Asia and Africa in Transition International Conference
21-23 October 2020
In 2020, the annual ADI conference and the annual NNC conference will join forces with a number of globally oriented networks and centres at the University of Copenhagen.
The organisers are:
- Asian Dynamics Initiative
- NIAS – Nordic Institute of Asian Studies
- School of Global Health
- Sustainability Science Centre
- ThinkChina
- UCPH Global Development
About the conference
Linkages between Asia and Africa have a transformative impact across the globe in areas ranging from economic development, health care, climate to politics and entertainment. This conference places Asia-Africa engagement as a focal point but also explores the diverse transitions that are occurring within each continent.
Asia and Africa, with a population of 4.6 billion and 1.3 billion respectively, represent about 80 percent of the world’s population. Not only have both continents experienced population booms in the last few decades, but they also have access to a wealth of natural resources and represent immense ecological and biological variety, opening up future potentialities. Africa and Asia in transition are creating new imaginaries and leveraging new possibilities, and the linkages between the two are leading to change that ripples across the globe.
Several countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia have experienced spectacular economic growth over the past few decades. They generate new global markets and opportunities, reshape trade and flows, and create innovative models of investment. At the same time, each continent has experienced shifts in poverty levels, massive wealth accumulation and increasing inequality, all of which raises questions about sustainable and equitable growth and redistribution.
In the last fifty years, these regions have also been sites of political revolutions and transitions. After decolonization, countries of the African continent have experienced democracy in some cases, dictatorship and repressive governments in others. Political revolution in Asia brought the rise of the Communist Party in some places like China and Vietnam, while regimes collapsed in other countries such as Indonesia, the Philippines and Korea. These shifts have been accompanied by changing political configurations, and escalating tensions at borders and in disputed territories, making the two continents central to global diplomacy, security and governance.
Political changes, along with economic growth, climate change, demand for resources and food security, changes in disease burden and health care needs, as well as demographic shifts, including an aging population and migration going across the two continents are all driving transitions. They are remaking trade routes, building new infrastructure, creating new public-private models of investment, new types of bilateral, regional and global governance, and setting new standards. Some parts of Asia and Africa are in the forefront of technological change, as they leapfrog previous leaders and drive forward solutions to global challenges. The synergy gained from linkages between the two continents has decentered our existing political, social and economic order.
The interconnects across Asia and Africa generate clashes of identities, beliefs and ideologies far beyond their own regions, reclaiming and re-contextualizing the past, remaking the present, and reimaging the future. The histories of nation-states in the post-colonial era, overlaid by transnational shifts in technology, economics and the physical landscape, have seen profound changes and contestation in literature, art, and subjectivity. This is reflected in complex developments in modes of expression and performance that have taken place in the novel, poetry, cinema, music, aesthetics, ethics, and other forms of daily life.
Keynote Speakers
Ching Kwan Lee, Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Los Angeles
Jonathan Rigg, Professor and Chair in Human Geography at the University of Bristol
Reiner Klingholz, Former Director of Berlin Institute for Population and Development
Panels
The conference will focus on the multiple forms of linkages and engagements occurring between Asia and Africa in an increasingly multi-polar world. Besides keynote speeches, it will feature a range of panels and roundtables across disciplines, temporalities and themes in the study of Asian and African dynamics.
- Panels with paper presentations are open for abstract submission.
- Debate panels are closed for submissions. Invited panels of experts, NGOs, researchers or other stakeholders will respond to key questions and cases on the topic. The audience will be invited to join the discussion.
Overview of all panels can be found here.
All panels are open to the public.
Deadline:
15 abril
We invite abstracts for paper presentations addressing one of the panels listed here.
Your submission should include:
- Name, affiliation, short bio
- Abstract including title (up to 250 words)
- Intended panel
We also invite full panel proposals on Asia – Africa related themes. Your submission should include:
- Name, affiliation and contact details of convener/contact person
- Title and description of panel (up to 250 words)
- Name and affiliation of 3-4 presenters in the panel, title of their presentations and abstracts (each up to 250 words)
Deadline for submitting abstracts or full panel proposals: 15 April 2020
Proposals should be submitted via email to asia-africa-2020@ku.dk
In the event that we receive more proposals than we can accommodate, the organisers and conveners will decide among the submitted proposals.
Notification of acceptance: mid-May 2020
Registration
Registration will open at a later stage.
PhD workshop
The conference will be preceeded by a two-day PhD workshop, a separate call will follow soon.
Organising committee
Asian Dynamics Initiative
- Ayo Wahlberg, Anthropology
- Marie Yoshida, ADI
- Oscar Salemink, Anthropology
- Peter Marcus Kristensen, Political Science
- Sarah Swider, Sociology
NIAS - Nordic Institute of Asian Studies
- Duncan McCargo, NIAS
- Katrine Herold, NIAS
School of Global Health
- Bjørg Elverkjær, Global Health
- Flemming Konradsen, Global Health
- Morten M Nørulf, Global Health
Sustainability Science Centre
- Bjørk Atladottir, Sustainability Science
- Stig Jensen, Africa Studies
ThinkChina
- Casper Wichmann, ThinkChina
- Jørgen Delman, China Studies
- Mikkel Bunkenborg, China Studies
- Wen Xiang, Environmental Law
UCPH Global Development
- Andreas Christensen, Global Development
- Anja Hansen, Science
- Torben Birch-Thomsen, Geography
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