AFC 6 RoundTable 2 Report

SGRA Report Special Issue

 

AFC6 Round Table 2

Contemplating the World from Southeast Asian Lens 1: 

“Community and Global Capitalism ~ It’s a Small World After All ~”

 

Date：August 29, 2022 (Mon)

Venue：Taiwan (via ZOOM)

Organizer：Atsumi International Foundation Sekiguchi Global Research Association (SGRA)

 

Abstract

In a world that seems to misconstrue globalization as global standardization that is based on establishing hegemonies, ASEAN stands in stark contrast with its respect for diversity based on a principle of non-interventionism. This call for harmony amidst diversity is in fact the hallmark of the Atsumi International Foundation’s vision of good global citizenship. This in turn has been imbibed by the Sekiguchi Global Research Association, which has been organizing various seminars, one of which is the sustainable shared growth seminar series in the Philippines. 

 

These sustainable shared growth seminars have always been concerned with communities. This proposed session is in line with the seminars’ focus on decentralization as a major principle in attaining sustainable shared growth. In the roundtable, this focus on communities is taken using international, interdisciplinary, and inter-sectoral lenses, with a strong Southeast Asian perspective.

 

The term ‘small world” is understood in two senses. In the first sense, we borrow from social network theory, which looks at nodes in a complex network as being effectively separated by small degrees so that everyone essentially lives in a small world. In the second sense, we refer to the small worlds of communities, the microcosms of our societies.

 

Social Network theory tells us that a small world network, especially with scale-free tendencies, tends to create hubs, which make the network more efficient, as well as more robust against random shocks, such as natural disasters, but less robust against orchestrated shocks, such as simultaneous terrorist attacks. The COVID-19 pandemic has reminded us once again that the global economy is a small world after all. While conspiracy theories would tell us that this was a concerted attack that brought the global economy to its knees, latest evidence-based analysis tells us otherwise. In either case, the pandemic is similar to an orchestrated terrorist bombing attack as it almost simultaneously struck the major hubs of the global economy. This is a natural result of the hubs being the major points of entry of people or virus carriers from all over the world.

 

This roundtable brings together those from Southeast Asia who are contemplating communities in a turbulent global economy. The pandemic has also reminded us that the small worlds of communities may just be important after all. 

 

Click here for the report.

 

Sekiguchi Global Research Association (SGRA)

Atsumi International Foundation