About Us

The Asian Rural Sociology Association (ARSA) was an offshoot of Asian Rural Sociology Working Group (ARSWG) which was set up in 1992 by a group of Asian participants attending the World Congress of International Rural Sociology Association (IRSA) in Pennsylvania State University, USA.  This group was headed by Prof. Hiroyuki Torigoe of Kwansai Gakuin University, Japan.  ARSA was finally born in 1996 with Prof. Tae-Young of Konkuk University, Seoul Korea, as the first President and Profs. Yoshio Kawamura, Ryukoku University, Kyoto, Japan, and Surichai Wun’Gaeo, Chulalongkorn University, Thailand as the two Vice-Presidents.  Its first council members were Prof. Kalyan SankarManda, (India), Dr. Rui Quing Huang, (China), Prof. Samuel E. Gaspar, (Philippines), Prof. Mohamed Iliyas, (Pakistan), Prof. Hong-Chin Tsai, (Taiwan), Prof. Rosiady Sayuti, (Indonesia), Prof. Kanda Paranakian, (Thailand), and Prof. Sung-Youl Park, (Korea).

The first Council meeting of ARSA was conducted in Seoul, Korea from March 7-9, 1997.  It was during the first Council meeting that the Constitution of ARSA was ratified.  The Constitution states that, “the mission of ARSA is to cultivate the development of rural sociology as a science,  to extend the possible application of results of scientific inquiry to the improvement of the quality of rural life, and to exchange and generate meaningful scientific founding for the rural development in Asia”.

It was also during that first Council meeting that a decision to hold the First International Conference of ARSA in Thailand in January 1999 was made.