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Rethinking Social Policy for a Just Transition in the AI Era
The 2027 conference is the 23rd International Conference of the East Asian Social Policy research network (EASP), held jointly with the 33rd International Conference of the Foundation for International Studies on Social Security (FISS). It is hosted by the Department of Social Work, National Taiwan University, in Taipei.
The East Asian Social Policy research network (EASP) brings together researchers, policymakers, and practitioners with a shared interest in social policy and welfare across East Asia. Since its founding, EASP has fostered comparative dialogue on pensions, health and long-term care, family policy, labour markets, inequality, and the changing role of the welfare state.
The Foundation for International Studies on Social Security (FISS) is an independent, non-profit association that aims to promote international, multidisciplinary research on social security, including its relationships with other aspects of society (such as the labour market, unemployment, poverty, income redistribution, savings, housing, the family, health and well-being).
The conference takes the coming of an AI society as its principal axis and eco-social policy under the environmental transition as its second. It places both within the structural context of rapid demographic transition around the world, and draws them together around two lines of policy response: social investment and social innovation.
Welfare states stand at a crossroads. Artificial intelligence is remaking labour markets and care systems, while climate change compels countries to pursue net zero and to rethink the social risks that transition brings. Added to these are the pressures of super-ageing and ultra-low fertility, and the gaps in social safety nets exposed by the pandemic. What social policy faces is no longer the repair of a single programme but the reconstruction of a paradigm.
Automation and the platform economy are rewriting employment, leaving social protection built around standard employment relationships out of step. AI also brings new instruments to social services and care — from care technology and risk prediction to administrative automation — and with them new questions of digital divides, data governance and algorithmic accountability.
The drive towards net zero redistributes jobs and social risks. How can a just transition ensure that vulnerable groups are not left behind, and how can ecological sustainability be built into the design of the welfare state? Differences in economic development, industrial structure, energy dependence and social protection capacity mean that the transition poses different policy challenges across countries. The conference will examine, through cross-national and interdisciplinary dialogue, how countries balance growth, decarbonisation and social protection.
Countries are undergoing demographic transition in different forms and at different speeds. Some face low fertility, population ageing and a shrinking workforce, while others must meet the social needs created by population growth, youth employment and rapid urbanisation. These changes strain the financing and workforce of pensions, health care and long-term care. They also interlock with both axes above: care shortages drive the use of care technology and AI, while decarbonisation and automation may reshape employment across generations.
Social investment holds that, beyond income protection after the fact, the welfare state should emphasise prevention and capacity-building across the life course. Social innovation stresses collaboration among the state, market, non-profit organisations and communities. The institutional conditions, implementation and distributive effects of both approaches still need to be examined across countries and institutional contexts. The conference invites scholars worldwide to explore how social policy can draw on both to respond to new risks while safeguarding basic income security and social rights.
We welcome individual papers, organised panels, and poster submissions on all aspects of social policy. Postgraduate and early-career researchers are especially encouraged to apply.
EASP presents two Best Paper Awards. The PhD Student Award is for current PhD students. The Early Career Researcher Award is for researchers who received their PhD within the past six years.
Applicants must be the first or corresponding author of a paper accepted for the conference programme. Please indicate the award you wish to be considered for when you submit your abstract. Candidates will be invited to submit a full paper before the conference. The deadline will be announced. Full papers will be reviewed by the EASP Postgraduate Award Committee. Papers must be original and unpublished. A full paper is not required to present at the conference. The winners will be announced at the conference.
In 2011 FISS introduced the Best Paper Prize competition. In collaboration with Policy Press, the prize is awarded to the best, previously unpublished paper presented at each year’s FISS conference. The winning paper is published in the Journal of Poverty & Social Justice. Selection and publication are subject to a refereeing process. In addition, the prize winner will receive a personal subscription to the Journal for 2 years.
The winning paper is selected by members of the FISS Board of Governors who draw up an initial short-list of papers presented at the conference. The authors of the short-listed papers are asked whether they would like to be considered for the prize, and any potential revisions will be discussed at this stage. A deadline for submitting the papers for consideration will then be set, and the final decision will be made by a committee of FISS Governors. The winning paper will be subject to the Journal’s normal peer review processing prior to publication.
The full call for papers, including the conference streams, is on the call for papers page.
See Registration and submissions for how to submit.
Keynote speakers will be announced.
National Taiwan University, Taipei. Hosted by the Department of Social Work, National Taiwan University. The detailed campus venue will be announced.
Information on airports, visas, and local transport will be posted here.
Recommended hotels and booking details to follow.
The call for papers, submission arrangements, registration and fees will be announced on this page.
EASP × FISS 2027 Organising Committee, Department of Social Work, National Taiwan University.
Email: easp.fiss.2027@gmail.com