Ateneo de Manila University’s School of Social Sciences launched on 9 September 2011 the Journal of Social Transformation (JST), a new referred journal featuring articles that deal with theoretical, empirical and interdisciplinary analyses and research works on the social conditions and processes of social change and transformation in any country or region, especially in the Asia-Pacific region.
The journal highlights themes that address the preconditions and the constraints to progressive social transformation with more emphasis on studies that deal with social transformation of current systems into ones that significantly improve and serve the needs of human and social development.
The JST cover is a Philippine Daily Inquirer taken by Ernie Sarmiento of the Philippine Daily Inquirer, an ACFJ faculty of the Diploma in Photojournaism program, in the aftermath of Typhoon Pepeng that hit the Philippines in 2009.
Among the featured articles include Spontaneous Volunteerism: Exploring Disaster-Response Volunteer Work; Foreign Donors and the Philippine State: Policy Convergence and Domestication; World Economic and Social Survey 2010: Retooling Global Development; Oplan Bantay Laya: The U.S.-Arroyo Campaign of Terror and Counterinsurgency in the Philippines; and Abu Sayyaf and U.S. Intervention in the Philippines: Marginal Comments on the Bangsamoro Struggle for Self-determination.
In his address Fr. Jose M. Cruz, Dean of the School of Social Sciences, reflected on the role of individual awakening in the process of social transformation. ??He commented on how people’s belief in their ability to change themselves and the conditions surrounding them is a sense that is deeply ingrained within them.
Dr. Roberto Benedicto, JST editor shared plans for special issues, including ones on post coloniality and memory and human rights in the Asia Pacific region.
