Demography Prize 2019

The Stuttgart-based Foun­da­tion for the Rights of Future Gen­er­a­tions (FRFG) and the Lon­don-based Inter­gen­er­a­tional Foun­da­tion (IF) joint­ly award the bien­ni­al Demog­ra­phy Prize, endowed with EUR 10,000 (ten thou­sand euros) in total prize-mon­ey, to essay-writ­ers who address polit­i­cal and demo­graph­ic issues per­tain­ing to the field of inter­gen­er­a­tional jus­tice. The prize was ini­ti­at­ed and is fund­ed by the Apfel­baum Foundation.

The Demog­ra­phy Prize 2019 deals with the topic

“Housing crisis: How can we improve the situation for young people?”

In many Euro­pean coun­tries, and espe­cial­ly in large cities and uni­ver­si­ty towns, afford­able hous­ing is a press­ing and some­times explo­sive issue. In the debate about such ques­tions as home own­er­ship or rent increase caps, the inter­gen­er­a­tional per­spec­tive is often for­got­ten. But dif­fer­ent gen­er­a­tions are affect­ed in notice­ably dif­fer­ent ways. Ris­ing rent and pur­chase prices make it ever more dif­fi­cult for young peo­ple to access the hous­ing market.

What is often referred to as a “hous­ing cri­sis” can cer­tain­ly be seen as a ques­tion of inter­gen­er­a­tional jus­tice, because the baby boomers had eas­i­er access to hous­ing or to the means to finance it. Today, the baby boomer gen­er­a­tion ben­e­fits from hous­ing inequal­i­ty in two ways: through prop­er­ty val­ues and rental income. Younger gen­er­a­tions, on the oth­er hand, are dis­ad­van­taged in two respects: today’s increased demand leads to fur­ther pres­sure on the hous­ing mar­ket in the low-price seg­ment, which in turn leads to an increase in the rent bur­den for low­er and mid­dle income groups, and also makes the pur­chase of res­i­den­tial prop­er­ty more dif­fi­cult. In many Euro­pean coun­tries, own­er­ship of real estate has become a much greater source of wealth inequal­i­ty between gen­er­a­tions than salary differentials.

This gloomy pic­ture of hous­ing and home own­er­ship is, how­ev­er, by no means uni­ver­sal. A com­par­i­son with­in the EU shows sig­nif­i­cant dif­fer­ences in the pro­vi­sion of afford­able hous­ing for the next gen­er­a­tion. An inter­na­tion­al com­par­i­son clear­ly shows that a suc­cess­ful hous­ing pol­i­cy is there­fore quite possible.

Win up to 10,000 € prize money and a publication in a professional journal!

The prize mon­ey of 10,000 € is award­ed pro­por­tion­ate­ly to the best sub­mis­sions, where­by more or less than three prizes can also be award­ed. The deci­sion on the award of the prize is based on the rec­om­men­da­tions of a jury of inde­pen­dent experts. The edi­tors of the Inter­gen­er­a­tional Jus­tice Review (IGJR; www.igjr.org) will con­sid­er win­ning entries for pub­li­ca­tion in the sum­mer 2020 edition.

Clos­ing date for entries: 1 Decem­ber 2019

Request the full entry  require­ments now!

Who can participate?

Researchers from all dis­ci­plines may par­tic­i­pate. There is no age lim­it. In par­tic­u­lar, we encour­age young sci­en­tists (stu­dents, grad­u­ates and post-docs) to par­tic­i­pate. Team con­tri­bu­tions are also possible.

Please note: The pur­pose of the Demog­ra­phy Prize is to stim­u­late sci­en­tif­ic debate on the top­ic of the year. Projects and ini­tia­tives can­not be finan­cial­ly sup­port­ed by the prize.

The submission

Sub­mis­sions should be inno­v­a­tive and prac­tice-ori­ent­ed. Pro­pos­als for reform or analy­ses may be made at inter­na­tion­al lev­el or from a case-study per­spec­tive. Ger­man and Eng­lish con­tri­bu­tions with 5,000 to 8,000 words are wel­come. For more detailed infor­ma­tion, please refer to the com­plete entry require­ments, which you can request by e‑mail to awards@if.org.uk.

For fur­ther ques­tions, contact:

Antony Mason
Inter­gen­er­a­tional Foundation
awards@if.org.uk

or

Maria Lenk
Foun­da­tion for the Rights of Future Generations
kontakt@srzg.de
+49 711 280 527 77