Humanities and Social Sciences
Many companies offer older employees the possibility of early retirement, enabling younger and supposedly more productive employees to move up. The combination of an extended life expectancy and constantly decreasing employment is one reason for the crisis in Germany's social security systems. The researchers involved in the new Priority Programme "Age-Differentiated Work Systems" want to develop strategies on how to deploy employees in a company according to their age so that they remain employed for a longer period of time. So-called life span models are meant to give concrete information on how to optimise work sys-tems and what measures can be used to provide adequate working conditions for different age groups.
(Coordinator: Professor Dr. Ekkehart Frieling, University of Kassel)
In the wake of European unification, the question of Europe's cultural identity is being dis-cussed intensively. In the new Priority Programme "Integration and De-integration of Cul-tures in the European Middle Ages", researchers are questioning the theory of Europe's uniform Christian culture, which was previously accepted in research. Even before the Middle Ages, Latin-Christian Europe experienced constant interaction with the Greek-Orthodox, Jew-ish and Islamic cultures. However, this confrontation did not lead to a mutual delimitation, but rather to the adaptation and exchange of different religious beliefs. The participating histori-ans, Islamic researchers, economists and theologians hope to achieve a better understanding of the historical development of Europe by studying transcultural relat
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Contact: Dr. Cornelia Pretzer
cornelia.pretzer@dfg.de
49-228-885-2376
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
21-May-2004