Future of Families Exercise II

Share Print Send A+ A-

18th June 2010

This internal workgroup meeting, for Consortium and Advisory Board members, took place in Witten-Bommerholz (near Dortmund, Germany) from the 9th-11th June 2010. It is the second of the two meetings held under this area of work.

Organised by the Austrian Institute for Family Studies (University of Vienna), it was the occasion to further refine future scenarios and narratives, and to discuss not only the policy implications of these future scenarios, but also corresponding research issues. There was also discussion about social innovations alluded to in the scenarios and narratives.

This work will now be finalised, and the outcome of this will be published online in full this summer.

This was the occasion to finalise the scenarios and narratives. As before, two groups individually tacked two of the four scenarios and corresponding narratives.
The meeting took place at Universitätskolleg Bommerholz, allowing the team to enjoy some sunshine.
A number of key policy issues were distilled from the narratives and scenarios.
In addition, both groups independently highlighted the necessity of viewing the family and key events in terms of the lifecourses of individual members.
A number of 'Social Innovations' were also identified: policy or other innovations that may help increase the wellbeing of families.
In a plenary session on the final day, both groups described the discussions that had taken place. This led to a debate on the policy and research areas which the work on the future of families had revealed as necessary. The scenarios, narratives, and the final report will be made available from this website as soon as they are available.