Program

Wednesday

7 December, 2022

1:20pm

(1:30pm – 5:15pm)

Coffee, Introduction

PhD panel

1:30 – 2:00pm

Online: Competing for Meaning: Human Rights and the Role of Civil Society Organisations in the Philippines

Syme de Leon

2:00–2:30pm

Veganism(s) in Japan: Practice, Concepts and Negotiation

Ruby Ramsden

2:30–3:00pm

Mobilising for Press Freedom in Duterte's Philippines: Forms, Strategies, and Challenges

David Lozada

3:00 – 3:15pm

Break

3:15 – 3:45pm

Small-Scale Democracy: A Case of Niseko, Japan

Kiyomi Misaki

3:45–4:15pm

Challenging Abe's "War Laws": Peace Activism and the use of Strategic Litigation in Japan  

Adam Eldridge-Imamura

4:15 – 4:45pm

A Critical Ocean Studies of Civil Society Practice: How Sea of Fukushima, Great Barrier Reef and Billabongs of Ranger Mine Shape Fukushima–Cairns Recuperation Practice

Akina Mikami

4:45 – 5:15pm

Online: Environmental Civil Society actors in Okinawa: Saving the environment from the risks of the US military

Scott Masgrave-Takeda

Thursday

8 December, 2022

9:15am

(9:45–12:15pm)

Coffee, Networking, Introduction

Panel 1: How is civil society conceived by particular actors, including civil society organizations, individual activists, intellectuals, and the state?

Panel chair: Akina Mikami

9:45–10:15am

Changing and Contesting Notions of ‘Civil Society’ in China: The State, Activists, and Academics

Anthony J. Spires (University of Melbourne)

10:15 – 10:45am

Online: When a Struggle Spawns a New Civil Society: Mass Mobilization and Political Transformations in Sri Lanka

Udan Fernando (Centre for Poverty Analysis, Sri Lanka)

10:45 – 11:15am

Ethnic Politics in the Democratic Movement and Civil Society Organizations against Authoritarianism in Thailand

Apichai W. Shipper (Georgetown University)

11:15 – 11:45am

Online: Civil Society and Emergency Powers in the Time of Pandemic

Rawin Leelapatana (Chulongkorn University)

11:45 – 12:15pm

The Shifting Nature of International NGO and Foundation Behavior in China

Steve Noakes (University of Auckland)

12:15 – 12:45pm

Lunch

(12:45 – 2:00pm)

Keynote: A Century of Civil Society Activism in Taiwan: 1920-2022

Michael Hsiao

Sponsored by Centre for Contemporary Chinese Studies, Asia Institute

(2:15 – 2:45pm)

Panel 1 continued

Panel chair: Adam Eldridge-Imamura

2:15 – 2:45pm

Online: Indigenous peoples and civic activism in Nepal

Mukta S. Tamang (Tribhuvan University)

(2:45 – 4:15pm)

Panel 2: What organizational forms are favored, eschewed, and promoted by particular actors?

Panel chair: Adam Eldridge-Imamura

2:45 – 3:15pm

NPOs in Japan: Why Co-Production with the State Failed

Akihiro Ogawa (University of Melbourne)

3:15 – 3:45pm

Online: A Global Civil Society on the Move?: The Global Compact on Migration and CSOs in the Asia Pacific

Jorge V. Tingo (University of the Philippines)

3:45 – 4:15pm

Gender and Power in the State-led Civil Society in Japan

Mayuko Itoh (University of Tasmania)

4:15 – 4:45pm

Online: Win a Victory without Battle? China's Crackdown on Civil Society of Post-NSL Hong Kong

Eric Yan-ho Lai (SOAS London / Georgetown University)

4:45pm

Exercise for strategy meeting

6:00pm

Conference dinner at Shakahari, Carlton

Friday

9 December, 2022

9:15am

(9:30 – 12:15pm)

Coffee, Networking, Introduction

Panel 3: With the rise of particular forms of globally recognized and recognizable civil society formations, like NGOs and private philanthropy foundations, what kinds of innovations distinguish particular civil society groups from others within the same country, region, or globally?  

Panel chair: David Lozada

9:30 – 10:00am

Conceptualizing the Role of Civil Society in Ganges-Brahmaputra Basin Governance

M. Anwar Hossen (University of Dhaka)

10:00 – 10:30am

New Forms of Active Citizen Participation to Regenerate Cities?: Systematic Analysis of Co-City Literature and Projects in Asia

Herlin Chien (National Pingtung University of Science and Technology, Taiwan)

10:30 – 11:00am

Grassroots Movements vs. “NGOism”: Struggles for Legitimacy in Asian Migrant Civil Society Networks

Stefan Rother (Bundeswehruniversität München, Germany)

11:00 – 11:15am

Break

(11:15 – 12:15pm)

Panel 3 - continued

Panel chair: Ruby Ramsden and Tom Hu

11:15 – 11:45am

The Role of NGOs in Welfare Provision in Asia: The Case of Irregular Migration and Poverty on the Thailand-Cambodia Border

Ruth Phillips (University of Sydney), Geri Mason (Seattle Pacific University, USA), and Deanna Davy (Anglia Ruskin University, UK)

11:45 – 12:15pm

Online: Japanese International NGOs in Asia: The Reflexive Outcomes of Regional Activism

Simon Avenell (ANU)

12:15 – 2:00pm

Lunch & Film Screening:

Evoking the Kingdom: Claims of Monarchy in Modern Sri Lanka

(23 mins followed by Q&A)

(2:00 – 3:00pm)

Panel 4: How do changes in technology and technologies of governance create, inhibit, or challenge particular formations of civil society actors and approaches?  

Panel chair: Kiyomi Misaki &Tony Wu

2:00 – 2:30pm

Civil Society and DV in Japan

Machiko Osawa (Nihon Women’s University) and Jeff Kingston (Temple University)

2:30 – 3:00pm

Online: From Offline Occupations to Online Platforms: Media and Advocacy Collectives in Asia

Ian Rowen (National Taiwan Normal University) and Bonnie Jin (Johns Hopkins University)

3:15 – 5:00pm

Strategy meeting