SECOND CIRCULAR

Institute for Excellence in Higher Education (IEHE), Bhopal; Madhya Pradesh Private University Regulatory Commission (MPPURC), Bhopal and Regional Science Association of India (RSAI)

Invite you

To participate in the Golden Jubilee Annual Conference of Regional Science Association of India on the theme  EMERGING REGIONAL ISSUES AND SUSTAINABILITY

(February 20 - 22, 2019)

Scholars working in the area are invited to submit their abstracts (not more than 500 words) in any of the broad issues listed below. Based on the relevance and merit of the abstracts, participants will be selected. Only selected and registered participants will be permitted to present their paper in the technical sessions of the conference. However, conference is open to all the registered participants.

Focal Theme: Emerging Regional Issues and Sustainability

Concept Note:

United Nation publishes Global Sustainable Development Report (GSDR) which aims at the High Level Political Forum. Science-policy interfaces refer to the many ways in which scientists, policy-makers and other stakeholders link up to communicate, exchange ideas and jointly develop knowledge to enrich policy and decision-making processes and research (Young, J.C., et al.). The 2015 GSDR underlined the importance of utilizing these linkages to identify emerging issues across the whole spectrum of sustainable development, including its social and economic dimensions (United Nation). This whole spectrum of sustainable development comprises of issues such as social and environmental paradigm of sustainability, expansion of urbanized regions, changing composition of informal sector of economy and many others.

The exercise of emerging issues identification is the complexity and inter-disciplinarily of sustainable development issues. Scientific expertise can shed new light on the complexity and interconnectivity of emerging issues, in the process strengthening the science policy interface and possibly leading to more timely responses to emerging threats or the exploitation of new opportunities. The regular scanning and multidisciplinary analyses of emerging issues from different levels and perspectives is important and should be maintained as a necessary and useful early warning system for the science policy interface. There is scope for enhanced dialogue between scientists, social scientist and policy-makers in considering both the processes by which emerging issues as well as the substantive character of issues that – out of the plethora of emerging issues (UNGSDR). Which could usefully be considered by the forum of the association (RSAI).

More over the term ‘emerging’ is based on ‘newness’, but not necessarily issues that are unheard of or that come as a surprise. Newness could be the result of 1. New scientific knowledge, which could be in form of new data, evidence, theory or model; 2. New technological development; 3. New scales or accelerated rates of impact; 4. A heightened level of awareness; and, 5. New ways of responding to a known issue.

For more details one may refer, Young, J.C., A.D. Watt, S. Van Den Hove, and the SPIRAL project team (2013): Effective interfaces between science, policy and society; the SPIRAL project handbook and Global Sustainable Development Report July 2015.

Last date of early bird registration has been extended up to 31st January 2019

More information at: http://iehe.in/PDF/Seminar/2018/Second_Circular_for_RSAI_Conference_081218.pdf