ESD Symposium in KOBE: Aims
Every people around the world are increasingly required to cope with global and societal challenges such as environmental and energy issues, as well as individual and regional problems. The practice and development of new educational activity, movement and system known as ESD (Education for Sustainable Development) has been promoted by the United Nations and the UNESCO. Both in theory and practice, however, ESD is still in the process of its development. Indeed the contents and the methodology of ESD are hardly clear. It is often taken as synonymous with environmental education, or identified with conventional development education. Sometimes it is even regarded as a systematic integration of the modern educational system. The conception of ESD is possibly trivialized by misunderstanding.
This symposium focuses on the importance of social work from the viewpoint of the poverty, welfare and peace based on a wide range of ESD. We will consider the meaning of social work, an indispensible part of ESD, and seek its future direction by studying Grameen Bank's efforts to combine economic and regional activities, and the practices of Toyohiko Kagawa, who created a CO-OP movement from his poor-relief activities in Kobe.
This project also aims to form a national and international network, which promotes the practice and research of ESD, and to promote the cooperation of various areas. There already exist several networks promoting ESD, but their connections are unevenly distributed, and a wide-ranging cooperation among corporations, NPO/NGOs, administrative, educational and research institutions, and others is not substantial. Through the way social work supportively intervenes in social life, a new dialogue is expected to be born beyond the existing frameworks.
Updated: 2009/01/27 (Tue) 16:48