Conducted by
- Ulrich Becker (Max Planck Institute for Social Law and Social Policy, Munich, Germany - MPISOC)
- Mikko Myrskylä (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Germany - MPIDR)
- Andreas Edel (MPIDR/Population Europe)
On the edge of societies: New vulnerable populations, emerging challenges for social policies, and future demands for social innovation. The experience of the Baltic Sea States
In the near future, Europe will face new challenges related to the consequences of demographic change. Because population ageing is inevitable in most European states due to long-term population trends, social and health policies are increasingly focusing on the circumstances and effects of longer lives, e.g. with regard to promoting active and healthy ageing, encouraging longer working lifetimes and designing new public-private pension arrangements to ensure adequate material well-being in old age. However, we must be more aware of the most vulnerable population groups to ensure that every part of society is achieving healthy and active ageing. Little is still known about those who are more exposed to socio-economic disadvantages, deteriorating health conditions or other individual stress factors. To better understand the current situation and the long-term trends of social vulnerability in different welfare-state regimes and under various political and historical settings, it is important to enhance international research collaboration. This project aims to further this objective in the Baltic Sea States. A broad variety of research fields in population studies will be considered, such as family and labour trajectories, health status over the life course, international migration and mobility trends.
Policy Dialogue and Public-Private-Partnership
Since 2022, within the framework of the "Förderfonds Wissenschaft in Berlin", the Stifterverband supports the project “Policy Dialogue and Public-Private-Partnership” which is closely linked with the Baltic Sea States project. In this framework, the Population Europe Secretariat will carry out activities on issues of population diversity, social inequality and crisis resilience, with a focus on people with different socio-demographic characteristics. The project's transdisciplinary approach seeks to engage in dialogue with decision-makers from politics, business and society in a mutual learning process and the joint production of new knowledge, e.g. in event formats such as expert hearings and stakeholder meetings. Target group-oriented publications, among others in the series Population and Policy Discussion Paper and Population and Policy Brief, make the results known to an international audience. The Secretariat will also organise events such as the Quadriga Talks in 2022/23 and an event planned for 2023 at the Villa Vigoni. In addition, the project will support the renowned European Demographer Awards, which are presented at the annual Berlin Demography Days.