2008
Core Conference
Programme
2008
Fellowship Programme
Managing Migration: the neglected face of globalization?
Study Tour to Georgia: prospects for the future
Meeting
Social Need: what can be achieved by
social entrepreneurs, corporate citizens and business in general?
Managing
Migration: the neglected face of globalization?
(In Partnership
with Goodenough
College and the London Chambers of Commerce and Industry
Educational Trust)
London and Oxford
3 - 10 April 2008
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Globalization has been accompanied by rapid increases in economic
flows, such as investment, trade, intellectual property, and
information. Labour is a rare exception, with many governments still
trying to restrict migration. Nevertheless there are nearly 200 million
immigrants world wide, 3% of humanity. This conference will examine
migration issues in a globalized world, especially those specifically
relevant to business, including:
- How have economic changes and opportunities both encouraged and discouraged migration? Conversely, how has migration changed the business landscape? How does economic migration relate to other types - especially asylum and forced migration, and family formation and reunion - and what matrix of different impacts does this create?
- What has the economic and social impact of migration been in developed states? How are attitudes changing in these places, and what impact will this have on migration and the economy?
- To what extent has business become reliant on migration, and of what sort? Similarly, what effect is migration having on developing economies? Does the flow of people constitute a brain drain, a way to set up informal trans-national business networks, or a source of remittance income? How significant is the rise in the numbers of international students, and changes in their destinations owing to security and other factors? How will states in the future manage migration by low-skilled workers?
- Migration is a business in itself, sometimes legitimate and sometimes not. What is the scale of illegal trafficking in people, how is it likely to develop and how can it best be controlled?
- What will be the long-term effects of movements of workers within the European Union? Why in many cases is mobility across national borders in the EU greater than within nations where there is differential unemployment?
- The debate about migration is often polarized. How far can the reliability of data in this area be enhanced to mitigate this and assist public policy making? How best can the different vested interests in migration be mediated through the political process?
- What has been the effect of new technology in both making people aware of opportunities further afield and the maintenance of links with home communities? What has been the impact of the latter and other factors on how migrants integrate into new areas, the permanence of migration, and even security situations in receiving countries?
- Finally, is free movement of human beings and economic human capital the natural future of globalization, and to what extent can, or should, migration be regulated, in whose interests, and by what authority? centuries.
Study Tour to Georgia: prospects for the
future
(In collaboration
with the John
Smith Memorial
Trust)
Tbilisi
14 - 24 September 2008
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This study tour is intended to explore what has been achieved politically, economically and socially in Georgia in recent years, and the current challenges facing the country. A further purpose is to consolidate links between Georgia and other countries, particularly the UK, to exchange ideas and views of the world, to explore possibilities of development, and forge new links among the Fellows of both the 21st Century Trust and the John Smith Memorial Trust.
Meeting
Social Need: what can be achieved by social entrepreneurs, corporate
citizens and business in general?
(In Partnership
with Goodenough
College and the London Chambers of Commerce and Industry
Educational Trust)
London and Cambridge
23 - 30 October 2008
Apply to attend
Over the last two
decades, the dividing line between the appropriate areas for
free-market activity and those of the state, or at lease state
enterprise, has shifted markedly. Successive waves of privatization
since the 1980s have shattered the widespread consensus in many parts
of the world about what should be public, so that today commercial
telephone companies and airlines, for example, are the norm. These
developments, along with an anti-corporatist backlash coming in the
wake of globalization, raise questions about how business, or business
techniques, might best serve the pressing needs of society's
disadvantaged. This conference will consider questions such as:
- What is the appropriate balance between government and business in meeting social need in areas such as healthcare, education, and housing? How best should business, the state, and other stakeholders – not least those termed "in need" – cooperate here, for example by dividing up provision based on ability to pay, or by the state commissioning it from the private sector?
- Social entrepreneurs are defined as those adopting an entrepreneurial approach in identifying novel solutions for unmet social needs. What is the potential and what are the drawbacks in employing business methods to meet social need in this way? To what degree can government or NGOs use these techniques?
- Looking more broadly, is the contribution of business to society to supply the goods and services people need efficiently, or are there multiple bottom lines? Is there a conflict between the maximisation of shareholder value over the long term and broader social interests? Are states encouraging corporate citizenship for the greater good of all or to shift responsibilities from themselves?
- How different are the answers to these questions in states with different cultures and at different stages of economic development, and if so what should trans-national corporations do?
NB: The Trust also holds short Fellowship Events for those who have attended its core conferences over the years (Trust Fellows), which are not open to general application. This year's include:
- Democracy and Sustainability, The Science Museum, London, 18 March (with the Environment Foundation and the Science Museum's Dana Centre; postponed from October 2007) For the web debate surrounding this event visit: http://democracy.sustainability.com.
- Science and the Citizen, Schloss Leopoldskron, Salzburg, 19 - 21 May (with Salzburg Global Seminar); Further details of this event are available here: Trust Fellows who are interest should contact John Lotherington; anyone else interested in applying, see the Salzburg Global Seminar.
- Russia and Europe: what will change, what will stay the same?, Chateau Klingenthal, near Strasbourg, 20 - 22 June;
- The Internet and Freedom of Expression, Cumberland Lodge, Windsor Great Park, 19 - 21 November (with Cumberland Lodge);
- Scenarios for the impact of emerging economies on sustainable development: case study India, New Delhi, 15 - 17 January 2009 (with Salzburg Global Seminar).