Academics and NGO representatives recently attended an international conference in Ukraine to consider modern issues associated with social administration.
[State administrators] are obliged to ensure the incorporation and collaboration of their country’s institutions, and they should also contribute to international relations and intercultural and inter-religious understanding, respect, and tolerance.
Vladimir Sergiychuk, professor at Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv
The 9th international conference titled “Modern Problems in Terms of Social Administration” was held on February 28, 2013, in Donetsk, located in southeast Ukraine. Conference attendees included members from numerous nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and representatives from 31 universities in 7 countries. The event was hosted by the Donetsk State University of Management and co-organized by the Donetsk branch of the Sociological Association of Ukraine and the Ukrainian office of JWF’s Dialogue Eurasia Platform (DAP).
The conference was conducted in three languages (Ukrainian, Russian, and English), and participants from Belarus, Cameroon, Poland, the Russian Federation, the USA, and Turkey presented a total of 62 reports. These reports covered a range of topics, including the sociology of public administration, the sociology of enterprise, social communication and social technologies in management, organizational culture, conflicts and risks in business, education reform, tolerance, and cooperation in the context of international dialogue.
Dr. Alexander Povazhny, rector of the Donetsk State University of Management, delivered the opening speech at the conference. Povazhny stated that such events would contribute to administrators’ professional development, helping them prepare for today’s standards.
In his speech, Vladimir Sergiychuk, professor at Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv and co-head of DAP, considered the contemporary nature of DAP’s activities and the issues being discussed at the conference.
“The main duty of those who are involved in state administration shouldn’t be limited to only securing and developing the relationships among the staff members they are responsible for,” Sergiychuk said. “They are obliged to ensure the incorporation and collaboration of their country’s institutions, and they should also contribute to international relations and intercultural and inter-religious understanding, respect, and tolerance.”
Turkey was represented at the conference by Gokhan Demir, head of DAP’s Ukrainian office, and Ihsan Yilmaz, associate professor at Fatih University. Demir discussed the experience of tolerance in multi-ethnic countries. Yilmaz spoke about the peculiarities of social control in Turkey’s multicultural context, referring to his report entitled “The transition from Muslim to secular society: the transformative impact of religion on civil society in Turkey as a source of inspiration for the Muslim world.”
Reports delivered at this conference are to be published as a compilation entitled “Modern social issues in the context of the sociology of management.”
All participants were also provided with publications recently published by DAP’s Ukrainian Committee.
