A First Look at the IIAS 2026 Programme in Seoul: Plenary and Braibant Lecture Speakers

Diogo Pereira,

The IIAS 2026 Conference will take place from 17 to 20 November in Seoul, under the theme “Growth for Society: Collaborative Governance, Social Innovation, and Social Value”. It is co-organised with the Konkuk Institute of Health and Aging Society (KIHAS), with the support of SK hynix and the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI).

The programme includes about 373 accepted submissions across the main theme and 14 specialised themes, together with plenary sessions and lectures. Here is a first look at two of them.

Plenary session: Growth for Society (18 November, 11:00)

The first plenary session takes up the main theme of the conference. It is chaired by Prof. Liza C. Van Jaarsveldt (University of South Africa), and the speakers are:

  • Raymond Saner, Centre for Socio-Eco-Nomic Development and Basle University

  • Younes Abouyoub, United Nations

  • Lotfi Kaabi, Independent Researcher

  • Marco De La Cruz, Scientific Director, International Institute of Administrative Sciences, who will present the IIAS Governance Index

After the first look given in Athens, the complete results of the Index will be revealed in Seoul.

Braibant Lecture (19 November, 11:00)

The 2026 Braibant Lecture will be delivered by Prof. Liu Hong of Nanyang Technological University. The session is chaired by Prof. Hideaki Shiroyama (University of Tokyo), Chairman of the IIAS Scientific Committee.

Join us in Seoul

For questions, write to iias-conference@iias-iisa.org.

Resources

Public administration and management research has long drawn most of its ideas from Western, industrialised democracies. Yet Asia and the Global South have become major sites of administrative change, with large-scale reforms, fast-moving technology and some of the most inventive experiments in governance. Research from these regions has grown accordingly, but it is still often used to illustrate or apply theories made elsewhere, rather than to produce new ones.

This special issue of Public Management Review aims to change that. It invites authors to treat practice in Asia and the Global South as a starting point for theory: to test, question or extend established approaches, and to propose new concepts and explanations. It does not look for a single theory of these regions, which are far too diverse for that, but for context-sensitive contributions that also say something useful for policy and practice.

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