in the University of Paris II Panthéon-Assas (France), The School of Journalism at Sciences Po Paris (France), and the School of Journalism at Moscow State University (Russia).

Dr Haldane’s current research concentrates on post-war and contemporary politics and international affairs, and since 2015 he has been a Guest Professor at The Osaka School of International Public Policy (OSIPP) at Osaka University, where he teaches on the postgraduate Global Governance Course, and Co-Director of the OSIPP-IAFOR Research Centre, an interdisciplinary think tank situated within Osaka University.

He is also a Visiting Professor in the Faculty of Philology at the University of Belgrade, a Member of the International Advisory Council of the Department of Educational Foundations at the College of Education of the University of Hawaii at Manoa, and a Member of the World Economic Forum’s Expert Network for Global Governance.

From 2012 to 2014, Dr Haldane served as Treasurer of the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan (Chubu Region) and he is currently a Trustee of the HOPE International Development Agency (Japan). He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society in 2012, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in 2015.

A black belt in judo, he is married with two children, and lives in Japan.

Tom Houghton
Curtin University, Australia

Biography

Dr Tom Houghton is Director of the MBA (Oil & Gas) at Curtin Graduate School of Business, Australia, and was previously a Research Fellow at the University of Strathclyde, UK. His principal field of research is sustainable energy economics and he has a keen interest in energy for development, having established a training program in Renewable Energy for Developing Countries with UNITAR. Dr Houghton is a Visiting Professor at Nagoya University of Commerce and Business, Japan, where he provides courses in sustainable energy to MBA students. Before joining Strathclyde he spent more than five years in the power industry and a further eight in the banking sector, latterly as director at the Japanese bank Nomura. With colleagues in Asia and the United States, he established a consulting company in the renewable energy sector in 2011. Dr Houghton holds an MEng from Imperial College, an MBA from London Business School and a PhD from the University of Strathclyde.

Featured Presentation (2019) | Ensuring Equality from the “Low Carbon Dividend”

Previous Presentations

Keynote Presentation (2018) | Innovation for Low Carbon Energy: Are Power Utilities Ready?
Kwame Akyeampong
University of Sussex, UK

Biography

Kwame Akyeampong is Professor of International Education and Development at the Centre for International Education (CIE), University of Sussex, UK. He has international research experience in educational evaluation and research and has worked on education and development research projects in a range of countries including Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, Rwanda and Malawi. His research interests include education policy analysis, teacher governance, educational access and equity, impact evaluation studies in education, and employing quantitative and qualitative research methods. He also has experience managing large research education projects. He has consulted for the World Bank, DFID, and JICA on education evaluation projects and programmes. He was senior policy analyst with UNESCO, Paris, from 2011 to 2013. He is currently the co-chair of the Teacher Alliance for the Global Education and Skills Forum.

Previous IAFOR Presentations

Plenary Panel II (ECE2017) | Education for Change: Addressing the Challenges of UN Sustainable Development Goal 4
Ljiljana Markovic
University of Belgrade, Serbia

Biography

Dr Ljiljana Markovic is Dean, Chairperson of the Doctoral Studies Program and Full Professor in Japanese Studies at the University of Belgrade, Serbia. She has previously served as Vice Dean for Financial Affairs, Faculty of Philology, University of Belgrade (2008-2016). She holds the positions of Chairperson of the Association of Japanologists of Serbia, Member of the University of Belgrade Council, Chairperson of the University of Belgrade SYLFF Committee, Member of the Republic of Serbia, Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development, Bilingual Education Board, and Member of the Republic of Serbia, Ministry of Culture, Committee on Books Procurement for Public Libraries. In 2010 she received the Gaimu Daijin Sho Award from the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Japan, and in 2011 she received the Dositej Obradovic Award for Pedagogical Achievement. She is the author of a large number of publications in the fields of Japanese studies and economics.

Eddie Bruce-Jones
Birkbeck College School of Law, University of London, UK

Biography

Eddie Bruce-Jones (DPhil, Berlin; LLM, KCL; JD, Columbia; MA, Berlin; AB, Harvard) is Deputy Dean at Birkbeck College School of Law, University of London, where he teaches and researches in the areas of human rights, European law, legal theory, equality law and legal anthropology. He is author of Race in the Shadow of Law: State Violence in Contemporary Europe (Routledge, 2016), and co-author of the forthcoming Anti-Discrimination Law: Texts, Cases and Materials, 3rd Edition (with Aileen McColgan, Hart, 2019). His scholarly writing can be found in the Columbia Human Rights Law Review, Race & Class and the UCLA Journal of International Law and Foreign Affairs. He currently serves as Assistant Director of Birkbeck’s Centre for Critical European Law and is a visiting scholar at the Max Planck Institute for European Legal History, in Frankfurt, Germany, for his ongoing research on the British colonial indenture system. He is a member of the New York Bar and an Associate Academic Fellow of the Honourable Society of the Inner Temple. He serves on the Board of Governors of Birkbeck College, the Editorial Board of the Journal of Asylum, Immigration and Nationality Law, the Board of Trustees of the UK Lesbian and Gay Immigration Group and the Board of Directors of the Institute of Race Relations.

Keynote Presentation (2018) | Contemporary Continuities: Racism, Populism and Migration
James W. McNally
University of Michigan, USA & NACDA Program on Aging

Biography

Dr James W. McNally is the Director of the NACDA Program on Aging, a data archive containing over 1,500 studies related to health and the aging lifecourse. He currently does methodological research on the improvement and enhancement of secondary research data and has been cited as an expert authority on data imputation. Dr McNally has directed the NACDA Program on Aging since 1998 and has seen the archive significantly increase its holdings with a growing collection of seminal studies on the aging lifecourse, health, retirement and international aspects of aging. He has spent much of his career addressing methodological issues with a specific focus on specialized application of incomplete or deficient data and the enhancement of secondary data for research applications. Dr McNally has also worked extensively on issues related to international aging and changing perspectives on the role of family support in the later stages of the aging lifecourse.

Evangelia Chrysikou
University College London, UK

Biography

Dr Evangelia Chrysikou is registered architect and senior research fellow at UCL. She owns the awarded SynThesis Architects (London – Athens), that specialises in medical facilities. Her work received prestigious awards (Singapore 2009, Kuala Lumpur 2012, Brisbane 2013, Birmingham 2014, London 2014). Parallel activities include teaching at medical and architectural schools, research (UK, France, Belgium, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Greece and the Middle East) and advisory. She advised the Hellenic Secretary of Health and is the author of the new national guidelines for mental health facilities. Dr Chrysikou is the author of the book ‘Architecture for Psychiatric Environments and Therapeutic Spaces’, healthcare architecture editor, reviewer, active member of several professional and scientific associations and a TED-MED speaker. She is a Trustee, Member of the Board and Director of Research at DIMHN (UK) and Member of the Board at the Scholar’s Association Onassis Foundation.

Featured Panel Presentation (2017) | East Meets West – Healthy, Active and Beautiful Aging in Europe