The contestation around use of natural resources is long-standing in human history; access to land, forests, water and minerals have led to rise and fall of civilisations. As large societies like India and China began rapid economic growth in recent decades, such contestations have intensified. Local inhabitants, especially tribals and indigenous communities, access these resources for socio-economic and spiritual sustenance. When commercial and industrial demands begin to restrict or deny such access for them, their resistance is to be expected.

More than half the population of the world is now living in urban habitats. Asia is the fastest growing region in urbanisation. In the past decade, nearly half a billion Asians have moved to urban habitations, and the trend continues.

In an increasingly uncertain world, the constant is the change. Most ‘gurus’ of the future financial markets have begun to focus on risk-taking in uncertain and unpredictable world ahead. Not only the standards of finance are changing, the world of education is undergoing huge shifts. As demand for post-secondary education continues to increase, traditional providers of higher education - universities and colleges - are unable to respond in ways that fulfill those changing and shifting expectations.

The ESREA Research Network on Working Life and Learning has announced the Call for Papers for the conference "Workplace Learning and Development in Times of  Globalization and Uncertainty" to be held at Osnabrück University, Germany, March 31—April 2, 2014. Submission deadline for abstracts  is September 16, 2013.