TOWARDS ENVIRONMENTALLY SUSTAINABLE EAST ASIA
The 3rd International Symposium on Environmental Sociology in East Asia (ISESEA) was held in the Catholic University, Bucheon City, South Korea, from October 21st to 23rd 2011. The ISESEA has been one of the primary vehicles through which significant environmental sociological issues in East Asia have been discussed among active attendants. Following the splendid achievements of last symposiums, the 3rd ISESEA welcomed 55 interested participants from around the world to present and debate research on environmental sociological issues. It featured the participation of renewed international scholars, students of environmental sociological issues, policy makers, and activists who debated key topics of today’s East Asia society and environment and also provided a forum for the presentation and discussion of novel research and ideas.
The Symposium’s theme “Towards Environmentally Sustainable East Asia” offered the unique opportunity to explore whole gamut of environmentally sustainability issues in East Asia. The keynote speech was addressed by Riley E. Dunlap, Regents Professor of Oklahoma State University and distinguished 39 oversea participants presented 31 papers including the topics on the theory of environmental sociology, environmental pollution and victims, environmental policy, ecology and history, environmental consciousness, climate change, environmental movement. The special session on the Environmental Sociological Imagination towards Challenge of Disasters in Japan was stimulated by the main speakers from each region as all of us experiencing tremendous challenges from 3.11 in Japan.
Through its keynote addresses, many papers and special discussions, the ISESEA provided information, insight and possible solutions to many of these old and new challenges. To carry on and deepen the studies on Eastern Asia Environmental Sociology, the following 4th Symposium is promised to be held in China next year.
