9.2 Third Sector Conference (ISTR), July 2006 in Bangkok (Thailand)

 Lars Josephsen, Roskilde University (Denmark)

July 9-12, 2006, the International Society for Third-Sector Research (ISTR) held an international conference in Bangkok, Thailand, to exchange ideas and research findings about civil society and the third sector. The overall theme of the conference was "Civil Society and Human Security. Raum Jai"^(*).

As a background for this theme, the arrangers wrote:

"The world is preoccupied with issues of security where civil society, the Third Sector, is implicated in this at every level, as protagonist, victim, advocate and potential solution. The seventh international conference in Bangkok therefore provides an opportunity to share and explore scholarship that addresses issues of local, national, regional and global (in)security. We wish to explore the many sides of (in)security, from the response to natu-ral disasters to the defence of human rights, and the search for broader civil society en-gagement."

Many aspects of the conference theme were examined, e.g. the role of religion, gender, and ethnicity, social movements, governance and multi-sector partnerships, the legitimacy and accountability of civil society, etc. As well, topics including civic participation, community development and citizenship, and the application of research-based knowledge to policy and practice were explored, and - following its tradition - the ISTR conference was multidisciplinary in its approach.

Having observed that the number of paper and panel presenters exceeded 250, one gets an indication of the size of the conference. Among the presenters were several scholars from the CINEFOGO Network of Excellence.

^(*) Raum Jai, meaning putting our hearts together. Jai (heart) in Thai cultural values is very important.

Read more

ISTR Bangkok 2006 conference website