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Brief: 
My talk will present the acute long-term care crisis faced by Taiwanese society and how differently its religious milieus have responded to it. After introducing the methodological challenges of measuring the influence of religious circles on policy development, I will focus in particular on charitable associations associated with Catholicism, Christianity, Islam and Buddhism, and their specific contributions at both ends of the care chain. While the Buddhist milieu seems willing to provide support through institutionalized long-term care, the other religious milieus are also concerned by the welfare of caregivers, especially those among them who are migrants and who are identified with a minority religion. I will advance the hypothesis that the weaker participation in the care economy by the religious milieus of the Daoist traditions and popular beliefs can be attributed to their limited institutionalization. However, the diffused nature of these other religions has encouraged the development of the family-based approach to long-term care that many households in Taiwan prefer and that the government supports for fiscal reasons

Speaker: 
Professor Laliberté is professor in the School of Political Studies at the University of Ottawa, where he teaches comparative politics, the politics of Asia in general, and China in particular, since 2008. Prior to this, he spent five years at the Department of Political Science at UQAM and four years at the Department of Political Science at the University of Ottawa. He was a visiting scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center, in Washington, DC, in 2011, and a visiting professor at the Institute of Asia Research of UBC, in 2014.

He has received his PhD in political science from UBC in 1999, for a thesis on the political behaviour of Buddhist organizations in Taiwan; and his MA degree from the same institution for a thesis on the BJP and the policy of India in Kashmir. In these works, he was interested in the intersection between religion and politics, and over the years, expanded his research interest to the issues of identity, philanthropy, and now the intersection between rights and social policies.

Prof. Laliberté has published on the issue of religion and politics in China and Taiwan. He has presented his work as a research associate of the Groupe Sociétés, Religions, et Laïcités in Paris and the Center for Religions in Chinese Societies, in Purdue University; as well as a co-investigator in a research team funded by the SSHRC on ethnicity and democratic governance; many of them on the issue of freedom of conscience in China and Taiwan.

Professor Laliberté teaches one of the Field Research Courses offered by the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Ottawa. Focused on Taiwan (Taipei), the classes include lectures by experts, meetings with civil society actors involved in the promotion of care workers’ civil rights, and excursions in the capital’s historical memorials, its health care institutions, and its important cultural sites. Students will gain understanding of the stakes related to labor relations and immigration in a society where traditional gender relations change, and concerns over the upholding of national identity remain acute.

Note: 
1. This event will be conducted in English.
2. Online participation is not available.