Turkish Academy of Sciences

TÜBA is pleased to announce the symposium organized jointly with AASSA (http://aassa.asia/).

The term and notion of “sustainability” are deeply popular but are nonetheless surrounded by ambiguity and confusion in terms of meaning, implications, and boundaries. The Brundtland Report (also known as Our Common Future), published in 1987, describes sustainable development as "development that addresses current needs without jeopardizing future generations' capacity to fulfill their own needs." Currently, the term “sustainability” is broadly applied to characterize improvements in areas such as the overexploitation of natural resources, harmful business and industrial manufacturing, inefficient energy usage and polluting by-products, as well as the linear consumption of products, quality of individual lifestyle, consumer buying behavior, technological development or shifts in businesses practices and institutions. Sustainability also often refers to the mechanisms and activities, which help mitigate and counteract degradation and depletion of natural resources to sustain an ecological equilibrium without lowering the quality of life in contemporary societies. Sustainability is informed by a variety of fields, domains, and disciplines, including politics, economics, and philosophy, as well as social sciences and hard sciences.

The first symposium on “Understanding Sustainability” series was on “Circular Economy”. Theme of 2022 is decided as “Business Organizations and Philanthropic Institutions”. This symposium aims at contributing to the understanding and definition of sustainability in the context of business and civil society organizations, cooperatives, commercial entities, and Waqf (Islamic endowments). Particularly, it looks at how and to what extent the aforementioned actors are able to effectively drive and fulfill the goals of sustainability. This includes the mechanisms through which they incorporate, internalize, and operationalize values and ethics to produce ecological balance, social harmony and just societies. Critically, the symposium also asks in what ways do we learn from the actual practices, experiences and contributions of firms, commercial entities, and organizations to advance more holistic discourse of sustainability. Moreover, the symposium also addresses the question of how to effectively or better engage commercial and civil society actors within a framework that furthers the agenda of sustainability and SDGs in the 21st century.

Themes (not restricted)

• The concept of sustainability revisited.

• Sustainability ethics in business and enterprises

• Sustainability, spirituality, and ethics

• Concept and approach to sustainability in firm organizations, corporations, joint-stock companies

• Concept and practice of sustainability in the fields of Waqf

• Towards a sustainable public administration

• Mobilizing civil society towards sustainability

• Role of science academies on sustainability

Publication Opportunities

The full paper of the studies to be presented within the scope of the symposium will be published by Turkish Academy of Sciences as an international book chapter.

Important Dates

Early abstract deadline: 30 October 2021 | Announcement of accepted abstracts: 15 November 2021

Final abstract deadline: 30 November 2021 | Announcement of accepted abstracts: 15 December 2021

Deadline for full paper submission: 15 April 2022

Symposium date: 20-22 May 2022

Contact

sos@tuba.gov.tr

Accommodation and Symposium Place

Depending upon the pandemic conditions, we hope to have an on-site meeting in Istanbul/Turkey.

If conditions are not appropriate for onsite meeting, then, the meeting could be held online.

TÜBA will cover the local expenses of selected people.

Symposium Web-site

https://sos.tuba.gov.tr

Saygılarımızla,

Türkiye Bilimler Akademisi Başkanlığı

Presidency of the Turkish Academy of Sciences

Bayraktar Mahallesi

Vedat Dalokay Caddesi No: 112

06670 Çankaya – Ankara

T (+90) (312) 442 4185 / 442 2933

F (+90) (312) 442 2358