Social norms and cultural factors highly influence policy. But how can policies consider this influence to become more effective?
Our online workshop on Cultural Demography addresses this question by bringing together eminent demographers and leading researchers from the humanities to discuss how different understandings of migration, diversity, family, or health shape policy decisions and demographic research.
This interdisciplinary format wants to increase the knowledge of the implicit and underlying social values and norms that shape how we respond to political challenges posed by demographic change. It offers a novel transdisciplinary opportunity to merge insights from the humanities with the aims of demography-informed policy.
Date: 30 April 2025
Time: 8.45 – 17.30 (CET)
08:45-09:00: Welcome Address
- Lene Karpp | Project Coordinator at Population Europe
- Andreas Edel | Executive Secretary at Population Europe
- Arnstein Aassve | Principal Investigator of the FutuRes Project and Professor of Demography at the Department of Social and Political Sciences at Bocconi University
09:00-10:30: Cultural Demography
Recent demographic developments can only be explained by changes in culture. We discuss how changing social norms, concepts, and ideologies influence demography over time. Moreover, we explore how demographic trends in return influence culture in the form of social, technological, or economic innovation. What methods and paradigms should we use and develop to study this interaction?
- Andreas Edel
- Ron Lesthaege | Emeritus Professor at Vrije Universiteit Brussels
- Sigrid Weigel | Former Director of the Leibniz Center for Literary and Cultural Research
- Pieter Vanhuysse | Professor of Political Economy and Public Policy at the Department of Political Science and Public Management at the University of Southern Denmark
10:30-11:00: Break
11:00-12:30: Cultural Demography of Diversity
Classifying minorities and migrant-origin populations raises many difficulties. Whether by objective classification of difference or self-attributed identity, many ways in which states and international organizations count and classify such groups lead to strong controversies. This is especially the case in the evolution of census apparatus and the politics of diversity. Given this challenge, how can we still meaningfully create policies responding to the needs of a diverse society?
- Adrian Favell | Founding Director of the Radical Humanities Laboratory and Professor of Social and Political Theory at the Cork Centre for Architectural Education at University College Cork
- Steven Vertovec | Founding Director of the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity, Göttingen
12:30-13:00: Break
The role of families and other social networks is changing. They are, however, important providers of social cohesion and support. What are the implications of changing norms and values for processes of social cohesion? How can we translate changing conceptions of ‘family’ into policy-making processes to increase social resilience?
- Arnstein Aassve
- Ruth Zafran | Professor for Family Law at the Radzyner School of Law at Reichmann University
- Vanessa di Lego | Professor of Demography at Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (tbc)
14:30-15:00: Break
15:00-16:30: Health and Ageing in Welfare States of the 21st Century
Health and what it means to be healthy is changing over time. How should decision-makers understand health and other related concepts such as ageing, well-being, and care? How can interdisciplinary conceptual debates and methodologies better inform policies responding to public health risks to increase societal resilience?
- Verena Klusmann-Weißkopf | Professor for Health Promotion and Prevention at Hochschule Furtwangen
- Kaspar Staub | Adjunct Professor and Head of the Anthropometrics & Historical Epidemiology Group at the Institute of Evolutionary Medicine at the University of Bern
16:30-17:00: Conclusions
The Cultural Demography workshop is part of Population Europe’s ongoing Policy Lab, an initiative that recently resulted in the Political Demography workshop. The Policy Lab bridges the gap between leading researchers, decision-makers, and stakeholders from civil society and industry by offering evidence-based insights into how policy can meaningfully respond to demographic trends. Read more about our Policy Lab on our here.
The Cultural Demography online-workshop is jointly organized by Population Europe, Università Bocconi, the University College Cork, and the EU-funded FutuRes project.