Einstein Center Population Diversity

The Einstein Center Population Diversity (ECPD) will study the consequences of increasing population diversity for social inequality and health disparities by focusing on the growing diversity of families, including changing conceptions of the family itself. The family is the primary arena where inequalities are (re-)produced within and across generations, in and through the continuous interaction with social policy, the labor market, and educational institutions. Changing family patterns are a source of growing population diversity on the societal level and a driver of social inequality and wellbeing on the individual and household level.

The ECPD transcends disciplinary silos by linking biomedical sciences and social sciences, to conduct collaborative research on the interrelations between family diversity, health, education. This will be done by a group of leading scholars in demography, sociology, medicine, psychology, and health sciences. The ECPD will firmly establish social demography in Berlin and Germany.

The Center will promote a broader conceptual understanding of how health research, including aging, disability, mobility, and mortality as well as biological or epigenetic perspectives can enrich social science and vice versa. By linking the two strands of research, the ECPD will move toward a more comprehensive and holistic understanding of how social and health inequalities are shaped through ongoing (mega)trends and their interaction with the family sphere, thus creating a scientific basis for tackling the paramount societal challenges ahead of us.

Cooperation Partners:
- Charité–Universitätsmedizin Berlin
- Humboldt Universität zu Berlin
- Freie Universität zu Berlin
- Population Europe, Berlin
- German Socio-Economic Panel at the DIW Berlin
- Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences
- WZB Berlin Social Science Center
- Leverhulme Centre for Demographic Science, University of Oxford

Funding period: 2024-2029
Founder: Einstein Foundation Berlin