Call for Papers - Suscon X: 10th International Conference on Sustainability

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About the Organization

IIM Shillong, the seventh IIM in India, has been set up with a vision to become an internationally recog­nized Management Institute with a Global outlook grounded in Indian values. From its inception it has been constantly working towards a lofty mission to generate and disseminate knowledge in all aspects of management education with focus on Sustainability and building innovative leadership.

About the Call for Papers

In the last fifteen years since inception IIM Shillong has kept alive and strengthened its intellectual and moral commitment to the overarching cause of integrating Sustainability into every aspect of its academic programmes and initiatives covering all aspects of human endeavour. SUSCON, the flagship event of the Institute, is not just a Conference or another academic activity, it is a movement that has created a platform for dialogues and deliberations at a local, national as well as global level. It aspires towards creating a value-based, humane and sustainable future for business, academia, Government, civil society groups, NGOs and thinkers and practitioners covering all disciplines of management and beyond to include all other domains of pursuit of knowledge and practice. It dreams of leaving behind for posterity ethically driven business organizations, a sane and happy society, and a sustainable planet earth to be created by visionary, conscientious and inspired leaders of thought and action from enlightened academic and research institutions.

Over the years, many eminent personalities from the world over have shared their valuable insights on various aspects of Sustainability. SUSCON has been blessed by the presence of Bharat Ratna Dr. A P J Abdul Kalam, former President of India, and Padma Bhushan Dr. Sundarlal Bahuguna, Jadab Payeng, the Forest Man of India, Dasho Karma Ura, the President of Centre for Bhutan Studies and Gross National Happiness (GNH) Research as our Chief Guests among many others.

SUSCON X of IIM Shillong is aimed at achieving a synergy amongst the three pillars of sustainable development:

In SUSCON IX, we had deliberated at large on the essentiality of a compassionate viewpoint in contemporary business avenues and corporates for furthering the agenda of sustainability by embarking on co-creation and collaboration. One of the facts that also surfaced strongly during SUSCON IX is that the world is facing an impending danger of irreversible natural imbalances, given the limited bearing capacity of the earth. Though unintended, causes of such detrimental consequences of human exploration definitely need to be queried. SUSCON X takes forward the baton from SUSCON IX on these very aspects.

From a practitioner’s point of view, sustainability has been facing a huge onslaught from the dual aspects of globalization and market-based economy. We have largely lost touch with the thematically central aspect of ‘frugality’ in our sustainable development agenda. The extremely competitive facet and the gold rush of today’s economy has left us as mere producers and consumers of needless amount of possessions. This is increasingly contributing to the imbalance of resources that nature, otherwise, gifts us in a balanced manner.

In SUSCON X, we embark on a journey of intellectual and action-oriented discourse amongst different schools of thoughts of sustainability around the world. We will try to unearth the causalities of such imbalances, attempt to revive what might have gone wrong in our understandings of sustainability as such, and finally add meaning to the lives of our progeny by restoring the thematically central aspect of frugality into the sustainable development agenda.

From an academic point of view, Sustainability is viewed from the standpoints of differing philosophies. Quintessential Indian philosophy considers frugality as the central theme of Sustainability. Here Sustainability is about leading a life with a need-based approach where an individual or a group decides, acts and moves ahead with the sole purpose of progressive ascent to higher levels of human and planetary consciousness. In this earthly world, it doesn’t see a difference between the being and phenomenon of any objects. This non-duality of an object is called adwaita in Sanskrit. In the context of Sustainability, this translates into the decision making and actions by humans for acquiring the ability of sustaining with the minimal of resources, while negating thee proposition that resources need to be accumulated for future use. In contrast to this, many of the dominant modern philosophies consider that the being (existence) and phenomenon (ability to be in action) for an earthly object are different from one another, and both of these get transformed into one another. This duality of an object is called dwaita. In the context of Sustainability, this translates into decision making and actions by humans for accumulating resources in such a way that it suffices the need for the present while securing the future in an earthly manner.  Through our discourses, can we move beyond and transcend such polarity in worldviews and bring about a universality in our definition of sustainability and sustainable development? In SUSCON X, we aspire to embark on this journey of finding a universally acceptable definition of sustainability and sustainable development by restoring frugality as the thematically central artefact of Sustainability.

In addition to this, as highlighted in India’s G20 Presidency, SUSCON X will deliberate on the role of India in achieving harmony among the ‘pancha tattva’ – the elements of earth, water, fire, air and space within and amongst us, in order to counter the challenges like climate change, terrorism and pandemics that is faced by the human race.

How to Apply

SUSCON X invites academicians, research scholars, and corporate/industry executive to submit:

• Research Paper (qualitative/quantitative/mixed)
• Literature Review
• Case Study
• Conceptual Paper

On one or more of the sub-themes mentioned above.

Authors can submit their extended abstracts up to 1000 words or the full paper using the submission portal given below. Authors wishing to submit multiple papers will have to do separately.

Abstract submission portal: Submit Here

All papers must be original and not previously submitted for any other conference or journal. Authors must follow the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA), Seventh Edition (2020), while preparing their manuscript. The similarity of the text must not exceed 10%.

SUSCON X will be conducted in hybrid mode. Indian participants will present papers physically at the IIM Shillong campus. International participants may present their papers virtually (Optional).

Last date for abstract submission: 7th July, 2023

For more information please check the Link