Content

Fourth Annual Symposium of the Population, Work and Family Policy Research Collaboration

December 9-10, 2008
Hilton Lac-Leamy

Theme:  “Meeting Canada’s Diverse Challenges: Social Risk, Private Risk and Productivity”

Agenda: pdf version

Concurrent Sessions: pdf version

Poster Sessions: pdf version

Questions: Policy Practitioners Forum

Description =
“Social policy as health policy: Addressing health and social inequalities through the
lens of income adequacy”

Symposium Presentations (Dec 9-10)

Background

Risk is endemic in our world. It is a powerful force that can be both constructive - as an enticement to possible gains - and destructive - as adverse events beyond our control undermine our livelihoods, our health and our general well-being. Most of us are subject to many of the same risks and while over the last century we have seen unprecedented improvements in our ability to deal with many of the risks encountered over the course of our lives, we have also witnessed the development of major new risks that we continue to grapple with.

In December 2008, the Government of Canada’s Policy Research Initiative, in partnership with the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) and other members of the PWFC, and with the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) and other federal departments, will sponsor a symposium designed:

• to identify emerging needs in the social management of risk, private risk-taking and the promotion of productivity growth; and
• to foster the development of new evidence-based approaches to meeting those needs by building stronger bridges between Canada’s policy-makers and researchers.

Objectives

The objectives of the conference are:

1. to expand our knowledge and understanding of the potential impacts of evolving risks on individuals, families and their broader communities and their possible implications for private risk-taking, an important determinant of our future prosperity;
2. to examine the evolving roles (and relative strengths) of individuals, families, their broader communities (including both the informal communities with which they interact and the formal voluntary sector), the private and public sectors both in taking gainful risks and in acting to prevent, mitigate and cope with adverse events; and
3. to identify and assess existing and alternative policy levers, both in Canada and from abroad, to strengthen our collective capacity both to bear and to take risks.

Structure

The fourth annual symposium has been designed with a view to draw out what some of the key 21st century challenges may be in relation to evolving patterns of risk that may accompany an ageing and increasingly diverse population and rising economic uncertainty. With this in mind the conference has been structured around four main components: plenary sessions, policy practitioner forums, concurrent research workshops and a poster session.

Plenary sessions will cover broad conceptual frameworks for the social management of risks and their possible applicability to Canada and other countries. These sessions will profile what is currently known about broad trends in the risks facing Canada and the limits of that knowledge, emerging and existing alternative policy approaches to the social management of risks in other countries and the perspective of the federal deputy minister community on the main challenges ahead.

Policy practitioner forums to be held on the second day of the conference will operate on a “Chatham House rule” basis. These forums will focus on specific themes and explore the future needs of policy-makers for policy-relevant research as well as the challenges that may stand in the way of researchers meeting those needs.

This year’s symposium will also feature three separate concurrent sessions of approximately seven research workshops. These workshops will showcase current research that is likely to be relevant to public policy-making over the course of the next few years.

Poster session also enables researchers to showcase their research. Posters will be displayed throughout the symposium and researchers themselves will be present to respond to inquires during a 2-hour session at the end of the symposium’s first day.

Going Forward

Follow up to the 2008 symposium may include a synthesis report and dedicated Horizons issue over the course of 2009 to highlight the challenges raised by the 2008 symposium and report on research and policy development activities planned or undertaken in its wake.

Subsequent-year symposiums will provide an ongoing platform for policy-relevant research prompted by the 2008 symposium and for dialogues between policy-makers and researchers on future research priorities.