2019 International Conference

Monday, July 29^th

Opening Plenary Session:

Climate and the Ecological Crisis

With global warming trends proceeding at an unprecedented rate and the pace of biodiversity loss at 1,000 times higher than the natural extinction rate, deciding about the character and scale of public policy response to such exceptional circumstances poses considerable challenges. Moreover, the global character of environmental challenges intertwines them with international politics and multi-level governance, and so introduces additional layers of complexity. Policy responses seem to swing between incremental and transformational actions that seek to adapt to changes, or facilitate transitions to more sustainable socio-economic models. This session will present and reflect on the challenges of the science and policy interface around key issues of agriculture, transportation, and water resources, and consider the potential of certain policy responses to the climate and ecological crisis.

Speaker: Tom Burke - Johns Hopkins University

Reactor: James Connelly - Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona

Special Debate: Evidence-Based Public Policy in an Era of Rapid Change: Is It Feasible? . . . Or Must We Turn to Reasoned Policy by Other Means?

Participants in this plenary will debate the ability of empirical evidence to reliably guide public policy in a rapidly changing world, versus other reasoned criteria for policy choice such as constituent views or civic values.  Scrutinizing the case of K-12 education policy, the first speaker will argue that research on the effectiveness of educational interventions, if creatively designed and undertaken with alacrity, can supply policymakers with reliable and up-to-date information in a fast-paced world.  The second speaker will argue that other, non-evidentiary ways of guiding education policy should be formulated to more quickly and completely reflect rapid changes and produce reliable direction to policy-makers.  The audience will be invited to take sides, as the moderator asks:  “Which of these perspectives do you find convincing—and why?  Where you are not convinced, what’s the problem?”

Moderator: Irma Perez-Johnson - American Institutes for Research

Speakers:

• Stephen Bell - Westat
• Brooks Bowden - University of Pennsylvania 

Tuesday, July 30^th

Morning Plenary:

Migration Policy and Its Global Impacts

This plenary will focus on modern migration policies and their impacts around the world.  Speakers will include experts both on US and European migration challenges and the policies designed to ease them.

Moderator: 

• Ayla Bonfiglio - Mixed Migration Center - North Africa

Speakers:

• Ricard Zapata - Pompeu Fabra University
• Roger Zetter - University of Oxford 

Closing Plenary:

Structural Determinants of Social Inequities

The increase of social inequalities is one of the largest challenges humankind is facing in the 21st century. Social structural conditions and forces affect the wellbeing, quality of life, and health of the population as well as the generation of social inequities among different social groups and territories. Increasing evidence shows that these inequities exist between and within countries. This interactive plenary session will feature a conversation among the speakers, and between the speakers and audience, about topics such as what research is needed, policies that contributed to and increased inequities by race, gender, and class, among others, and the potential political and policy responses to eliminate these inequities.

Moderator: Lynette Rawlings - The Policy Academies

Speakers:

• Sylvia Allegretto - University of California, Berkeley
• Joan Benach - Pompeu Fabra University
• Vicente Navarro - Pompeu Fabra University
• Keshia Pollack Porter - Johns Hopkins University