The project “European Societal Challenges in German Culture: Exploring Ageing and Climate Change in Tandem” (2025-2026), based at the Centre for European Studies, is co-led by CEUROS director Dr Michaela Schrage-Früh (Associate Professor in German, UL) and Dr Tina-Karen Pusse (Associate Professor in German, University of Galway).

The research team comprising sixteen researchers from Ireland, the UK, Germany, and Austria explores cultural responses to current societal challenges, with particular focus on population ageing and climate change. In media across Europe, population ageing is often depicted as a ‘burden narrative’, couched in metaphors of natural disaster such as the ‘silver tsunami’, while the impending climate catastrophe is frequently presented in terms of a generational war.

Accordingly, this project seeks to analyse how both challenges are intertwined in German cultural representations in a comparative European context and explore in how far they confirm or challenge binary opposition based on chronological age. Besides a symposium, a book publication with co-authored chapters, and a website with an open access database, the project will entail a series of readings, roundtables, and a creative competition for undergraduate students.

https://ageing-and-climate-change-in-german-culture.com/about/