Each year the Centre for Asian Studies is inviting scholars from different fields to present their research on specific aspects of East Asia. This tradition is continuing, and this year we are happy to invite everyone interested in Korea, Japan and China to the 11th international Centre for Asian Studies conference which will attract participants from Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, Germany, Switzerland, Finland and other countries.
This year’s focus on civil society can provide many insights on how non-governmental organizations function in different political environments and shape the development of their own countries and the whole region. Existing research show that civil society has plenty regional variations influenced by historical experiences, cultural background and shared values. East Asia is an especially interesting case because of rapid societal and economic changes and globalization processes in the past few decades. The relatively recent boom in the number of non-governmental organizations that happened in East Asian countries and spread of activism and volunteering culture create a rich ground for scholars to test existing theories and create new hypothesis. We hope that the conference will contribute to encouraging and strengthening of research activities in this field.
