«Monthly topic: A thousand billion responsibilities - balancing act between retirement and a world to live in. A contradiction?»
WAV Recherchekollektiv und Tsüri.ch

A regular series titled «Monthly Topics» of talks organised by Gessnerallee in cooperation with editorial teams. Once a month, an editorial team selects a key journalistic topic and shares it live with the audience. This time it's about what the investments of our pension funds have to do with us. 

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  • Wed 05/11 19:30 – 21:00

    Stall 6

Copyright: Bodara GmbH

Pension funds are the largest investors in Switzerland. However, which companies and countries they invest in is usually a black box. 

The ‘Thousand Billion Responsibility’ project is changing that. In collaboration with local media, the WAV Recherchekollektiv and CORRECTIV.Schweiz are publishing the detailed investments of public pension funds. Together with Tsüri.ch, they are also investigating the investments of the funds from Zurich.

A look at the books of the Zurich pension funds shows that they either invest in the largest fracking companies worldwide or continue to insist on a lack of transparency. This raises questions. What expectations do we have of our pension funds in terms of investments and transparency? And what about the supposed conflict between profitability and sustainability? 

The WAV Research Collective will be talking about this as part of the monthly topics at the Gessnerallee. They are making a rather dry topic accessible - there will be a thematic input and a small town meeting to discuss the investments of pension funds.

More about the journalistic research: https://wav.info/recherchen/tausend-milliarden-franken-verantwortung 

The new series titled «Monthly Topics» was inspired by the much-loved «Kosmopolitics» series, which took place in the former Kosmos. The series will be kicked off by the WAV research collective and Tsüri.ch 

Information on language

The series of talks will be held in German spoken language.

Overview of the upcoming «Monthly Topics»

4 December, «Monthly Topic: Abuse of power at Swiss universities»

Have you experienced abuse of power at a Swiss university? Well over 100 people responded to this call from the investigative research team REFLEKT in summer 2025. They told of emotional manipulation, intimidation, exploitation of dependency relationships or sexual harassment. And they explained the extent to which they felt supported by their university - or not.

The REFLEKT journalists examined and contextualised this feedback together with experts. On stage, they will provide insights into their months of research and discuss with experts: Why is it so difficult to deal with such cases? Where do the institutions fail? And what urgently needs to change?

January 7, «Monthly topic: An evening on barriers and how we dismantle them»

Since November 2024, CORRECTIV.Schweiz has been researching visible and invisible barriers in everyday life as part of the «Achtung Barriere! Where is life made more difficult for you?» project, the editorial team has been researching visible and invisible barriers in everyday life - in the city, in social life and in our minds. The focus is on people with disabilities and the challenges they face on a daily basis. How does it feel to navigate through public spaces as a blind, autistic or mobility-impaired person? What barriers arise due to bureaucratic structures, a lack of consideration or a lack of knowledge? And what does it mean when even the right to leisure, self-determination or safety is up for debate? On this evening, CORRECTIV.Schweiz gives space to one or more of these questions - with personal texts, conversations and perspectives that are often not heard enough.

About the editorial offices

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