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March 19-20, 2012Download

Venue: Higher Education Commission Islamabad

Institute of Social and Policy Sciences (I-SAPS) Islamabad in collaboration with Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Pakistan (SSHRCP), Higher Education Commission, is organising a Colloquium on "Public Action in Pakistan: Between Apathy and Anger." The Colloquium is first in the series of annual multi-disciplinary colloquia which will allow different social sciences´ perspectives leverage and enrich each other. Beyond its scholarly goals, we hope that the Colloquium would inform the debates on public policy and development agenda in Pakistan.

We are inviting scholars in local as well as international academia to discuss the difficulties in dealing with social change especially in developing and Muslim societies like Pakistan from multi-disciplinary aspects, with special reference to individual´s personal behavior and its relation to societal changes. While noticing the non-presence of robust movements of social action in Pakistan, the academic wisdom identifies the supposedly widespread ·apathy· towards public action in Pakistani society as one of the major reasons. Dubbed at times as social malady, many observers claim that apathy is a commonly observed phenomenon in developing countries. Its symptoms include lack of participation and social responsibility resulting in meek public actions, allowing either the status quo or worsening of individual rights and civil liberties. While most continue with daily toil despite a perception of worsening social milieu, many are caught by raw anger which could vent out itself in self-destructive individual or group behavior. Before the recent upheavals in the Arab world, it was generally believed that apathy has become an epidemic in Muslim societies. The phenomenon also exists in the developed world where mass apathy towards political events and social movements has recently been getting a serious and closer academic attention.

The Colloquium aims to study the dynamics of social change with special reference to Pakistan. We would welcome theoretical and empirical contributions from historians, anthropologists, sociologists, political scientists, economists, psychologist, media specialists, development practitioners etc., elaborating the historical and cultural contexts of the phenomena of apathy and anger in Pakistan and proposing solutions to the social problems caused by them.

We are accepting the Abstracts of proposed papers, 200 to 300 words, by 31 Jan, 2012. The draft papers and presentation shall be submitted by March 10, 2012. The accepted papers will be circulated to participants prior to the event. The Institute hopes to sponsor the participation of a limited number of scholars in the Colloquium in the beautiful city of Islamabad. After the colloquium, developed versions of the papers presented in the colloquium will be eligible for publication by June 2012.

With a view to encourage fresh empirical studies on different approaches and dimensions of Apathy and Anger, I-SAPS is also sponsoring some fresh empirical studies.

For more details, pl click Call for Proposals for Empirical Studies

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Contact for more information

Ms. Quratulain Malik
Institute of Social and Policy Sciences qmalik@i-saps.org
P. O. Box 1379
Islamabad- Pakistan
Tel: +92-51-111-739-739
Fax: +92-51-2825336

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