Is the social European model no longer sustainable, as Mario Draghi, President of the European Central Bank, stated in an interview with the Wall Street Journal in February 2012? The Eurozone crisis, which is affecting particularly strongly the economies of the periphery of the monetary union, is leading to rising unemployment and large cuts in public spending in countries such as Portugal, Ireland, Greece, Spain and Italy. The welfare state is threatened by these developments, and the persons most concerned are the younger generations, as youth unemployment is rising above 50% in some of these countries.
This year’s Academia Engelberg conference is dealing with the future of the welfare state and how social security is jeopardized by ageing of the population and the financial crisis. The conference analyzes the development and different forms of welfare states, examines the current social realities in the European context in terms of generational relations, family living environments, youth unemployment, and creates the prospects for future developments of welfare states.
The Swiss Study Foundation is happy to partner up with the Academia Engelberg Foundation once again to enable a maximum of 6 interested students to participate at the 2013 conference. Students from the Swiss Study Foundation are supposed to participate in an active way at the conference; there are two different possibilities:
A) Student reporters, who will write summaries of the three different conference days for the Academia Engelberg blog.
B) Student rapporteurs, who will present a summary of the conference on Wednesday, October 30, 2013, at Herrenhaus in Grafenort (11h30-14h15).
Costs: Board and lodging for the duration of this seminar will be paid for by the organizers.
Number of Participants: A maximum of 6 students from the Swiss Study Foundation.
Language: English and German
Place: Engelberg
Date: Tuesday, 15 October 2013, to Thursday, 17 October 2013.
