OECD Global Science Forum Report on Data and Research Infrastructure for the Social Sciences

New Data for Understanding the Human Condition: International Perspectives

OECD Global Science Forum Report on Data and Research Infrastructure for the Social Sciences, February 2013

Data-driven and evidence-based research is fundamental to understanding and responding effectively and efficiently to global challenges related to the health and wellbeing of populations around the world. Spurred by the rapid growth in new forms of data collected in conjunction with commercial transactions, internet searches, social networking, and the like, and by technological advances in the capacity to access and link existing survey, census, and administrative data sets, the potential payoff for international and multidisciplinary collaboration of scientific groups to address these challenges is increasing rapidly.

The Global Science Forum established an expert group to review developments in international data availability, consider their suitability for comparative research, detail the challenges to be addressed, and make recommendations to respond to these new opportunities.

This February 2013 report presents the findings and recommendations of the group.

Download the Report (pdf)

Today at IHC Anil Gupta talks on India Reimagined, Redefined and Reignited: A Perspective on Grassroots, Youthful Creativity and Innovation

LILA PRISM Lecture Series

Anil Gupta - India Reimagined, Redefined and Reignited: A Perspective on Grassroots, Youthful Creativity and Innovation

Tuesday 10th, December 2013 – 7:00-8:30 pm – Tea at 6:30

Casuarina Hall, India Habitat Centre

The Lecture: "India Reimagined, Redefined and Reignited: A perspective on the grassroots, youthful creativity and innovation" discusses how India is constantly redefined by the forces contesting for domination of mind space, cultural scape and memoryscape. The more privileged one is, the more cynical one becomes. It seems that sustaining hope and reinforcing faith is a project undertaken by knowledge rich-economically poor people. This lecture will share ideas and insights gathered from shodhyatras (learning walks) throughout the country along with other volunteers of Honey Bee Network during the last 25 years, though in particular 16 years. One may ask why the image of the Indian society is so optimistic and reassuring when seen from the perspective of unaided, grassroots achievers, innovators and traditional knowledge holders. And yet why are the state and its various institutions so hesitant in engaging with these creative people? Perhaps, there is the fear of upsetting the apple cart, and their own imagination about the backward, unthinking working class at the grassroots? I will critique public policies which treat people as having only legs, mouth and hands, but no head, as attempted in the largest employment program MGNREGS. The idea of treating people as only a sink of assistance aid and advice, rather than sources of ideas, imagination and institutional vibrancy will be challenged herein. The experience at the Honey Bee Network, Sristi and Techpedia.in, GIAN (Grassroots Innovation Augmentation Network), and National Innovation Foundation, will of course be the backbone of the presentation.

Anil K Gupta is Professor at Indian Institute of Management (Ahmedabad), Executive Vice Chair of National Innovation Foundation, Founder of Honey Bee Network, SRISTI and GIAN, Fellow of The World Academy of Art and Science (California 2001) and Member of the National Innovation Council. His mission is to expand the global as well as local space for grassroots and young innovators to ensure recognition, respect and reward for them; to ensure the protection of intellectual property rights of the innovators; to explore ethical issues in conservation and prospecting of biodiversity; to link innovations, investments and enterprise; and to create knowledge network at different levels for augmenting grassroots green inventions and innovations in informal and formal sector. He aims at supporting social innovations in public and private sectors to expand entrepreneurial opportunities for disadvantaged people, and to strengthen the pursuit of authenticity in public life. He teaches Globalizing and Resurgent India through Innovative Transformation (GRIT), Shodhyatra (learning walk in Himalayan region), Creativity, Innovation, Knowledge network and Entrepreneurship (CINE), Strategic management of intellectual property rights including open source innovations (SMIPR), and doctoral level courses viz., Institution Building (IB), Agri Management (AM II), among others. Prof. Gupta was conferred Doctor of Letters from Central University of Orissa and Honey Bee Network received the Hermes Award (European Institute for Creative Strategies and Innovation, Paris, May 2012), apart from several national and international honours.

Discussants:

Dr T Ramasami, currently Secretary to the Government of India, Department of Science and Technology, holds a Master's degree in Leather Technology from the University of Madras, India and PhD in Chemistry from the University of Leeds, UK. He has also worked on energy research in Ames Laboratory Iowa, USA and on electron transport phenomena in the Wayne State University, USA prior to returning to India for undertaking his scientific career. He joined the Central Leather Research Institute, Chennai as a scientist in 1984 and served as its Director for more than 10 years during the period up to May 2006.

Dr. Kavita Sharma is the Director of India International Centre since 2008. She was the Principal of Hindu College and has the distinction of being the first woman Principal of a co-educational institution in the Delhi University. She is a member of the Executive Committee of Delhi University. She holds a doctorate in English from Delhi University and has written and published extensively, with about half a dozen single author books to her credit. Her published research articles in reputed journals cover a wide range of subjects such as Education, Literature, Theatre and gender issues. Dr. Sharma has received several fellowships and awards. Notable among these are Fullbright New Century Scholar for the year 2007-2008, Faculty Research Fellowship and Faculty Enrichment Fellowship by the Shastri Indo Canadian Institute in the years 1991-92 and 2002-03 respectively.

NMML 2014 'Science, Society and Nature' Lectures List

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Mahesh Rangarajan <rangarajan.mahesh@gmail.com>
 

NMML 2014 PUBLIC LECTURE SERIES

'Science, Society and Nature'

 

S. No.	Date/Day	Speaker	Title
	22 January, 2014 Wednesday	Prof. Ronald Herring, Cornell University, USA.	'State Science and National Specificity: Cotton to Brinjal in India'
	31 January, 2014 Friday	Prof. Jayanta Bandyopadhyay, Formerly at Indian Institute of Management Calcutta (IIMC), Kolkata.	'The Water Future of South Asia: The option for advancing ecological engineering'
	5 February, 2014 Wednesday	Prof. Bina Agarwal, University of Manchester, UK.	'Title to be confirmed'
	20 February, 2014 Thursday (5.30 pm)	Prof. Deepak Pental, University of Delhi, Delhi.	'The Societal Response to Transgenic Crops: Apathy, ideology or fear of the unknown?'
	6 March, 2014 Thursday	Prof. Prem Kumar Kalra, Dayalbagh Educational Institute, Dayalbagh, Agra.	'Bio-Inspired System Science: Synergy among nature, science and society'
	20 March, 2014 Thursday	Dr. Julie Hughes, Vassar College, New York, USA.	'Preserved Boar and Protected Pangolin: Making wilderness in the Rajput States'
	3 April, 2014 Thursday	Prof. R. Geeta, University of Delhi, Delhi.	'Biodiversity and Bioresources: Through the Evolutionary Glass'
	8 May, 2014 Thursday	Ms. Sudha Mahalingam, Former Senior Fellow, NMML.	'Redefining India's Energy Security: Emerging paradigms'
	15 May, 2014 Thursday	Dr. Vidya Athreya, Wildlife Conservation Society, India.	'Wildlife in Our Backyards and How India Might Show the Way'
	29 May, 2014 Thursday	Dr. Kavita Isvaran, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru.	'The Science of Animal-Watching and the Extinction of Natural Behaviours in the Wild'
	30 May, 2014 Friday (5.30 pm)	Dr. Jagdish Krishnaswamy, Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment, Bengaluru.	'Understanding the Impact of Global Change on India's Environment and Ecology'
	10 July, 2014 Thursday	Dr. Manjari Mahajan, The New School University, USA.	'The Birth and Death of an Epidemic: Understanding transformations in India's public health through AIDS'
	28 August, 2014 Thursday	Prof. K. Vijayraghavan, Department of Biotechnology, New Delhi.	'A Disconnect in Need of Urgent Repair: Scientific thinking and policy making'
	4 September, 2014 Thursday	Prof. Virander Chauhan, International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, New Delhi.	'Science and Society: Expectations, challenges and promises'
	16 October, 2014 Thursday (5.30 pm)	Prof. Ashok Jhunjhunwala, Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai.	'Technologies for India'
	30 October, 2014 Thursday	Dr. Y.V. Jhala, Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun.	'Carnivores and Communities : Conflict or coexistence?'
	26 November, 2014 Wednesday	Prof.  Sundar Sarukkai, Manipal University, Manipal.	'Nature and/of Authority'

 

Venue: Seminar Room, Library Building, NMML.

Time: 3.00 pm (unless otherwise notified)

SYLFF Fellowships for JNU Students

SYLFF Fellowships for JNU Students

Ryoichi Sasakawa Young Leaders Fellowship Programme is funded by Tokyo/Nippon Foundation, Japan.

Objectives and Scope of the Programme

The objective of the Program is to support the education of students enrolled in doctoral degree programmes in the Schools and Centres of Humanities and Social Sciences (School of Social Sciences, School of International Studies, School of Language, Literature & Culture Studies, School of Arts & Aesthetics, Centre for the Studies in Law and Governance, and Centre for Sanskrit Studies).

It is aimed at identifying and encouraging students with high potential for leadership in national, regional, and international affairs, in public life as well as in private endeavours, by awarding fellowships. These fellowships will be awarded to outstanding students in Social Sciences and Humanities whose studies focus on the theme, 'Historical and Contemporary Perspectives on the Socio-Economic, Political and Cultural Dimensions of Human Development'.

Click for SYLFF Fellowships for the year 2013 (last date : 10th December, 2013).

Fox International Fellowship Invites Applications from JNU students

Fox International Fellowship

The University has signed an MoU with the Yale Centre for International and Area Studies (Yale University), USA, to administer the programme of Yale University "Fox International Fellowship" in JNU.

As per the agreement, two Fox International fellows from Yale will spend a year at JNU and two fellows from JNU will spend a year at Yale and the students of JNU will be fully funded by Yale University. The Committee shall recommend of M.Phil/Ph.D students to be sent to Yale University in order to conduct research in any of the following fields: Economics, Finance, Political Science. International Relations, Law and Contemporary History. Although the Committee shall decide regarding selection of students of the University for the year 2013-14, the Fox International Fellowship will be awarded by the Yale University for the year 2014-15. The final selection will be done by a committee at Yale.

The students eligible for the year 2013-14 will be only those who have joined M.Phil/Ph.D or Direct Ph.D programme in the Monsoon Semester of academic year 2012-13 or earlier. Hence, they should have completed 3 semesters of M.Phil/Ph.D programme but should not have completed more than 6 semesters of the said programme as on 1st January, 2014.

In the light of the above decision, kindly forward us the recommendations of eligible candidate(s) in the enclosed proforma at the earliest, not later than 20^th December, 2013, so as to enable us to take further appropriate action in the matter.

Selection Criteria

Nomination Form

Application form for Fox International Fellowship 2013-14

CfPs: IAU 2014 International Conference: Blending Higher Education and Traditional Knowledge for Sustainable Development; at UCP, Peru; 19-21 March

IAU 2014 International Conference: Blending Higher Education and Traditional Knowledge for Sustainable Development
Universidad Científica del Perú (UCP), Iquitos, Peru
19-21 March 2014

Call for Papers
(Deadline for submission: 15 December 2013)
The International Association of Universities (IAU) is pleased to launch a call for papers to be presented during the Association's 2014 international conference which will address the theme Blending Higher Education and Traditional Knowledge for Sustainable Development.
IAU recognizes higher education's critical role in the overall process of achieving sustainable development. Leaders of HEIs and their academic colleagues are in a key position to contribute to an equitable and ecologically sound future by making sustainable development a central academic and organisational priority. This requires the generation and dissemination of knowledge through interdisciplinary research and teaching, policy-making, capacity-building, and technology transfer. It is essential for higher education institutions to understand and accept their responsibility within the broader context of social and economic development of democratic and ecologically minded societies.
Against this backdrop, and noting a sense of urgency, IAU has had Higher Education and Sustainable Development as one of its priority themes for several years (See IAU website and portal). The International Conference on this theme is one of several initiatives of the Association. The call is for papers which will focus on one of the following three specific aspects of the overall theme of the conference:

• Re-envisaging higher education teaching, research and innovation for a sustainable future – Where does traditional knowledge fit in?
• Leading by example: sustainable development in university life.
• Enriching higher education through community engagement.

Authors are invited to focus their attention and research on one of these three topics and in their papers illustrate concretely HEIs' efforts and initiatives in these areas - both successful and those that have failed. Papers should offer a critical assessment of policies or activities which have been successful or those that have failed, analysing the keyes to success (or reasons for failure), what makes certain policies effective, and, if presenting examples of good practice, how these can be generalized or scaled up.
Abstracts (in English or French) should be submitted including the following:

• The title of the proposed paper
• The selected sub-theme
• An abstract (300-500 words)
• A short biography (100-150 words)

Deadlines

• Submission of abstracts 15 December 2013
• Selection Committee's reply 5 January 2014
• Full paper submission 15 February 2014
• Send all documents to e.boisfer@iau-aiu.net
  

The IAU will be pleased to cover the registration fees for the presenters of selected papers (upon reception of the full paper) and high quality papers will be submitted for review to the editor of the IAU journal Higher Education Policy (HEP) for possible publication.

Further Details: http://www.iau-aiu.net/content/iau-2014-international-conference-call-papers

CfPs: Power Students' Seminar, University of Delhi, at January 30-31

Power: Contestations and Perspectives - Multidisciplinary Students' Seminar
Venue: Department of Political Science, University of Delhi
Dates: January 30-31, 2014

CONCEPT NOTE
How can one understand power in theory and power in practice? How does one address questions on violence? Must power be violent? Where does one locate power in society and how does one study its contestations? Can there be power in disempowerment? Does power lie in the State as the classicists would insist, or does it reside in State institutions, culture, and language as Marxists point out? Where does power reside in knowledge systems and truth-producing mechanisms? What role does the Press play in society?
We invite multidisciplinary research papers by students of MA in Humanities and Social Sciences which attempt to offer fresh perspectives on, including but not limited to, classical macro categories such as State power and resistance, and under-explored micro categories that construct and legitimise cultures.
Following are the possible sub-themes for exploration.

• State Power and Resistance: Understanding State coercion and resistance through new protest cultures and contemporary social movements
• Power and Culture: Deconstructing location and reproduction of the power of culture - and - knowledge producing processes engaging areas such as language, erotica, identity, sexuality, pop culture, cyberspace and art.
• Power and Pedagogy: Analysing power relations in supposed 'sacred' spaces like the School, the University, the Academy, religious Schools
• Power in theory: New theoretical turns in debates and theories on power cutting across fields such as International Politics, Gender Studies and Environmental Studies, Media and Communication Studies and Jurisprudence.

Presentation
Papers could be presented with the aid of alternative media like power-point, performance, poster, and audio-video.

Important Dates:

• December 15, 2013: Last date for proposal submission
• January 20, 2014: Submission of final drafts for plagiarism review.
• January 30-31, 2014: Seminar

Eligibility: Currently enrolled in any of the MA courses in humanities and social sciences in any University in Delhi.

Suggested format for writing the proposal:

• 500-750 words long; References in APA format
• Times New Roman, 12 size font
• The document should be sent either in .pdf, .docx or .doc format.
• The name of the file should be YOURNAME_INSTITUTION_DEPARTMENT.format
• The subject of the email should be: Entry for Students' Seminar Political Science
• The document itself should NOT contain anything indicating your name or institution
• The following details should be provided in the body of the email itself: name, institution, course/ programme.

The last date to send in proposals is December 15, 2013. Kindly email them to polsci.studentsseminar@gmail.com. Proposals written in Hindi will also be accepted. Please write to us for further inquiries, if any.

Further Details: http://www.facebook.com/power.studentsseminar

CfPs: International Conference on Environment, Technology and Sustainable Development; at ABV-IIITM Gwalior, 2-4 March

International Conference on Environment, Technology and Sustainable Development: Promises and Challenges in the 21st Century (ETSD2014)
2-4 March 2014
at ABV-Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management Gwalior (ABV-IIITM)

A regional conference of Environment and Society research committee (RC24) of International Sociological Association

ABV-IIITM is pleased to announce an international conference ETSD2014 to be held during 2-4 March 2014 at Gwalior campus. ETSD2014 will be a regional conference of Environment and Society research committee (RC24) of the International Sociological Association jointly organized by ABV-IIITM Gwalior with Institute of Social and Economic Change (ISEC), Bangalore and College of Arts & Sciences, University of San Francisco, USA.
Conference Aim: The conference aims to provide a venue for academics, researchers, scholars, and students, as well as representatives from the NGO and government sectors, to exchange research findings and new ideas on the shifting roles in the 21st century of environment and technology in pursuit of sustainable development. The conference will offer an interdisciplinary forum for participants to discuss the conference theme and sub-themes.
Conference Objectives: Environmental degradation is an inherent part of economic development. Technology, paradoxically, can both hasten and halt environmental degradation, thus placing it in an uncertain relationship vis a vis the goals of sustainable development.
Conventionally defined as development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs, sustainable development is not easily operationalized. In turn, progress towards sustainable development is difficult to measure. With these challenges in mind, the conference will explore technology's unique promises and perils as the environmental crises of the 21st century are confronted.
The environment remains for India a repository of valuable natural resources essential for its development, yet global challenges such as climate change simultaneously make the value of those resources and the impact of their use unpredictable. Meanwhile, technology continues to hold promise yet innovation and diffusion of beneficial technologies are often constrained by global market forces and other social and cultural dynamics.
Target Audience: Acdemicians and students of social sciences (anthropology, sociology, economics, political science, psychology and geography), management studies, natural and environmental sciences. Professonals from industry, government and non-government organisations (NGO).

Call for Papers
Researchers from academic, government and non-government organizations are invited to submit their original and unpublished research work to ETSD2014 conference in one or more of the conference themes or a related area. Submit full paper / poster or at least a 500 word abstract to the organizing coordinators (ps@iiitm.ac.in, smzavestoski@usfca.edu) through email. Abstracts should contain complete contact details of the author/s, including email and phone numbers. If submitting a full paper use the following guidelines.

Submission Guidelines
Paper size: Approximately 6000 words including reference
Style: American Psychological Association (For more detail style guide SAGE Publications click here)
Font: Times New Roman, Size: 12 points, Spacing: 1.5
Submission contact(s): Dr. Pradip Swarnakar ps@iiitm.ac.in, Dr. Stephen Zavestoski smzavestoski@usfca.edu.

Further Details: http://www.etsd2014.org/index.php

CfPs: International Conference on Educational Transformation and Transformative Education: Possibilities and Alternatives to the Educational Crisis; March 2014; at SAU, New Delhi

International Conference on Educational Transformation and Transformative Education: Possibilities and Alternatives to the Educational Crisis
March 2014
Organised by Department of Sociology, South Asian University, India

Call for Papers
Department of Sociology, South Asian University in association with Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung will organise this conference. The conference would look at the possibilities and alternatives to the crisis generated in the field of education by impact of neoliberalism.

Concept Note
There is a plethora of literature on how neoliberalism has impacted education and its different facets across the world. However, there has not been a concerted and organised effort to understand and analyse this impact in India, except for a few works engaged in this exercise. Realising the need to bring together scholars at one platform and deliberate on this impact the Department of Sociology at South Asian University organised a seminar titled "Mapping Changes and Transformations in Educational Systems and Discourses –Issues, Possibilities and Strategies" on 21st-22nd March, 2013. Participants discussed and deliberated on how neoliberalism has been altering and impacting the education sector.
It identified issues emerging out of this impact and the processes of how this takes place. Though most of the times seminars and workshops stop at identifying problems and recognising the symptoms of the problem it has been realised that there is a need to move beyond into the realm of discussing and debating alternatives or visualising/conceptualising solutions to the problems. In this context it would be relevant to look at the new/alternative systems that have emerged at different points of time in history and whether they may be useful in resolving the crisis that emerges in times of neoliberalism. On the other hand, it might also be useful to look at how different kinds of resistances to the neoliberalism have inherent visions of new/alternative systems within them. For instance, if the problem exists vis-à-vis quality of education, accessibility to education of similar quality for everybody, the language question or pedagogy in general, etc., how can it be resolved in these neoliberal times. This conference intends to explore these aspects and bring together people who have been thinking in this direction.
We all realise that education plays an important role in the continuous change of the society. An important component of education's role in social change also involves how it inspires students to imagine a world beyond the given. Along with taking up the issue of educational accessibility it is required, argue many educationists, to motivate students to imagine the world in a different way through dialogic engagement with the issues around them. This would also mean that the education imparted to students must prepare them to engage critically with the existing social system. Critical education helps in transcending the existing society towards a new one based on the principles of social justice, equality and further deepening of the democratic processes. The education system must "always preserve dissent and democracy within the educational institutions so that a multiplicity of points of view, including many that are unpalatable to the ruling political echelons, can flourish. The institutions must work out norms of conduct and modes of expression of dissent that ensure that debate thrives without being snuffed out and that the right to free expression of all sections of the community in an academic institution are respected. But, snuffing out dissent in the name of creating an atmosphere of work and promoting "excellence", by institutionalizing an authoritarian structure within the education system is fundamentally opposed to the "nation-building" task of higher education."
But an important aspect that requires deliberation here is whether it is the exclusive right of the state to take over the mantle and educate its beings or also create spaces for private players of different kinds – as corporates or many alternative schooling experiments that are there. It has often been argued that permitting non-state actors to run the educational institutions not only pave way for an endless pursuit of profiteering from education but also aggravates inequality, discrimination and by continuous attack on human rights. Scholars argues that "the better the education, the more its bearers become independent to think and act on their own. The better the market, the more its agents, depends on the products and services of others to perform their thinking and doing for them".
Every since early 1980s there have been evident and drastic changes at policy level – from opening up of the economy to commodifying education as any other object to be bought in the marketplace. There are different and often complex ways of effecting these changes. The direct, coercive, undemocratic policy making practice of the state is one while using the so called progressive voices to create an illusion of 'democracy' and 'welfarism' is another. So, the state opens up the education to private sector in an unprecedented manner but it also mustered support for its plan to corporatize and homogenise education system through committees such as Yashpal Committee report3. It has often been argued that the changes are not merely about tweaking of policies but it has had ramifications at all levels – from transactions in the classroom to textbooks to how the function of education is increasingly as subservient to the demands of market thereby negating host of alternative visions on education.
The current situation in education wherein its commodification becomes much more starker makes Freireian notion of Banking Education quite relevant. With the absence of the recognition of the differences and the critical knowledge produced with it, education thus, becomes an act of depositing, in which the students are the depositories and the teacher is the depositor. The 'Banking' concept in education, in which the scope of action allowed to the students extends only as far as receiving, filling and storing the deposits. Critical enquiry and inventions are never emphasised upon by controlling the curriculum which would lead to breed a set of unconscious workforce ready to help the 'exclusive' in securing huge gains. This concept of education regards men as adaptable and manageable things. Thus, the idea of education has changed as it no longer dares one to dream of world free from inequality or does not encourage a questioning mind.
The idea of knowledge as critical and as an instrument that teaches the idea of liberation has been skillfully and deftly set aside. The tradition of critical pedagogues have dones extensive work towards redefining educational praxis. McLaren and Farahmandpur write "…even progressive educators who are vigorously engaged in the debate over global capitalism and theories that oppose one another within it frequently fail to address the fateful implications of capitalism's confiscation of freedom and kidnapping of hope". Education, indeed, has been a powerful component of the 'ideological apparatus' which has served the objective of securing the cultural and intellectual hegemony of a few. Hope, as a notion that defines the endless world of possibilities, a scheme of knowledge production that continuously opens doors to possible transcendance of the existing order of things, scholars feel, is gradually being thrown out of education system for being irrelevant.
Mainstream pedagogy assiduously disregards as crucial a knowledge of how asymmetrical relations of power become embedded in race, gender and class antagonisms that are reinforced through the dominant social and ideological apparatuses of the state. In contrast, alternative ideas of pedagogy have never seen education and its evolution as divorced from the fundamentals of the class society. Here the classroom for instance is conceived as a political arena for legitimizing the lived experiences of the oppressed social classes without assuming that such experiences are transparent or absent of racism or sexism. At a general level, the whole process of knowledge production becomes a political question.

This conference would deliberate on the possibilities and configurations of alternatives to the questions emerging out of the crisis fomented by increasing commodification of education under neoliberalism. Ideas and experiences would be combined to provide for a reflection on how one could create a resisting pedagogy and eduction system. Some of the themes around which the conference would invite papers would be (and one may go beyond these themes as well):
1. Imagining a transformative education

a. Resistance as the beginning of transformation; the distinct forms of resisting neoliberalism in education.
b. Alternative as the beginning of resistance; embryonic alternative visions within crisis and the resistances
c. Existing educational alternatives in South Asia and their transformative potential to neoliberal orientations

2. The changes in South Asian education as neoliberalism arrives and the nature of responses to the changes
3. Contribution of Critical Pedagogy towards imagining an alternative

a. Can education autonomously effect socio-political transformation
b. Consequences of locating education within the larger socio-economic and political matrix
c. Teacher as an agent of transformation
d. Conceptualising extensions of pedagogy beyond classroom

e. Establishing necessity to connect socio-economic and political realities with pedagogy

4. Social movements as pedagogical possibilities

The Conference will be based on papers contributed by scholars working on the issue in context of South Asian countries. Call for papers will be issued and the participants would send in their abstracts and they will be notified about the acceptance after a scrutiny. The coordinator of the Conference, Dr. Ravi Kumar, will be responsible for the scrutiny and final notification of the accepted papers. The papers should not exceed 8,000 words.

Last date of submission of abstracts (500 words): 15th December, 2013
For abstracts submission and any other enquiry contact: educonference2014@gmail.com
Submission of selected papers: 1st March 2014

Download Call for papers: http://www.sau.ac.in/pdf/rosaLuxem_revised_date.pdf

Concept Paper & Further Information

CfPs: National Workshop on Corporate Governance Practices in India: Retrospect and Prospects; 14-15 Feb at IICA,

National Workshop on Corporate Governance Practices in India: Retrospect and Prospects

National Two-Day Residential Workshop for Research Scholars

14-15 February 2014

Organized by School Of Corporate Governance and Public Policy, Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs, IMT  Manesar Campus, Distt. Gurgaon, India

The School of Corporate Governance and Public Policy (CG&PP), IICA  is organizing a National Two-Day Residential Workshop for Research Scholars on the theme 'Corporate Governance Practices in India: Retrospect and Prospects'. The workshop will provide a platform for discussions on wide range of issues related to the conceptual and legal framework affecting corporate functioning, new aspects of scholarly enquiry on governance in corporate bodies - public and private; and arrive at comprehensive solutions on policies, designs and implementation. More significantly it will cater towards knowledge partnership and collaboration for future research.

The fate and face of a nation are reflected in its economy, and while the economy is a result of the well being and functioning of a variety of components, it is also related intrinsically to the performance of the corporate sector.

Call for Papers

Main Theme: Corporate Governance Practices In India: Retrospect and Prospects

Broad Themes

• Corporate Governance In Group Companies In The Private Sector
• Corporate Governance In Public Sector Enterprises
• Corporate Social Responsibility
• Corporate Governance In Banks And Other Financial Institutions

Guidelines:

·          Doctoral Fellows, Scholars, and Faculties may submit papers on the above broad themes. Papers should be original in content and not published anywhere else. Top three papers will receive cash award.

·          Abstracts should not be more than 300 words and should be submitted before deadline.

·          A technical committee will review the papers, after which selected paper-writers need to submit their full research papers. Soft copy of abstract and complete papers should be submitted by e-mail only and should reach anna.nath@iica.in with a copy to anna.nath.jnu@gmail.com. All presenters and delegates should register before deadline. For registration fee and other details of workshop and accommodation please consult SUBMISSION GUIDELINES in our website.

·          For further information and details of abstract and full paper submission, please contact Anna at 9971115102, 0124-2640039, 264000, and visit our website http://www.iica.in/

Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs (IICA), established by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Government of India is multidisciplinary knowledge sharing and capacity building institution aimed towards developing and facilitating discourse and service delivery on matters relevant to corporate affairs. The foundation of the institution has been laid with focus towards synergizing and creating a vibrant think – tank body that would play instrumental role in building responsible and sustainable business societies. IICA since its inception have established itself as centre for learning, training and excellence on good governance; providing world-class repository for researchers, policy makers and implementers on various subjects and matters related to corporate regulation and governance such as corporate and competition law, accounting and auditing issues, compliance management, corporate governance, business sustainability through environmental sensitivity and social responsibility, e-Governance and enforcement etc.

Further Details and Registration Form: http://iica.in/

 

CfP: "Institute on Internet and Society", at Yashada, Pune, India, 11-17 February '14

Institute on Internet and Society

The Centre for Internet and Society (CIS), Bangalore is pleased to announce the second "Institute on Internet and Society" to be held in Yashada, Pune from February 11 to 17, 2014.

With financial support and visionary guidance from the Ford Foundation, this initiative represents an important opportunity to bring together various stakeholders in a neutral forum and share ideas.

This is a week-long residential institute which will cover topics surrounding and exploring the gamut of internet and society. Various topics that explore the ambit and the intersection between Internet and Society will be explored with guest speakers and experts in these fields anchoring the sessions. The lectures will be insightful and few, with interesting case studies and interactive modes of teaching. There will be breakout sessions where participants will get the chance to partake in interactive technology sessions and instructive demonstrations.

There will be off-site experiences where the participants can go on field trips and view the actual spaces that will be discussed.

The institute will feature:

• Guest lectures by experts and CIS staff.
• Interactive panel discussions.
• Case studies.
• Breakout sessions.
• Interactive demonstrations.
• Networking opportunities, field trips/off-site experience and much more...

At the end of the course, attendees will have:

• Acquisition of knowledge on internet in the Indian society.
• Appreciation of the role of community and other stakeholders in issues surrounding the internet.
• Creation of a starting point for improved communication of research findings, innovations, information and new technologies in internet to evolve a community comprising academicians and policy makers.
• Appreciation of the need to bridge the gap between policy and implementation.

Who can apply?

Any members from the civil society (students, research scholars, academicians, scientists, legal professionals, etc.) who engage in issues concerning Internet and Society.

How to apply?

The application form available at http://internet-institute.in/form needs to completed in all respects and uploaded along with a brief bio and a 250-300 word abstract on why the applicant feels he/she must attend the Institute on Internet and Society.

Selection criteria

• Originality of application.
• Evidence of interest and/or prior engagement in Internet and Society related research and policies.
• Gender, regional and stakeholder representation.

Twenty participants shall be chosen to attend the Institute on a first come, first served basis. Please ensure that your applications are submitted to CIS well before the closing date.

Attendance

Attendance for the full duration of the Institute (February 11 to February 17, 2014) is mandatory. Please provide assurance that you will be able to commit to the full duration of the institute.

What costs will be covered?

CIS has a limited number of scholarships that will cover the course fees, travel, accommodation and food. Please note that scholarships will be given on a first come first serve basis to deserving applicants and is available for persons based within India.

Important Dates

• Registrations Open: November 15, 2013

• Registrations Close: December 6, 2013

About CIS India and Ford Foundation

CIS critically engages with concerns of digital pluralism, public accountability and pedagogic practices, in the field of Internet and Society, with particular emphasis on South-South dialogues and exchange.

Through multidisciplinary research, intervention, and collaboration, we seek to explore, understand, and affect the shape and form of the internet, and its relationship with the political, cultural, and social milieu of our times.

The Ford Foundation supports visionary leaders and organizations on the frontlines of social change worldwide. Their goals for more than half a century have been to:

• Strengthen democratic values
• Reduce poverty and injustice
• Promote international cooperation
• Advance human achievement

The Ford Foundation believes all people should have the opportunity to reach their full potential, contribute to society, and have voice in the decisions that affect them.

Contact

• Dr. Nirmita Narasimhan, Policy Director (nirmita@cis-india.org)

• Ajoy Kumar, Administrator (ajoy@cis-india.org)

• Anirudh Sridhar, Consultant (anirudh@cis-india.org)

Further Details: http://internet-institute.in/

UNESCO releases "World Social Science Report 2013 – Changing Global Environments"

UNESCO Releases "World Social Science Report 2013 – Changing Global Environments"

published: November 15, 2013

UNESCO today announced the launch of its flagship publication World Social Science Report 2013 — Changing Global Environments.

The environmental challenges that confront society are unprecedented and staggering in their magnitude, scope, pace and complexity. They have potentially serious consequences for the wellbeing of people all over the world. The consequences of global environmental change are unfolding now; individuals and communities are already struggling to manage often precarious livelihoods; other social, economic and political crises – including persistent poverty, increasing inequalities and social discontent – are intricately linked to and exacerbated by environmental change. Global environmental change changes everything for everyone on this planet – our life support systems, our livelihoods, our ways of life, our actions and interactions with each other. It also changes demands for and on the social, including behavioural and economic sciences.

This is the third edition of the World Social Science Report. Based on a call for proposals, over 150 authors from all over the world have contributed articles. The Report issues an urgent call to action to the international social science community. Social scientists need to collaborate more effectively with colleagues from the natural, human and engineering sciences to deliver relevant, credible knowledge that can help to address the most pressing of today's environmental problems and sustainability challenges. And they need to do so in close collaboration with decision-makers, practitioners and the other users of their research.

A new kind of social science is needed, one that is bolder, better, bigger, different:

• Bold enough to reframe and reinterpret global environmental change as a fundamentally social process
  
• Better in terms of infusing social science insights into real-world problem-solving
  
• Bigger in terms of the need for more social scientists to address the challenges of global environmental change directly
  
• Different in the sense of changing the way the social sciences think about and do science – its theories, assumptions, methodologies, institutions, norms and incentives, to help meet the vexing interdisciplinary and cross-sector challenges society faces.
  

This report aims to engage social scientists working in all disciplines in academia, research institutes, think tanks, NGOs, and government agencies all over the world. The ISSC will use the report as a basis for critical discussion with its members and partners to sharpen the social science knowledge base on global environmental change and to support social science leadership in research for sustainability.

The 2013 World Social Science Report was prepared and edited by the International Social Science Council (ISSC) with the support of high level specialists from all the over the world. It is co-published by the ISSC, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and UNESCO.

Read WSSR2013 online now: http://www.worldsocialscience.org/activities/world-social-science-report/the-2013-report/read-changing-global-environments/ 

Further Details: http://www.unesco.org/new/en/social-and-human-sciences/resources/reports/world-social-science-report-2013/ 

Paper "Agricultural Biotechnology, Intellectual Property Rights and Seed Industry in India" by Kunal Sinha of CSSP

Agricultural Biotechnology, Intellectual Property Rights and Seed Industry in India
by Vikas Kumar and Kunal Sinha
Asian Biotechnology and Development Review, Vol. 15 No.2, pp 61-79
Abstract: It is contended that while Green Revolution was led by public sector, Gene Revolution in agriculture is led by private sector. While increased emphasis on intellectual property rights protection over seeds and germplasm by the private sector, the seed industry dominated by private sector would deliver more of inputs like seeds and improved varieties that bring in more revenue. In this article we discuss the growth of agri-biotechnology in India and the changing profile of seed industry in cereal crops. We find that favourable policy frameworks and liberalisation have resulted in more investment by private sector in R&D for developing new varieties and seeds and this mirrors the trends elsewhere. While incentives are necessary for private sector to invest in R&D corresponding measures like effective competition policy are also required so that benefits of biotechnology reach small and medium farmers for whom affordability and accessibility of seed a key input is important. The challenge lies in harmonising commitments under WTO Agreements and Convention on Biological Diversity with effective measures that would make biotechnology based inputs affordable and accessible. Otherwise this may be a barrier in diffusion of agricultural biotechnology.

DTE Article "No room for recycling: Give waste pickers their due" by AP Jayanthi of CSSP

No room for recycling: Give waste pickers their due
By Jayanthi A Pushkaran
Down to Earth, Oct 15-31, 2013
A swarm of flies buzz on top of a trash mountain, dogs bark at the crows hovering above, while 11-year-old Salman gathers waste at Sector-18 Rohini in Delhi. Every day at 5 am, he rummages through the rubbish heap for plastic, metal, glass and other recyclable items. In nearby slums, women and children segregate waste with bare hands, without masks, gloves and boots. They earn Rs 100 to Rs 130 per day after selling the waste at recyclers' market.
Their lives have been captured by the lens and some of the images showcased at the recently concluded photo exhibition by Aman Trust at the Jawaharlal Nehru University. There is an old saying that one man's trash is another man's treasure. For Delhi's 350,000-odd waste pickers, trash is livelihood.
Under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Rural Mission, a large chunk of Delhi's waste has been privatised. With the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) subcontracting big private players to collect waste, livelihood of waste pickers like Salman is increasingly jeopardised. For the past few years, MCD has also been trying to convert the city's trash to electricity. Despite evidence of technology failure and bitter opposition from residents and environment groups, four waste-to-energy incinerators have cropped up in the capital. Supported by UNFCCC's Clean Development Mechanism, these projects often receive climate subsidies and carbon credits according to the amount of methane captured from landfills (as a result of breakdown of organic waste) or the amount of waste they incinerate.
Such a regime favours waste disposal, not recycling. Technical solutions to the issue of waste, that often figure in official plans, favour bringing various processes of waste handling under a uniform system. This waste management regime calls for increased role of private sector, which further leads to displacement of the informal recycling sector.
World Bank estimates that waste pickers comprise 1 to 2 per cent of the world population. International Labour Organization reports there are six million waste pickers in India. Advocacy group Chintan states the informal sector picks 15-20 per cent of city waste. Pickers and collectors bring down the city government's waste disposal expenditure, argues A K Dikshit of Society of Economic and Social Research.
Every day, Delhi produces 8,500 tonnes of waste. Informal labour carries this waste from buildings and households to disposal sites. Pickers (kachrawalla) and itinerant waste collectors (kabadiwalla) constitute the lowest rung in the occupational ladder, for they collect waste directly from its origin. They are often the most marginalised and do not have alternative livelihood options. They are paid only for the waste they collect, and not for the benefits they create as the first in a chain of recyclers. Because they are self-employed and not recognised or recorded in formal sector, labour legislation or other policies do not apply to them.
Sociologist Kaveri Gill, in her book Of Poverty and Plastics: Scavenging and Scrap Trading Entrepreneurs in India's Urban Informal Economy, points out that waste pickers are mostly Dalits, Muslim minorities, Christian converts and Bangladeshi migrants who usually belong to castes that have historically been engaged in "unclean" and "polluting" livelihood. In socially segmented Delhi, their occupational mobility and access to waste is further mediated by negotiations, compromises and interaction with indifferent residents, suspicious gatekeepers of colonies, policemen and superior municipal sweepers.
As the world-class city marches towards its twin targets of cleanliness and power generation through so-called scientific waste management, invisible waste picker battles for his livelihood.
_________________________
Jayanthi A Pushkaran is at the Centre for Studies in Science Policy, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi. The views expressed by the author are personal
Source: http://www.downtoearth.org.in/content/no-room-recycling