Reframing Demography:

Multi-Dimensional Perspectives

for Sustainable Development

Prof. Lutz is the deputy director-general for Science at IIASA, director of the Vienna Institute of Demography at the Austrian Academy of Sciences, head of the Department of Demography at the University of Vienna. He is member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, the German National Academy Leopoldina, the European Academy of Sciences, the World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) ，and the United States National Academy of Sciences (NAS).

 Prof. Xizhe Peng

Dean, Fudan Institute on Ageing

Vice Dean, Fudan Development Institute

15:00-16:30

April 15, 2026

Room 402,

Think Tank Building,

Fudan University

Human beings are at core of sustainable development. For this reason the analysis of the changing size and structures of human populations is essential for understanding the challenges faced by humanity’s strive for sustainable development and for anticipating the effects of already unavoidable climate change and other environmental change on future human well-being. Conventional demographic approaches that consider only population size and age structures can not adequately capture these important aspects. This is why multi-dimensional demographic analysis which explicitly considers the heterogeneity of human populations by age, sex, level of education, labor force participation, place of residence and other demographic dimensions is the more relevant and appropriate approach for the study of sustainable development. This is also the reason why the SSP Framework (Shared Socio-economic Pathways) widely used in the climate change research community has chosen a multi-dimensional demographic approach. The lecture will also give various concrete examples for the importance of a multi-dimensional demographic approach in sustainability science.

Welcome!