Bulletin Autumn‧Winter 1990

(C) External Liaison and Consultation The institute organizes public lectures, seminars, conferences and exchange programmes for professionals and academics both inside and outside the University, to disseminate research findings and promote external liaison and academic exchange. Three major conferences were organized in December 1990 and forthcoming events will include a conference entitled 'Gender and Society: the Pacific Rim Experience' to be held in March 1991, and an international meeting on 'Trends in Urban Sociology: Hong Kong and Japan' in July 1991. In early July 1991 the institute will also co-host with the East-West Center the field portion of the 22nd Summer Seminar on Population in Hong Kong. The institute is also active in promoting interinstitutional collaborative studies and research. Collaborative projects have been launched with both local and overseas institutes such as the University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Polytechnic, Hong Kong City Polytechnic, Lingnan College Baptist College, the Commonwealth Geographical Bureau, East-West Center, University of California at Los Angeles, University of Toronto, York University, and Japan Association for Urban Sociology. (D) Publication In line with its objectives of disseminating and promoting social science research on the social, economic and political development of Hong Kong and the Asian Pacific region, the institute plans to publish two series of publications: the Occasional Paper Series with 20 to 30 papers, each academic year, and the Research Monographs. The institute also publishes the Asia Economic Journal f or the East As i an Economic Association on a half-yearly basis. Three Ma j or Co n f e r e n c es O r g a n i z e d by HK I APS in De c emb er 1 9 90 The conference which was jointly organized by HKIAPS, the Social Science Research Centre of the University of Hong Kong, and the Department of Applied Social Studies of the Hong Kong Polytechnic, took place on 6th and 7th December 1990 at the Cho Yiu Conference Hall on campus. Apart from academics from these three tertiary institutions, the conference was attended by scholars and experts from mainland China and Taiwan. Social indicator studies conducted at regular intervals will provide objective and quantifiable data that are useful for measuring and assessing changes in a given society, the life quality of its citizens, as well as the impact of public policies. They will also shed light on the attitudes of the population towards various social issue s and provide up-to-date, comprehensive, and systematic information to social scientists and policy-makers. Such studies have been conducted in mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong but intellectual exchange among scholars in the field has been rare. The conference was the first of its kind organized for experts from these places to exchange experience and findings. Hong Kong Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies 16