The Concept of Walkshops of the Foundation for the Rights of Future Generations

Walk for the Future

The walk­shops (a com­bi­na­tion of the terms “walk” and “work­shop”) of the Foun­da­tion for the Rights of Future Gen­er­a­tions are an inno­v­a­tive audi­to­ry learn­ing method aimed at inform­ing and empow­er­ing young peo­ple. The con­cept draws on Aris­to­tle, whose school of the Peri­patet­ics linked men­tal mobil­i­ty with phys­i­cal move­ment and trans­fers this approach to the cur­rent cen­tu­ry. Over the course of the last decade, the range of audio books and pod­casts increased tremen­dous­ly. Nonethe­less, audi­to­ry learn­ing and teach­ing mate­ri­als – in con­trast to visu­al coun­ter­parts – have not yet been wide­ly used in the edu­ca­tion sector.

In doing so, walk­shop par­tic­i­pants (i) lis­ten to edu­ca­tion­al con­tent while walk­ing through diverse land­scapes, (ii) vis­it learn­ing venues along their route and (iii) build on what they have learned and lis­tened to in the course of evening dis­cus­sions with politi­cians, sci­en­tists, entre­pre­neurs, activists and cit­i­zens. Through the bal­anced selec­tion of pod­casts, but also through the bal­anced line-up of pan­els at the evening dis­cus­sion events, par­tic­i­pants gain a broad and sound under­stand­ing of eco­log­i­cal, eco­nom­ic and social devel­op­ments. To train the par­tic­i­pants to become holis­ti­cal­ly and well-informed mul­ti­pli­ers, the cur­ricu­lum of dig­i­tal teaching/learning mate­r­i­al is com­piled in such a way that the per­spec­tives and prob­lem per­cep­tions of dif­fer­ent actors are addressed. There­by, the par­tic­i­pants are able to fos­ter the soci­etal dia­logue between var­i­ous actors.

Vis­it our site walk-for-the-future.info for more infor­ma­tions (in German)

Logo Walk for the Future

Upcoming Walkshops

Walkshop Nuclear Risks and Long-Term Peacekeeping

The next Walk­shop on the top­ic of “nuclear risks and long-term peace­keep­ing” will take place in Scot­land in June 2025. On a five-day-hik­ing trip around Loch Lomond, includ­ing vis­its to the HM Naval Base Clyde (the loca­tion of Britain’s nuclear weapons) and the Peace Camp in Faslane, par­tic­i­pants will expe­ri­ence first­hand expo­sure to the real­i­ties of nuclear weapons and their impact on local com­mu­ni­ties. By engag­ing direct­ly with these envi­ron­ments, par­tic­i­pants will gain a deep­er appre­ci­a­tion for the com­plex­i­ty of nuclear issues and the impor­tance of long-term peace­keep­ing strate­gies. At learn­ing venues and dur­ing dis­cus­sion events, par­tic­i­pants will have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to inter­act with experts and deci­sion-mak­ers in the field of nuclear dis­ar­ma­ment and inter­na­tion­al peace. The Walk­shop will be a unique learn­ing expe­ri­ence, simul­ta­ne­ous­ly involv­ing phys­i­cal activ­i­ty, edu­ca­tion and team­work. The project also fos­ters inter­na­tion­al and inter­gen­er­a­tional con­ver­sa­tions about the exis­ten­tial fears aris­ing from nuclear threats and the poten­tial for human self-annihilation.

Previous Walkshops

Walkshop Social Security and Intergenerational Contracts

This year’s walk­shop cen­tred around the top­ic of “social secu­ri­ty and inter­gen­er­a­tional con­tracts”. It was held in and around Berlin from 25–29 April 2023. The Youth Hos­tel Ostkreuz served as the start­ing point for all hikes and was also the lodg­ing for all par­tic­i­pants and the team through­out the trip. Most of the hikes took place in the south­east of Berlin, specif­i­cal­ly in the Müggelsee nature reserve. The event encom­passed edu­ca­tion­al vis­its to the Fed­er­al Min­istry of Labour, the Fed­er­al Min­istry of Health, and the Ger­man Pen­sion Insur­ance orga­ni­za­tion. In the evenings, var­i­ous dia­logue events were held, where experts from diverse pro­fes­sion­al fields and mem­bers of par­lia­ment exchanged ideas and engaged in dis­cus­sions with par­tic­i­pants about social insur­ance schemes and inter­gen­er­a­tional contracts.

Walkshop Atomic Waste

In 2022, the top­ic of the walk­shop was the “search for a final repos­i­to­ry for atom­ic waste”. It is a cen­tral soci­etal issue, which will affect espe­cial­ly future gen­er­a­tions over a huge peri­od of time. After the events of Fukushi­ma, the then Ger­man gov­ern­ment under Merkel decid­ed to phase out nuclear ener­gy by 2022. But the issue of nuclear ener­gy in Ger­many has not end­ed with this deci­sion. Now a final repos­i­to­ry is needed.

The walk­shop took place on 19–24 July 2022 in and around the city of Braun­schweig. In addi­tion to a totalled hik­ing route of 40 km, the par­tic­i­pants again vis­it­ed var­i­ous inter­est­ing learn­ing val­ues, as for instance the “Kon­rad mine” in Salzgit­ter. Here you can find more infor­ma­tion about the “Walk­shop Atom­ic Waste”.

Walkshop Coal Phase-out

The sec­ond walk­shop that took place in 2021 dealt specif­i­cal­ly with the coal phase-out. With a share of almost 30%, coal was still the most impor­tant ener­gy source for pow­er gen­er­a­tion in 2021. The deci­sion was made in 2019 to final­ize the coal phase-out by 2038 but many cli­mate asso­ci­a­tions believe that this date is too far in the future. There is much dis­cus­sion about accel­er­at­ing this to 2030. Any­way, the coal phase-out is an impor­tant step in the ener­gy tran­si­tion that is under­way in Ger­many to avert the cli­mate crisis.

The par­tic­i­pants set off from Leipzig on 30 Octo­ber 2021, and reached their des­ti­na­tion Fran­kleben in Sax­ony-Anhalt on 2 Novem­ber 2021, cov­er­ing a total dis­tance of 45 km. Here you find the web­site of the “Walk­shop Coal phase-out”. More­over, we cre­at­ed a posi­tion paper about the top­ic “Coal phase-out and inter­gen­er­a­tional jus­tice”.

Walkshop Climate

The very first walk­shop which took place in spring 2021 focused on the cli­mate issue. If human­i­ty does not suc­ceed in ini­ti­at­ing a trans­for­ma­tion process and dras­ti­cal­ly reduc­ing green­house gas emis­sions in the next ten years, the con­se­quences of the cli­mate cat­a­stro­phe will be irre­versible. The urgent­ly need­ed ener­gy tran­si­tion from fos­sil to renew­able ener­gy is stalling and with cur­rent glob­al ambi­tions, we are head­ing for a glob­al warm­ing of more than 3° degrees cel­sius and a cli­mate cat­a­stro­phe. The cli­mate cri­sis is a prob­lem for soci­ety as a whole, and it can only be solved by soci­ety as a whole. Every­one has to get involved, every­one has to be includ­ed: Young and old, urban and rur­al, across all social classes.

The hike took place on 1–8 June 2021 and led the group from Dessau to Berlin to the Bun­destag. The par­tic­i­pants walked a total dis­tance of 100 km. More infor­ma­tion about the “Walk­shop Cli­mate” can be found on the Web­site. Also feel free to check out our posi­tion paper “Gen­er­a­tional­ly just cli­mate pol­i­cy”.