November 26, 2009

 

 

 

      At the turn of the twenty-first century, sufficient and strong evidence has emerged to indicate that large developing countries in Asia (China and India as representatives) are accumulating momentum both in their share in the global economy and trade and in their nfluence on important global issues. Thus it is high time that the academic community start paying due attention to them.

 

      China and India, as well as many other developing or transitional countries have followed routes of development and governance that are different from the ones widely endorsed and applauded in the West from conventional wisdom. It is necessary that we carefully compare and examine these old and new, varying patterns for economic development and democratic governance. This is a golden historical opportunity for such studies. Out of such considerations, we initiate an annual symposium series by scholars in China, India, and the United States to dissect the various issues under the general theme, thereby the title of the proposed series, of:

 

      This theme allows broad enough coverage for scholars from different but related

academic disciplines; the theme also implies something that is specific enough for focused discussion of economic development, political reform, political economy, as well as other and related general governance issues in law, sociology, and public administration. 

 

         The symposium participants will be selected from established scholars in political science, economics, public administration, history, law, sociology and other closely related disciplines. The size of each year’s symposium is planned to be small, around 20 papers (presenters), so that each presenter will have adequate time to present their research and the participants have chance to engage in active exchanges with the authors. Different as their background is, the participants will focus on the theme from their own disciplinary perspective. 

 

      The symposium series is intended to convene once every year, with the locations being in India, China, the United States, respectively, with the possibility of enlarging the pool of host countries. 

 

      Each symposium will be mainly academic discussions; but we will seek engaged input and exchange with national policy makers in the host country. As part of the dissemination scheme, we also plan to hold policy forums after each symposium. The policy forums are to serve as a platform for academia-practitioner exchange; the forums are to have direct and full media coverage. 

 

 

      Balancing the needs of scholars in the U.S. and those in China and India, early June (the first two weeks) is the best time. That is the period when US universities are in their summer vacation, and Chinese and Indian professors have mostly finished their busy graduate dissertation defense but before their final exams begin. 

 

 

 

     The first symposium of the series will be in India. The host institution will be the Indian Institute of Management at Bangalore (IIMB). The dates are June 4-6, 2011. June 4 will be registration and welcome reception; June 5-6 will be research presentations. A policy forum will be on June 6 or June 7.

 

      As the first symposium in this series, the suggested topic for 2010 is: “Frameworks for the Analysis and Exploration of Patterns of Development and Governance.” This relatively open (but closed-ended) topic is to provide interested participants (paper authors) the flexibility of laying the ground work for their research around the general theme. Then in the following years, they can focus on one or a few narrowly defined areas derived from the theme; thereby each scholar will have further chance to expand their research along the theme and accumulate expertise. 

 

 

  The host institution, the Indian Institute of Management at Bangalore (IIMB) will cover food and board as well as costs of the conference facilities. There will be no registration fee. However, each participant will pay for their transportation. Details on the logistics will be provided later by the host institution.

 

 

The total number of paper presenters will be around 20 – one presenter/participant only for each paper (additional participants will pay for their own room and board). A rough, suggested break-up of the total number is: 5 from China; 5 Chinese scholars from the US; 2-3 American scholars from the US, and 7-8 India (IIMB and government, including Indian scholars in the United States).

 

 

      Each author keeps the copyright of their papers; they have the option of publishing their paper in academic journals of their choice. However, a book series will be edited out of the symposium papers. Dr. Yilin Hou (University of Georgia, USA) and Dr. Trilochan Sastry (IIMB, India) will be the co-editors of the volume that will come out of the 2010 symposium. Dr. Hou and Dr. Sastry will work on the book proposal soon, to be submitted to a major publisher (for example, Oxford University Press-India or Shanghai or New York).

 

         Please submit your paper proposals via email to the two co-organizers. Their emails are provided at the end of this document. The deadline of the submission is February 15, 2010.  An academic committee will be created, of scholars from the three countries, to take charge of selecting paper proposals. Letters of acceptance will be sent by March 15, 2010. Completed papers will be due May 15, 2010, to be circulated to all participants, in particular the discussants, to guarantee adequate time for pre-symposium review and engaged discussion at the symposium. If you have any questions regarding any aspect of the symposium, or have any suggestions, please feel free to contact the co-chairs of the symposium. 

 

 

Co-symposium Chairs

Yilin Hou                                                                                  Trilochan Sastry

Stanley W. Shelton Professor of Public Finance         Professor and Dean (Academic) 

University of Georgia, USA                                              Indian Institute of Management

 

 

Contact Information

Yilin Hou

Baldwin Hall 204, 

Athens, GA 30602-1615 USA

Tel: 706-542-4705    

Fax: 706-583-0610

Email: yihou@uga.edu     

Trilochan Sastry

Bannerghatta Road

Bangalore 560076, India

Tel: 91-80-2699-3003, 

Fax: 91-80-2658-4050

Email: trilochans@IIMB.ERNET.IN