Society

FSI researchers work to understand continuity and change in societies as they confront their problems and opportunities. This includes the implications of migration and human trafficking. What happens to a society when young girls exit the sex trade? How do groups moving between locations impact societies, economies, self-identity and citizenship? What are the ethnic challenges faced by an increasingly diverse European Union? From a policy perspective, scholars also work to investigate the consequences of security-related measures for society and its values.

The Europe Center reflects much of FSI’s agenda of investigating societies, serving as a forum for experts to research the cultures, religions and people of Europe. The Center sponsors several seminars and lectures, as well as visiting scholars.

Societal research also addresses issues of demography and aging, such as the social and economic challenges of providing health care for an aging population. How do older adults make decisions, and what societal tools need to be in place to ensure the resulting decisions are well-informed? FSI regularly brings in international scholars to look at these issues. They discuss how adults care for their older parents in rural China as well as the economic aspects of aging populations in China and India.

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The Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (APARC) at Stanford is now accepting applications for the Shorenstein Postdoctoral Fellowship in Contemporary Asia, an opportunity made available to two junior scholars for research and writing on Asia.

Fellows conduct research on contemporary political, economic or social change in the Asia-Pacific region, and contribute to Shorenstein APARC’s publications, conferences and related activities. To read about this year’s fellows, please click here.

The fellowship is a 10-mo. appointment during the 2018-19 academic year, and carries a salary rate of $52,000 plus $2,000 for research expenses.

For further information and to apply, please click here. The application deadline is Dec. 20, 2017.

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Kyou Hyun Kim will join the Korea Program at Stanford’s Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (Shorenstein APARC) as the program’s 2017-18 Koret Fellow.

A career diplomat by training, Kim most recently served as senior secretary to the president for foreign affairs and national security in South Korea from October 2015 to May 2017 during which he played a key role in enacting the North Korea human rights law. He led the South Korean negotiation team for inter-Korean dialogue that led to the reunion of separated families in 2014.

"Kyou Hyun Kim brings wealth of knowledge in the Korean affairs to Shorenstein APARC. He has decades of experience in diplomacy and national security, and it is very timely that he joins the Korea Program as this year’s Koret Fellow,” said Gi-Wook Shin, director of Shorenstein APARC.

Kim’s extensive diplomatic career includes serving as first vice foreign minister (2013-14), deputy foreign minister for political affairs (2012-13), ambassador for performance evaluation, and special advisor to the minister of foreign affairs (2010-12). He also served at the South Korean embassy in the United States as minister for political affairs. His 37 years of public service was mostly dealing with South Korea’s foreign and security policies and North Korean affairs.

During his fellowship, Kim will review South Korea’s past administrations’ policies toward North Korea and aim to focus on a path leading to unification of two Koreas for permanent peace and stability in and around the Korean Peninsula.  He will also attempt to map out ways to narrow the physical, economic, societal and identity gaps between South and North Korea in order to help the South Korean public to tolerate and accept North Koreans as equal citizens in a unified Korea. His two main research questions will be (1) how to build the internal capability for socioeconomic transformation in North Korea, and (2) how to build domestic support for reunification in South Korea.

Kim received a Doctor of Dental Surgery from the School of Dentistry at Seoul National University, and a Master of Public Administration from Harvard University.

Supported by the Koret Foundation, the fellowship brings leading professionals to Stanford to conduct research on contemporary Korean affairs with the broad aim of strengthening ties between the United States and Korea.

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Samantha Vortherms joined the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center as a Shorenstein Postdoctoral Fellow in Contemporary Asia for the 2017-2018 academic year. Before her fellowship, she obtained her Ph.D. in Political Science at the University of Wisconsin—Madison. Her research focuses on comparative political economy, development, social welfare, and research methodology. Her dissertation examines subnational variation in access to citizenship rights in China through the household registration system. Her research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the Department of Education through the Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad, and the Social Science Research Council's Dissertation Proposal Development Fellowship, among others.

At Stanford, Sam will work on converting her dissertation to a book manuscript and advance her post-dissertation project on the role of the firm in labor migration policies. Before going to Wisconsin, Sam received her M.A. in International Relations at the University of Chicago, A.M. in Public Policy from University of Chicago's Harris School of Public Policy, and a B.A. from the University of Richmond.  From 2014-2016, she was a Visiting Research Fellow at the National School of Development's China Center for Health Economics Research at Peking University.

2017-2018 Shorenstein Postdoctoral Fellow in Contemporary Asia
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Kyou-hyun Kim joined the Korea Program at Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center as the program's 2017-18 Koret Fellow.

A career diplomat by training, Kyou-hyun Kim most recently served as senior secretary to the president for foreign affairs and national security in South Korea from October 2015 to May 2017. During his fellowship, Kim will review South Korea’s past administrations’ policies toward North Korea and aim to focus on a path leading to unification of two Koreas for permanent peace and stability in and around the Korean Peninsula.  He will also attempt to map out ways to narrow the physical, economic, societal and identity gaps between South and North Korea in order to help the South Korean public to tolerate and accept North Koreans as equal citizens in a unified Korea. His two main research questions will be (1) how to build the internal capability for socioeconomic transformation in North Korea, and (2) how to build domestic support for reunification in South Korea.

Kim received a Doctor of Dental Surgery from the School of Dentistry at Seoul National University, and a Master of Public Administration from Harvard University.

Visiting Adjunct Professor
2017-2018 Koret Fellow
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Health insurance holds the promise of improving population health and survival and protecting people from catastrophic health spending. Yet evidence from lower- and middle-income countries on the impact of health insurance is limited. We investigated whether insurance expansion reduced adult mortality in rural China, taking advantage of differences across Chinese counties in the timing of the introduction of the New Cooperative Medical Scheme (NCMS). We assembled and analyzed newly collected data on NCMS implementation, linked to data from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention on cause-specific, age-standardized death rates and variables specific to county-year combinations for seventy-two counties in the period 2004–12. While mortality rates declined among rural residents during this period, we found little evidence that the expansion of health insurance through the NCMS contributed to this decline. However, our relatively large standard errors leave open the possibility that the NCMS had effects on mortality that we could not detect. Moreover, mortality benefits might arise only after many years of accumulated coverage.

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Karen Eggleston
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Through 20 weeks of persistent and peaceful demonstrations, South Koreans called for their former president's impeachment which resulted in a special presidential election in May. Moon Jae-in, a candidate from a progressive party, was elected and took over the Blue House immediately.

kim jin pyo headshot Kim Jin Pyo
Kim Jin-pyo who served as Chairman of the State Affairs Planning Advisory Committee under President Moon during the transition period will discuss the new administration's socio-economic policies on major topics including job creation, income growth, and a fair economy.

Kim, a National Assembly Member for a fourth term, served as Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Education and Human Resources Development (2005-06); Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Finance and Economy (2003-04); vice chairman of the transition committee under President Roh Moo-hyun; and Senior Secretary of Policy and Planning to President Kim Dae-jung in 2002.

Kim received a BA in law from Seoul National University and an MA in public administration from University of Wisconsin.

This event is open to the public and reservations are not required.

Philippines Conference Room
Encina Hall, 3rd Floor
616 Serra Street
Stanford, CA 94305
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Kim Jin-pyo <i>former Chairman of the State Affairs Planning Advisory Committee; National Assembly Member</i>, South Korea
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Hurricane Harvey and Irma have brought home to everyone the impact of climate change on our economy, our society, and our daily lives. Curtailing climate change is an urgent issue, one that requires international cooperation. In this session experts from Japan and the United States discuss some of the lessons that have been learned from Asia’s experiences. In the case of Japan, following the period of high growth (1960s-1980) which made Japan an economic power house, the government took strong steps to clean up polluted air and water. The Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster in 2011 forced Japan to take even more aggressive action to reduce energy consumption and lessen its impact on the global environment. In contrast, the United States, the world’s largest economy, is one of the world’s largest polluters and recently made headlines when it withdrew from the Paris Agreement negotiated at the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP2). California, and other state and municipal governments, are now taking the lead in US efforts to deal with climate change. Speakers will address questions on strategies for limiting carbon emissions and possibilities for future international cooperation on climate change.

Shorenstein APARC is pleased to host the Abe Fellows Global Forum (Abe Global) inaugural season’s flagship event. A new initiative of the Abe Fellowship Program, Abe Global brings the research and expertise of Abe Fellows on issues of global concern to broader audiences. The event is co-organized with the Social Science Research Council, in collaboration with the Center for Global Partnership of the Japan Foundation, which funds the Abe Fellowship Program

 

Abe Fellows Global Forum
Confronting Climate Change:
What Can the U.S. and Japan Contribute to Creating Sustainable Societies?

 

Conference Program

13:30-14:00     Registration

14:00-14:20     Welcome remarks

       Takeo Hoshi, Director, Japan Program, Shorenstein APARC, Stanford University

       Junichi Chano, Executive Director, CGP

       Opening Remarks

       George P. Shultz, Thomas W. and Susan B. Ford Distinguished Fellow, Hoover Institution,

        Stanford University

14:20-14:45     Keynote Speech

                             Michael Armacost, Shorenstein APARC Fellow, APARC, Stanford University

14:45-15:00     Break

15:00-17:00     Panel Discussion “What Can the US and Japan Contribute to Creating Sustainable Societies?”

                  Moderator:      Takeo Hoshi

       Presenters:      Toshi H. Arimura,  Waseda Univeristy

                              Janelle Knox-Hayes, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

                               Phillip Lipscy, Stanford University

                               Dana Buntrock, University of California, Berkeley

                               Michael Armacost, Stanford University

16:55                 Closing Remarks

                               Linda Grove, Consulting Director, SSRC 

17:00-18:00     Cocktail Reception

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The Asia Health Policy Program at the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center, in conjunction with The Next World Program, is soliciting papers for a workshop, “Inequality & Aging,” held at the University of Hohenheim from May 4-5, 2018. The workshop will result in a special issue of the Journal of the Economics of Ageing, and aims to address topics such as:

  • Population dynamics and income distribution
  • The evolution of inequality over time and with respect to age
  • Health inequality in old age
  • The effects of social security systems and pension schemes on inequality
  • Policies to cope with demographic challenges and the challenges posed by inequality
  • Family backgrounds and equality of opportunities
  • Demographically induced poverty traps
  • Effects of automation and the digital economy in ageing societies
  • Flexible working time and careers, and their long-term implications
  • The dynamics of inheritances, etc.

Researchers who seek to attend the workshop are invited to submit a full paper or at least a 1-page extended abstract directly to Klaus Prettner and Alfonso Sousa-Poza by Sept. 30, 2017.

Authors of accepted papers will be notified by the end of October and completed draft papers will be expected by Jan. 31, 2018. Economy airfare and accommodation will be provided to one author associated with each accepted paper. A selection of the presented papers will be published in the special issue; the best paper by an author below the age of 35 will receive an award and be made available online as a working paper.

Researchers who do not seek to attend the workshop are also invited to submit papers for the special issue. Those papers can be submitted directly online under “SI Inequality & Ageing” by May 31, 2018.

For complete details, please click on the link below to view the PDF.

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