(Un)Sustainable Growth and Environment in Asian Territories

International Symposium

Conference

October 10th & 11th, 2023

Venue : room 601
Institut français de recherche sur le Japon à la Maison franco-japonaise
3-9-25, Ebisu, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo, 150-0013 Japon

Registration to assist online / Download the program / Download the poster

With its forty million square kilometers and its four billion inhabitants, Asia is the largest and most populated region in the world. Hosting the second and the third economies of the planet (China and Japan), as well as four of the five most populated countries of the world (China, India, Indonesia, and Pakistan), the region has been facing tremendous changes since the 1990s : rapid urbanization, industrialization, containerization, agricultural "revolutions", sharp tourism development, globalization of its cities and its territories. However, the rise of Asia has also been related to the rise of important issues, as of social inequalities, unbalanced development of territories, multiple pollutions responsible of health issues and climate change, economic crisis, geopolitical tensions resulting in the militarization of Asian borders and seas in the context of the rise of the Indo-Pacific geopolitical issues. Are Asian (un)sustainable issues specific to the region ? How Asian societies and territories tackle (un)sustainable challenges to reach a better future and ensure a harmonious development of a region where live half of humanity ?
This multidisciplinary symposium gathers scholars and experts coming from six Asian countries : India, Indonesia, Japan, Thailand, the Philippines, and Vietnam. It is divided into two days. The first day is dedicated to Anthropocene studies in Asia, with a special focus on two topics : nuclear and energy on one hand, and urbanization on the other hand. The second day focuses on major environmental issues in Asia, and deals with important topics such as resources, health, and air quality. This second day is co-organized with Globalsmog, another French research program.

Day 1 : Sustain Asia and Anthropocene Studies (9.30 am - 8.30 pm - Tokyo time)

Day 2 : Sustainable Issues in Asian Territories (8.00 am - 4.30 pm - Tokyo time)

The SustainAsia International Research Network (IRN) is a project selected by the CNRS in August 2018 with funding over five years (2019-2023). It is supported by five Joint Units of French Research Institutes Abroad (https://www.umifre.fr/) in human and social sciences based in Asia (CEFC Hong Kong, CSH Delhi, IFP Pondicherry, IRASEC Bangkok and IFRJ-MFJ Tokyo), as well as UMR Paloc/IRD, and their regional academic partners : Indian Institute of Technology-Madras (Chennai) ; Indian Statistical Institute (Delhi) ; Chulalongkorn University (Bangkok) ; Hong Kong University of Sciences and Technology ; The University of Tokyo. This interdisciplinary scientific network works on environmental and sustainable development issues in Asia, focusing on the socio-political and environmental challenges raised by economic inequalities, resource overexploitation and degradation, climate change, and past and present landscape dynamics. SustainAsia is one of the very few French research programs coordinating a transcontinental research program at the scale of the Indo-Pacific region.