Participants were wide-ranging and included educators, researchers, students, professionals from business, civil society organisations and governmental organisations.

John Dalli, EU Commissioner for Health and Consumer Policy and State Secretary Kirsti Bergstø from the Norwegian Ministry of Children, Equality and Social Inclusion addressed the conference.

PERL's Student film competition and student essay competition winners were announced, and more than 60 presentations were made in parallel sessions.

Many thanks to the conference committee, Maltepe University and all the staff and students, and all the participants that helped make the conference a success!

See a few photos and quotes from the conference below.

See the plenary presentations.

See the full conference proceedings and the North East Asia Session proceedings published by IGES.

For authors who have resubmitted papers for possible publication, see the details here.

All other conference details are here.

From left to right:

Victoria W. Thoresen, PERL Director

State Secretary Kirsti Bergstø, Norwegian Ministry of Children, Equality and Social Inclusion

John Dalli, EU Commissioner for Health and Consumer Policy

Prof. Dr. Kemal Köymen, Rector Maltepe University, Turkey

“Consumer education needs to stem the commercial pressure and raise awareness and the deeper understanding on how we are influenced by market forces.” State Secretary Kirsti Bergstø, Ministry of Children, Equality and Social Inclusion

“Culture makes consumerism...We are taught to define ourselves through our consumption" Erik Assadourian, Worldwatch Institute

“Social innovation is about enabling people to design their own lives” Francois Jegou, Strategic Design Studios

“Empowering people to take healthy, responsible choices must lie at the core of all our efforts" John Dalli, EU Commissioner for Health and Consumer Policy

“There is a life outside of consumerism” Peter Gneilcyk, German Federation of Consumer Organizations

“Why not try a stay-cation rather than a vacation? Remaining in your home community instead of traveling?” Erik Assadourian, Worldwatch Institute

“One of the problems of globalization is that the local environmental issues have become global and lost their relevance ... We need to focus on what we can do” Natalie Jeremijenko, New York University

“We can change who has evidence about environmental issues and thus change who participates in decision-making” Natalie Jeremijenko, New York University

“Media is a form of addiction which distracts people from themselves” Andrea Mendoza, Milan Polytechnic University

Conference participants!