Building on the Past, Reflecting on the Present and Charting Future Directions in Studies on Philippine Politics
The 2012 PPSA International Conference seeks to showcase the evolution of political science as a discipline grounded in theories that provide analytical and critical tools in comprehending political realities. The 2012 Conference also provides a venue in which to reflect on the previous and present contributions of the discipline as stepping stones in charting new directions in the field of political science.
As with the previous PPSA conferences, the 2012 PPSA International Conference foresees the participation of around 150 academics, researchers, and public intellectuals as well as well-known policy and opinion makers and social movement and civil society players on 12-14 April 2012 in Cagayan de Oro City with Xavier University – Ateneo de Cagayan as its local partner.
Conference Concept
With its conference theme of “Building on the Past, Reflecting on the Present and Charting Future Directions in Studies on Philippine Politics”, the 2012 PPSA International Conference will revisit research themes of the past and the present as it seeks to chart fresh initiatives for the discipline in terms of the theme and its accompanying theoretical and conceptual handles as these are comprehended and applied.
The 2012 PPSA International Conference will have “Building on the Past, Reflecting on the Present and Charting Future Directions in Studies on Philippine Politics” as its major theme. The organizing committee welcomes panels and individual papers which focus on the evolution of theoretical and conceptual perspectives on topics which have dominated the study of Philippine politics.
It also welcomes the emergence of fresh and new perspectives on political topics which have been studied for the past decades but are seen in a new light given the changing political, economic and socio-cultural context of Philippine society and/or because of the emergence of innovative theoretical frameworks and methodology in which to further comprehend these. Most welcomed too are developments in the discipline that provide for a comparative basis, particularly, from the experience of Asian countries.
The papers may explore the “shifts/variances” in the models, theories, perspectives, and approaches in the discipline (if there are) that aim to explain or allow a better understanding of political issues and concerns. This is one way in which PPSA’s 50th anniversary conference will be able to highlight the contributions, contentions and current imaginations of the discipline in its quest to modestly advance the study of politics nationally, regionally and internationally.
Conference Topics
The proposed themes and sub-themes are the following (but not necessarily limited to these):
- Democratic governance and institutional design, change and inertia
- Electoral politics, elite domination and non-elite incursions
- “Informal institutions” and their impact on democracy
- Democratization and “contentious politics”: the challenge from social movements and civil society
- The evolution and state of non-class based social movements, i.e., women, environment, peace, indigenous peoples movements among others
- The current state and future of civil-military relations and security sector reforms
- Traditional and non-traditional security and the changing regional and global order
- Re-thinking neo-liberal globalization in the light of the world economic crisis
- Cultural foundations of political transitions
- Comparative perspectives of the challenges of democratization and development
- The resilience of the Communist and Bangsamoro insurgencies
- The incursion of religion into politics
- The politics of migration
- Others