Awarding of the Second Demography Prize in Berlin

On 5 March 2010 between 13.30 and 18.00 the 2nd Demography-Prize will be awarded in the scope of a symposium in Berlin with the title Where to for the youth? Making use of opportunities in shrinking regions. The symposium will be organized in cooperation with the state chancellery of Brandenburg and will take place in the Federal Representation of Brandenburg and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania in Berlin. In the scope of the event the awardees will introduce their papers, afterwards there will be a discussion about the opportunities of young people in shrinking regions. Participating in the event is possible for anyone interested. We thus invite all supporters of the FRFG to participate.
Due to organizational matters a registration fort he event is necessary. Please send a short registration note, with your institution if applicable, to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

You will find more information here

  2nd Demography Prize for Young Scientists

The Institute for a Better Demographic Future awards the Demography Prize for Young Scientists every two years since 2007. The deadline for all entries was September 1st 2009. Also its second edition, 2008/2009, is characterized by the high quality of the replies: ten articles written by a total of 17 European authors are in the final round of the competition. It is also remarkable that the authors come from a great variety of scientific fields: ethnology, social sciences, political science, cultural management, economics, psychology, social pedagogy, philosophy, journalism, geography and business administration. The diversity of the articles thereby mirrors the interdisciplinary relevance of the topic. In addition to their overall quality, the papers feature new, innovative approaches and interdisciplinary research designs. 

The jury has recently awarded three of the submitted articles. 

The first place is shared by the following submissions:

“Opportunities and Possibilities for Young People in Shrinking Cities" by Felix Kroh and "Don't Waste Your Youth" by Karsten Bär, Anja Erdmann and Corinna Hamann.

The article "Zachte G: a modern approach towards building networks for young people in a shrinking region“ by Maya Rocak and Maurice Hermans was chosen for a special award.

CURRENT ISSUE

The Foundation for the Rights of Future Generations presents a new issue of IGJR:

Intergenerational Justice Review 3/2009:
“Climate change
and intergenerational justice”

General theories of intergenerational justice must answer two main questions: What to sustain for future generations? And how much to sustain? The field of global warming is a manifest example for the competition between the interests of present and future generations, making it an ideal case for the application of general theories of intergenerational justice.

Read more on IGJR here.

CALL FOR PAPERS

The editors are seeking articles in English for the upcoming issue 4/2009 of the IGJR with the topic “Children’s and young people’s rights- with a focus on the right to vote”.The convention on the Rights of the Child spells out the basic human rights that children and young people everywhere have. The four core principles of the Convention as detailed by UNICEF are: nondiscrimination; devotion to the best interests of the child; the right to life, survival and development; as well as respect for the views of the child. This convention is legally binding and fundamental to the lives of children today. As these basic human rights are held as a standard across the world, is there a need for further development of children’s and young people’s rights? Are children and young people today really treated as individuals who have opinions of their own?

Public hearing concerning the constitutional amendment

The campaign for the institutionalisation of intergenerational justice, one of the main projects of the FRFG, keeps on moving. After the first reading in the “Bundestag” in October 2007 the draft was transmitted to the parliamentary committees. While the judicial panel, which was originally in charge of the discussion about the amendment, criticized the bill, the committee  for sustainable development has now taken over and is organising a public hearing on 15 October 2008, 5 p.m. The hearing primarily deals with the question if the protection of future generations is already implemented in the constitution and if intergenerational justice can effectively be accomplished by the constitutional draft. Read more...