Part 2 - LA84 Foundation

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14. Seoul Olympic Arts
Festival
14.3
The World Academic
Conference of the Seoul
Olympiad '88
With the belief that realization of the
Olympic ideal of harmony and progress
of mankind requires balanced
development of the body (sports),
sensitivity (culture and arts) and
intellect (science), the World Academic
Conference of the Seoul Olympiad '88
was held at the Academy House in
Seoul for 19 days from August 21
through September 8. It was the first
international academic conference
ever held in an Olympic host city in
conjunction with an Olympic Games.
The SLOOC decided to host the
meeting of academic authorities and
prominent scholars from around the
world to help build a theoretical basis
to realize harmony and progress for
mankind. After consulting leading
Korean scholars, it tentatively adopted
the theme "The World Family in Post-
Industrial Society," given that mankind
faces today an imperative of global
cooperation that overrides such issues
as ideological confrontation, regional
disputes, religious conflicts and racial
discrimination.
After reviewing experiences of Korean
universities, academic societies and
research institutes in organizing international
academic conferences, the
SLOOC asked the Korea Christian
Academy, which has successfully
organized over 250 international
academic meetings in the past 20
years, to organize the World Academic
Conference of the Seoul Olympiad
'88 (WACSO). The SLOOC President
Park Seh-jik and Director Kang Wonyong
of the Korea Christian Academy
signed an agreement on June 25,
1987, for holding the WACSO meetings.
The Korea Christian Academy
immediately formed a planning and
steering committee to deliberate and
decide on organizational matters for
WACSO and established a secretariat
under the committee. The committee
was composed of the chairman, three
permanent members and 11 other
members, and had five subcommittees.
The secretariat had five departments
and a staff of 45.
World Academic Conference Participants
Area
Family Relations
Communications
Ethics and Values
Cultures of East and West
Nature
Grand Total
Foreign Scholars
15
21
16
19
13
The WASCO Planning and Steering
Committee changed the theme, "The
World Family in Post-Industrial Society"
previously adopted by the SLOOC, to
'The World Community in Post-
Industrial Society," and subdivided the
theme into the five areas of family relations,
communications, ethics and
values, cultures of the East and the
West, and nature. It was decided that
the selection and invitation of scholars
to present papers and serve as
discussants would be handled by the
five subcommittees.
From the early stage of planning, the
WACSO Planning and Steering Committee
established the principle that
scholars from all parts of the world
including Eastern Europe and the
Third World would be invited to make
the conference a true international
forum. It also decided to invite worldrenowned
authorities to deliver keynote
speeches.
With recommendation from the five
subcommittees, the WACSO Planning
and Steering Committee selected 206
foreign and 229 Korean scholars, of
whom it expected about 100 foreign
and 150 Korean invitees would agree
to participate. The 206 invited foreign
scholars broke down into 37 in the
area of family relations, 41 in the area
of communications, 37 in the area of
ethics and values, 40 in the area of
cultures of the East and the West, 38
in the area of nature, and 13 who
defied classification. Of these, 111
accepted invitation, but in the end, 87
from 29 countries actually participated
in the conference.
The 229 invited Korean scholars broke
down into 38 in the area of family
relations, 40 in the area of communications,
57 in the area of ethics
and values, 37 in the area of cultures
of the East and the West, and 57 in the
area of nature. Of these, 178 accepted
invitation, but only 155 actually
participated.
Two hundred and forty-two foreign and
Korean scholars attended the conference.
The 87 from abroad included
30 from North America, 12 from
Western Europe, five from Eastern
Europe, 31 from Asia, five from Africa,
four from South America and eight
Korean scholars residing in foreign
countries.
Apart from the three keynote speakers,
the 239 Korean and foreign scholars
broke down as follows by area:
Korean Scholars
32
28
36
26
33
Total
47
49
52
45
46
239
The three keynote speakers were
Nobel Prize-winning economist John
Kenneth Galbraith of the U.S.,
sociologist Michel Crozier of France,
and Professor M.M. Thomas of India.
Following the opening on August 20,
the conference was held as follows:
Family Relations: August 21-24
Communications: August 24-27
Ethics and Values: August 28-31
Cultures of East and West: August
31-September 3
Nature: September 3-6
Keynote Speeches and General
Discussion: September 7-8.
Except for the presentation of keynote
speeches and general discussion held
at the Convention Hall of the Hilton
Hotel downtown Seoul, the conference
was held at the Academy House
located in a scenic suburban area,
where all the participants stayed.
Simultaneous interpretation services
in English, French and Korean were
provided throughout the conference.
A total of 128 papers were presented
during the conference; they included
27 in the area of family relations, 26 in
the area of communications, 28 in the
area of ethics and values, 27 in the
area of cultures of the East and the
West and 20 in the area of nature. An
exhibition of academic publications by
the participating scholars and Korean
publications concerning the conference
theme was held.
Many of the foreign scholars delivered
speeches at the invitation of Korean
universities and academic societies.
They also visited cultural and historic
sites.
The keynote speeches, thematic
presentations, papers and discussions
have been published in English,
French and Korean. Copies of the
publications were mailed to the IOC,
UN and other important international
organizations, academic organizations
and university libraries around the
world.
Many foreign participants favorably
commented on the WACSO for its
generation of academically valuable
works, fruitful discussions and for the
smooth operation of the conference,
which overcame such adverse conditions
as a short period of preparation
(slightly over a year) and a lack of
information about scholars of socialist
and Third World nations.
Some Third World participants pointed
out that the WACSO theme of "The
World Community in Post-Industrial
Society" was irrelevant to Third World
reality. Several scholars who accepted
invitations failed to attend without giving
reason or notice. Fei Xiao Tung,
former chairman of the Academy of
Social Sciences of the People's
Republic of China, and Tchinguiz Aitmatov,
ideological aide to General-
Secretary Gorvachev of the U.S.S.R.,
for example, did not attend the
WACSO after accepting invitations to
deliver keynote speeches.