Rapid social change and information technology transformation have required academics to adapt and innovate competitively to develop scientific approaches and perspectives to solve various problems in all sectors of human life. Human problems' complexity cannot be solely resolved with approaches and perspectives from a single academic discipline. Numerous studies have revealed that using one particular academic discipline's perspectives to solve human problems is deemed futile as they may generate counterproductive results.
A clear illustration can be seen in the aspect of environmental damage as it is not sufficient to investigate such a problem simply through the ecological science perspective. The ecological approach can only reveal that environmental damage is caused by interaction patterns between living things and the environment that no longer runs well. The causes of environmental damage are not only related to the interaction patterns; there are some other determining factors, like environmentally-unfriendly human behavior (it is seen from the socio-cultural perspective) and political and governmental interests that are not in line with the sustainable environmental development (it is explained through by political science perspective). Therefore, more elaboration from other disciplines, such as socio-cultural, educational, economic, management, technological, legal, political, and governmental perspectives, is imperative so that the causes of environmental damage can be comprehensively unveiled. As a result, complete concepts of environmental damage problems can eventually be generated.
Multiple perspectives and approaches in explaining development problems result in various concepts for generating policy recommendations that may solve the problems. Moreover, these can be considered reliable instruments to achieve sustainable development goals such as poverty, education, equitable development, technology, information transformation, global warming, corruption, terrorism, and other problems faced by countries worldwide.
For instance, poverty and unemployment is no longer adequate to be justified solely through economic approaches and perspectives that measure the standard of human prosperity from the financial stability aspect. It needs to be investigated using other approaches, such as the socio-cultural approach, which generally reveals that human prosperity, happiness, and stability are influenced by its social members' togetherness and intimacy.
Besides, educational development can not only be explained by the approaches and perspectives of technological development and human transformation towards modern life, international competitiveness, and increasing social status. These perspectives somehow may produce new issues in human life, namely segregation of social classes, which lead to social disharmony. Hence, educational development needs to be explained and understood with more humanist perspectives, like socio-cultural and human development perspectives. As a developing country, Indonesia needs to realize that educational development is to be established from multiple perspectives as the basis for its human-development-policy formulation.
Meanwhile, in addition to the normative legal approach, corruption also needs to be elaborated through other perspectives, like information technology, socio-culture, education, government politics, economics, and religion. If this issue is only highlighted from the normative legal perspective, it may be challenging to uphold justice and reduce corruption. Information technology can effectively be utilized to justify corruption so that it can be minimized and controlled. Technology such as artificial intelligence (AI) can also be used to record, tap, and monitor state officials who have access to state resources. Corruption is also inseparable from the educational problems existing in a country; this condition can only be explored through the collaboration of educational, political, economic, and religious perspectives.
Scientists have realized that globalization and shifts in information technology require them to prioritize the interdisciplinary-collaboration approach to understand and resolve various problems, especially those related to sustainable development issues. The interdisciplinary-collaboration approach is widely used to apprehend and explain environmental damage problems, exploration of natural resources, and health issues. However, many of the latest scientific publications reveal that interdisciplinary collaboration has become a progressively popular approach introduced to address other social problems, particularly information technology, digitization, and human activity robotization. This, eventually, leads to the invention of new terms, such as technology for society, collaborative governance, intergovernmental, society partnership, and others that emphasize cross-sectoral and cross-disciplinary cooperation.
University of Muhammadiyah Malang (UMM), as the leading private university in Indonesia and the most prominent one in East Java, has taken its part to contribute to the development of research and publications emphasizing on the interdisciplinary-collaboration approach to investigate various developmental problems and support the realization of sustainable development goals. The goals specifically refer to education, information technology, economic development, political and governance, ecology, agriculture, animal husbandry, human character and behavior, socio-culture, public health, law, and artificial intelligence.This approach has been set towards the accomplishment of human development, local-wisdom empowerment, and national development.
UMM seeks to actualize the interdisciplinary-collaborative approach into an international conference under the theme of International Conference on Interdisciplinary Collaboration for Sustainable Development (ICoSDev). The international conference oversees six international conference groups, i.e., International Conference on Social and Political Issues on Sustainable Development in Post Covid-19 Crisis (ICHSos); International Conference on Education and Psychology (ICEduPsy); International Conference on Legal Reform (ICLAR); International Conference on Bio-Energy and Environmentally Sustainable Agricultural Technologies (ICoN-BEAT); International Conference on Technology, Information and Engineering (ICon-TINE); and International Conference on Medical and Health Sciences (ICMedH).
This international conference aims to disseminate ideas and experiences in implementing the interdisciplinary-collaboration approach for sustainable development. Thus, it is highly dependent on the support and involvement of many parties, both domestic and foreign parties, with the bases of educational institutions, research, publications, business, and other institutions that are either directly or indirectly connected to the sustainable development issues. Hence, UMM is looking forward to receiving support from all parties to organize the event properly, as it will eventually contribute to the development of science and practice in human life.
ICoSDev Sub Tracks
Educational Technology, Social Science, Economics, Religious Education, and Psychology |
Educational Technology, Social Science, Economics, Religious Education, and Psychology belong to ICoSDev's sub-tracks, which are focused on studies, research and publications related to various issues of educational technology, educational innovation, digitization of educational instruments, political and governance, social welfare, communication, sociology, public policy, development economics, religious education, and human behavior. These topics are parts of pivotal disciplines in sustainable development. Educational technology practices and innovations are directly related to the development goals of human development. These are aligned with social science, economics, religious education, and human behavior. These wide-ranging topics are considered essential to be discussed and disseminated at ICoSDev through two forms of international conference clusters: Social and Political Issues on Sustainable Development in Post Covid-19 Crisis (ICHSos) and International Conference on Education (ICEdu).
|
Legal System and Practice, Cyberlaw, and Artificial Intelligence Law |
Legal issues, both in system and practice levels, are inseparable from the sustainable development issues. Sustainable development itself requires the full support of proper legal systems and practices. Unsupportive legal systems and practices can influence failures and challenges in realizing the sustainable development goals. Besides, poverty as one of the priorities of sustainable development has become a problematic issue in both developed and developing countries due to their inadequate legal systems and practices. Legal systems and practices in the information technology era have shifted orientation. They are associated with problems occurring in human social actions in the real world and in cyberspace. Changes in the orientation and targets of legal systems and practices are also interconnected to information technology transformation as part of the sustainable development issues. Thus, legal systems and practices, cyberlaw, and artificial intelligence law have become part of the ICoSDev sub-tracts implemented through International Conference on Legal Reform (ICLAR).
|
Technology and Information Systems, Agriculture, Ecology and Animal Husbandry |
Technology and information development has a broad impact on development issues. On the one hand, technology and information development have a positive effect as it can encourage the acceleration and efficiency development that may lead to economic growth, ease of access, and information distribution that supports economic activities. On the other hand, the development of information technology has a negative impact, such as social disharmony that may create pseudo-social communication and interaction. People cannot recognize each other's true identity and personality. Therefore, information technology development is an equally vital part to be discussed and disseminated at ICoSDev through International Conference on Technology, Informatics, and Engineering (ICon-TINE).
|
Public Health and Medical Science and Practice |
Public health has been a global issue in all countries around the world. Health issues consist of the government's responses to health problems, public health behavior, health crises, public health facilities and infrastructure, and public health management problems and challenges. Public health issues are inextricable from the development of medical science and practice as the most important part of health issues. Therefore, public health and medical science and practice belong to the ICoSDev sub-tracks implemented through International Conference on Medical and Health Sciences (ICMedH). |