Programme

Health Across the Lifecourse

Featured Panel Presentation: Dr James W. McNally, Professor Hiroshi Ishida & Dr Megumi Rosenberg

This panel looks at the changing ways we look at health and the transitions from treating "aging" as a unique and independent experience to a more global perspective on health across the lifecourse. The experiences of youth, social determinants of health, poverty, and other factors all impact quality of life in later life. The way our perception of health, aging and successful aging has changed, also shifts they way we look at data needs, analysis and the study of the lifecourse.

Each panelist will give a brief overview from their perspectives on the lifecourse and how data plays a role in understanding global health issues. This will be followed by a question and answer session.

Read presenter biographies.

Surviving and Thriving: In Pursuit of a Sustainable World – A Unique and Personal Reflection

Featured Presentation: Lowell Sheppard

Drawing on his experience working in and writing about intensely dysfunctional communities, the result of war, disaster and extreme poverty, Lowell will present a personal perspective on the challenges those communities face to become self-reliant through sustainable development.

Read presenter biographies.

Locating Data for Research: Data Collections and Resources for Thesis Writing, Teaching, and Grant Development for the Social Sciences and the Environment

Featured Workshop Presentation: James W McNally & Kathryn Lavender

Instructors

James W McNally, Director, NACDA Program on Aging
Kathryn Lavender, Program Manager, NACDA Program on Aging

Researchers increasingly recognize the value of public use data for secondary research, thesis development, training and education and the development of independent research grants. As cutting edge international studies are emerging across Asia, Latin America, Europe, and increasingly Africa the opportunities for cross-national and comparative research are growing exponentially. This is a particularly exciting time to work, due to the large number of trained research professionals working within their home countries and providing culturally grounded interpretations of results. An ongoing barrier, however, is knowing where and what kind of data are available for secondary analysis.

The creation and maintenance of sustainable data archives can be challenging but it offers clear advantages for a national and international research strategy. Data that is preserved can be used by multiple researchers, testing a variety of hypotheses and increasing the return on investment to the expensive process of data collection. Having an internally managed archival system also provides greater control and autonomy in the equitable distribution of data resources. This workshop, sponsored by IAFOR and the National Archive of Computerized Data on Aging (NACDA) will offer hands-on examples of how to discover data resources, obtain them and then implement them as part of a research strategy. Regardless of whether or not you are a student looking for a thesis topic, an instructor looking for research material to using classroom teaching, or an established researcher looking for new opportunities the wealth of publicly available data has created almost unlimited opportunities to explore new themes and to collaborate with other researchers worldwide. NACDA has been in existence for over 35 years, and its preserves and really distributes over 1,500 studies on the lifecourse and health in the United States and worldwide. Funded by the National Institute on Aging in the United States, NACDA represents one of the world’s largest collections of research data. NACDA is only one of many such organizations, and increasingly these data resources can be found, if not in your home country then only a click away via the Internet.

The workshop will introduce you to NACDA and are many research partners across the world. All researchers attending The Asian Conference on Aging & Gerontology 2018 (AGen2018), The Asian Conference on the Social Sciences 2018 (ACSS2018) or The Asian Conference on Sustainability, Energy & the Environment 2018 (ACSEE2018) are welcome to participate in this workshop, ask questions and learn about data resources you can use for research, classroom instruction or in developing a research paper or thesis for your college classes. All you need is your laptop or mobile device and our instructors will help you better understand the wealth of information that lies at your fingertips.

An IAFOR Workshop in collaboration with the University of Michigan

Read presenter biographies.

Towards a Universal Standard of Value through Blockchain

Featured Presentation: Dr Philip Sugai

Value is at the heart of the definition of marketing, yet to date, neither researchers nor practitioners (1) have a precise definition of value, (2) possess a consistent way to measure it, and because of this (3) lack a consistent understanding of the fundamental drivers of the value that they research, create, manage and grow. At the same time, blockchain technology has been touted as “The Internet of Value” (Tapscott & Tapscott, 2017) providing researchers and practitioners with a non-refutable, distributed ledger of value creation or destruction across every transaction. The purpose of this paper is to create and test a theoretical model for the application of blockchain technology to marketing practice with the aim of deepening our scholarly and practical knowledge of how value is created, measured and managed for customers, firms, employees, partners, society and the planet.

There is a strong and growing global interest in expanded theoretical approaches to conceptualising the value that firms create through their products and services, and the activities that they perform in order to design, create, sell, service, reclaim and recycle these (c.f. Porter & Kramer (2011) and their Creating Shared Value model, and Eccles & Viviers, (2011) who explore Environmental, Social, Government (ESG) investing practices). However, these models lack a practical, objective approach to measuring and managing the value that firms create for customers, firms, employees, partners, society and the planet that can be consistently adopted by organisations that wish to implement these ideas, and track the actual value that is generated from their activities. This presentation provides the first assessment of the literature as it applies to value measurement across these six value actors, and outlines how this foundation can be operationalised through a blockchain-based universal value standard.

Read presenter biographies.

What you see and What you do

Featured Workshop Presentation: Professor Will Baber

The workshop is based on current research in the field of negotiation. Workshop participants will investigate negotiation behaviours and thinking through a survey as well as small group work on short cases and examples. The behaviours and thinking represent cognitive schemata about negotiation that the workshop leader has investigated in the context of various industries and cultures. To be considered in the workshop are the behaviours observed in the real world, the preferred behaviours, and the thinking of participants.

The workshop will introduce and review some general aspects of negotiating in professional contexts in order to bring the audience to the same approximate page: negotiating in and among organisations in the context of professional work. Workshop participants will complete a survey online and the aggregated responses will be discussed. The short cases will be the subject of small group efforts to analyse and make decisions about possible next actions. Finally, a general discussion will ensue about what makes good negotiators good and the pros and cons of certain behaviours.

Read presenter biographies.

IAFOR Silk Road Initiative Information Session

As an organization, IAFOR’s mission is to promote international exchange, facilitate intercultural awareness, encourage interdisciplinary discussion, and generate and share new knowledge. In 2018, we are excited to launch a major new and ambitious international, intercultural and interdisciplinary research initiative which uses the silk road trade routes as a lens through which to study some of the world’s largest historical and contemporary geopolitical trends, shifts and exchanges.

IAFOR is headquartered in Japan, and the 2018 inauguration of this project aligns with the 150th Anniversary of the Meiji Restoration of 1868, when Japan opened its doors to the trade and ideas that would precipitate its rapid modernisation and its emergence as a global power. At a time when global trends can seem unpredictable, and futures fearful, the IAFOR Silk Road Initiative gives the opportunity to revisit the question of the impact of international relations from a long-term perspective.

This ambitious initiative will encourage individuals and institutions working across the world to support and undertake research centring on the contact between countries and regions in Europe and Asia – from Gibraltar to Japan – and the maritime routes that went beyond, into the South-East Continent and the Philippines, and later out into the Pacific Islands and the United States. The IAFOR Silk Road Initiative will be concerned with all aspects of this contact, and will examine both material and intellectual traces, as well as consequences.

For more information about the IAFOR Silk Road Initiative, click here.

IAFOR Documentary Photography Award 2017 | Award Winners Screening

The IAFOR Documentary Photography Award was launched by The International Academic Forum (IAFOR) in 2015 as an international photography award that seeks to promote and assist in the professional development of emerging documentary photographers and photojournalists. The award has benefitted since the outset from the expertise of an outstanding panel of internationally renowned photographers, including Dr Paul Lowe as the Founding Judge, and Ed Kashi, Monica Allende, Simon Roberts, Jocelyn Bain Hogg, Simon Norfolk and Emma Bowkett as Guest Judges. Now in its third year, the award has already been widely recognised by those in the industry and has been supported by World Press Photo, Metro Imaging, MediaStorm, Think Tank Photo, University of the Arts London, RMIT University, British Journal of Photography, The Centre for Documentary Practice, and the Medill School of Journalism.

As an organisation, IAFOR’s mission is to promote international exchange, facilitate intercultural awareness, encourage interdisciplinary discussion, and generate and share new knowledge. In keeping with this mission, in appreciation of the great value of photography as a medium that can be shared across borders of language, culture and nation, and to influence and inform our academic work and programmes, the IAFOR Documentary Photography Award was launched as a competition that would help underline the importance of the organisation’s aims, and would promote and recognise best practice and excellence.

Winners of the IAFOR Documentary Photography Award 2017 were announced at The European Conference on Media, Communication & Film 2017 (EuroMedia2017) in Brighton, UK. The award follows the theme of the EuroMedia conference, with 2017’s theme being “History, Story, Narrative”. In support of up-and-coming talent, the IAFOR Documentary Photography Award is free to enter.

Access to the Award Winners Screening is included in the conference registration fee. For more information about the award, click here.

Image | From the project Single Mothers of Afghanistan by IAFOR Documentary Photography Award 2017 Grand Prize Winner, Kiana Hayeri.

Previous Programming

AGen2017

AGen2016

AGen2015

Previous Programming

AGen2017

AGen2016

AGen2015

Share this:

Instructors