• Date: October 31st Thursday – November 2nd Saturday, 2019
• Location: Kolon One & Only Tower

SNUAC Civil Society and NGOs Program held the 10th KAPS-ASPOS joint international conference at Magok KOLON One&Only Tower and Courtyard by Marriott Botanic Park Seoul from October 31st to November 2nd. The conference, with the topic “The State, Market, and Civil Society in East Asia”, was jointly hosted by Korea Association of Political Sociology, Association for the Study of Political Society, and East Asian Sociological Association, and was sponsored by KOLON Group.

On October 31st, there was a welcome dinner inviting participants from five countries such as Korea, China, Japan, Mongol, and Vietnam. Scholars from each country greeted each other and proceeded with a preliminary discussion for a productive conversation at the conference for the peace and prosperity of Asia. On November 1st, the day of the main event, there was an opening ceremony, three sessions, and a closing session consecutively held from 9 AM to 6 PM. At the opening ceremony, Hyun-Chin Lim, the Founding Director of SNUAC, and Hiroo Harada, President of ASPOS (Senshu University), expressed their aspirations for this conference to become a place for discussing how we can overcome the crisis faced by the Asian region and achieve mutual understanding and cooperation. Mayor Won-Soon Park’s congratulatory message was delivered via video, and congratulatory remarks were made by Sooyoung Lee (CEO of Kolon Eco One), Dongyoung Noh (Vice President for Research Affairs, SNU), Seung-Kuk Kim (President of East Asian Sociological Association) and Beomsik Shin (Deputy Director, SNUAC). The keynote speeches that followed were given by Hyun-Chin Lim (SNUAC), Tatsuro Niikawa (Doshisha University) and Bing Zheng (Jilin University) to talk about the comprehensive means for new cooperation and development in Asia.

The academic conference was divided into session 1 “New Direction and Challenge of Asian Capitalism”, session 2 “Civil Society and Democracy in Asia”, and session 3 “Beyond Cooperation, Toward Asian Community”, as participants presented and discussed the topics. In the closing session,  five panelists, one from each of the five countries, synthesized the results of discussions from each session and gave an overall evaluation. On the third day of the conference, November 2nd, a special round table session was held to freely discuss the means of resolving conflicts in East Asia as well as the stiffening Korea-Japan relations. Starting with a keynote speech by Hong-Ik Chung (Professor Emeritus, SNU), panelists from the participating countries frankly discussed their ideas for the coexistence of their national benefits and the peace of the East Asian region. At the farewell dinner that closed the conference, the participants promised to build a cooperative research network and to strengthen these exchanges as they celebrated the successful end of the conference.