Welcome to the 5th Conference on Anthropology and
Sustainability in Asia (CASA 2018), which is being held Friday and Saturday, January
5-6, 2018 at the KKR Hotel in Hiroshima, Japan. All registered participants
will be provided with daily coffee breaks, access to the proceedings and a
free, English guided tour of Hiroshima Peace Park – a UNESCO World Heritage
Site.
This is an international, peer-reviewed event that is being held in partnership
with two other small events focusing on perspectives holistic sustainability:
The 5th Symposium on Language for Sustainability in Asia (SELSA 2018).
About CASA 2018
Sustainability is a term of recent origin with widespread contemporary
saliency. In its popular use, sustainability tends to focus mostly on issues of
natural environment. The lens of environmental sustainability raises questions
such as:
Can the natural world recover from damage caused by human activity at a rate
faster than the damage is done? Is the use of natural resources at a rate that
is compatible with their regeneration?
What changes in human practice can lead to long-term availability of necessary
natural resources?
With the theme Anthropological Perspectives on Holistic Sustainability, CASA
2018 will explore these and related questions, but in a way that considers
sustainability beyond its ecological dimensions. Trends toward broader
consideration of sustainability are in place. The World Bank and other
governmental and non-governmental organizations have incorporated the concept
of social sustainability into their approaches to development. The notion of a
“triple bottom line” that considers profit, people and planet has entered the
private sector discourse on sustainability. This conference considers the
contributions that anthropology can make to expanding the horizons of
sustainability.
As is the case with any field of study, application of anthropology brings
certain approaches and worldviews to bear on the issue of sustainability. As
sustainability finds its way into business practices, development plans, and
government policy, the holistic approach is the most important contribution
that anthropology has to offer. Holism applied to sustainability demands that
we ask not only about environmental impacts but also social, cultural,
economic, and political ones. Additionally, holism demands that we examine how
components of socio-cultural eco-systems relate to one another
systematically.
We welcome proposals of 250 words in English by Friday, November 17, 2017 on
any of the following streams:
-Archaeology and Sustainability
-Cultural Sustainability
-Economic Sustainability
-Linguistic Sustainability
-Political Sustainability
-Social Sustainability
-Other Areas (please specify)