The cooperation project “New Directions in ‘Active Ageing’ and ‘Age-friendly Culture’ in India and Germany” between Heidelberg University (HU), Germany, and Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), India offers an innovative, multifaceted program for an interdisciplinary knowledge exchange. The initiative is funded within the framework of Indo-German Partnership in Higher Education (IGP) by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) for a period of four years from 2016 to 2020. Both Germany and India face the challenges of “active ageing” and “age-friendly culture,” but in different ways. With this purpose, the program has been established to enhance “active ageing” and “age-friendly cultures” in India and Germany through various forms of knowledge exchange and to expand the focus through research-based teaching in Heidelberg and Delhi. The exchange program comprises researchers, students, doctoral candidates as well as post-doctoral fellows. It relies on a mix of research (short-term stays), teaching, discussion (spring, summer or winter schools) and the incorporation of the “Film Festival for Generations“. It will develop further research profiles on themes related to “active ageing“ and “age-friendly culture“ through pilot projects and PhD research. The core themes are namely:
In this program, participants from Heidelberg University include the Institute for Gerontology (Prof. Andreas Kruse, Dr. Michael Doh), the South Asia Institute (Prof. William S. Sax, Dr. Martin Gieselmann), and the Heidelberg Centre for Transcultural Studies (Prof. Christiane Brosius). The New Delhi partners from Jawaharlal Nehru University are the Zakir Husain Centre for Educational Studies (Prof. Minati Panda), the Centre for the Study of Social Systems (Prof. Surinder Jodhka), and the Centre of Social Medicine & Community Health (Prof. Mohan Rao). The project is designed to build upon existing synergies between JNU and HU by introducing a new topic that is of great relevance to both Germany and India.
The aim of the project “New Directions in ‘Active Ageing‘ and ‘Age-friendly Culture“ in India and Germany is to initialize and foster cooperation between Heidelberg University, Germany and Jawaharlal Nehru University, India.
The aims of the project are: