Presidential Address
Motoki Akitsu
ARSA President and Chair of the Council, 2018-2022
Blue sky, emerald ocean, and fresh sea food. I really enjoyed the Sixth Conference of ARSA in Makassar, Indonesia as well as off-conference activities in such a nice location. The only thing I worried about was that I was nominated as a candidate to be the next ARSA president. I had some ambition to be a president but lacked the confidence to be able to drive such an international body due to my shortage of rich experiences in international organization. In this sense, I’m still a fledgling scholar in a globalized academic community. And yet, my election as ARSA president demonstrates that others have this confidence in me. And now I have also accepted this responsibility and am determined to give my best for the organization.
The first ARSA conference I took part in was the one held in Hebei Province close to Beijing, China. That was the third international conference of ARSA. Since then, I have attended three more conferences, namely in Legaspi, Philippines, Vientiane, Lao PDR and, most recently, Makassar, Indonesia. More than twelve years have passed since my first participation, but I cannot help asking myself following questions about ARSA’s progress. Has the Association evolved and moved forward, at least step by step, over these past twelve years? Are the benefits of participating increased with every single conference? Have the networks among those who are interested in Asian rural studies continually expanded and been strengthened?
Our community is maturing and approaching the next stage. Our mission in this first stage was to discover unknown colleagues with whom we share the same interests. This mission is evidently still continuing because our current networks are still limited to certain countries. Outreach to domestic colleagues in new countries therefore remains an ongoing challenges alongside cultivating more participation from countries with recent participation. We increasingly believe, however, that our mission in this next stage is to strengthen our networks not only through simple exchange of experiences and knowledge but through research collaboration, for instance, with shared funding. Additional research workshops for young scholars within and without the quadrennial conference would also help ensure the future of our research field.
In order to promote communication among us that will facilitate this mission, we are improving the continuity and convenience of our web presence. We set up a new website with a great effort of Dr. Sayamol, one of our Council members, and her colleague. With this, we hope to begin tackling the big issue of how to introduce a membership system to our organization and more generally to consolidate our networks and enhance our presence in academia and policy-making. Global and domestic aspects of our societies are always fluid and developing. Ever-changing or entirely new problems continuously come to the fore in our field. We as rural sociologists struggle against these emerging challenges by creating strong relationships and furthering our collaborative effort.
MOTOKI AKITSU, PhD
Professor, Graduate School of Agriculture, Kyoto University
ARSA - Asian Rural Sociology Association 