Our team and Partners

Project Coordinator - Dr. Marge Unt

As a kid, I never wanted to grow up. To me, the grown-up world was not something to look for. What is this "work" they always claim to have? Why do they refuse to run around in fields and find shapes in clouds? And why do adults assume that they know it all and are still so stressed? Now, I have made this transition and have entered the world of my own family and work. However, I am still deeply interested in how youth experience becoming an adult in different contexts.

 

Project Co-coordinator - Prof. Dr. Michael Gebel

When I grew up, Germany experienced serious mass unemployment and was called the “sick man of Europe”. I saw friends suffering from unemployment and insecure jobs. But there were also success stories of friends coping with such a situation and also escaping from it. Nowadays, after a period of policy reforms, the situation is better in Germany but there are still many problems. These observations raised my interest in understanding how youths avoid getting into trouble and which policies help.

 

 

Get to know all researchers that are engaged in the project. Read the personal story of each researcher by clicking on her/his picture.

Nataliia Shapoval

Nataliia Shapoval

Position: Project Policy Manager and Research Associate

Field of study: Economics

Research topics: Labor economics, health Economics

After graduation the National University in the capital, I have been working as an entrepreneur in light industry for some time. Once, I had to go to one of the remote regions of Ukraine to meet partners. It was an eye-opening experience to see that some regions of my country had almost no opportunities for people – locals couldn`t get proper education there, couldn`t get descent work place, entrenched corruption didn`t allow to start a business. Getting married and having children was tantamount to reduced chances to find the job or migrate. The situation seemed forlorn. And it is still extant. I decided than that we all, and me in particular, in the capital, had to work much more to foster the economic development to create equal opportunities for people in all the regions. This idea is still with me. I believe that people who were born with better chances, than many other people in our societies, have to work hard to reduce the inequality.

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Advisory board:

Hans-Peter Blossfeld
Caroline Dewilde
Duncan Gallie
Massimiliano Mascherini
Jale Tosun
Gianfranco Bordone
Laura Orestano
Franco Chiaramonte
Luca Chiapella
Vanessa Di Paola
Virginie Mora
Ruth Santos-Brien
Rita Bergstein

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