Contact person:

Tor Gjertsen
Title: Associate Professor
Address: Finnmark State College, N-9509 Alta, Norway
Phone: + 47 784 50275
Fax: + 47 784 34438
Email: torgj@hifm.no

Advanced Emphasis Description:

In the course programme we use an multidisciplinary approach to the development challenges and problems that small communities in the Barents Region are facing, focussing on both business and community development. Special emphasis will be placed on business development, based on natural resources in the region (fish, fish farming, reindeer herding, minerals, gas and petroleum related activities and tourism). The multicultural dimension of our society creates a special dynamics to social, political and economical change and development. 

The course consists of three modules, based on a regional development program and a model for community workshops. The development program and the workshop model awere developed by Finnmark College in cooperation with municipal and county authorities, representantives of business and civil society organizations in the region. 

1. Regional economics and innovation (6+4 ECTS)
2. Management of change and development (6+4 ECTS)
3. Natural resource based businesses and industries (6+4 ECTS)   

Teaching in all three modules will be problem –oriented, and thematically organized and related to the regional development program in mention, and the priorities of the local communites hosting the workshops.

The workshops alternate between communities on the coast and the inland of Finnmark, the northernmost county of Norway, and the focus and content of the course will vary accordingly. The challenges these communities are facing are very much the same as small coastal and inland communities in other parts of the North Atlantic Region are facing. The development program and the project of community workshops are part of a regional innovation network created to stimulate community and business development in the Barents region.

As a means to actualize teaching and curriculum and increase student motivation, we also invite the students to participate actively in the planning, organizing and following up of the community workshops inside the framework of the regional development program. From day one they will be working with both theoretical and practical tasks related to both former community workshops and new ones in planning. The course will be offered in the spring semester, since the workshops usually take place during spring and early summer. Apart from the community workshops, 2-3 excursions will be organized to the local communities andas well as the regional development agencies and institutions that we are working together with. Representatives of these agencies and institutions, local and county authorities, the business community and civil society organizations in the region will also be involved directly in the teaching and learning process, at the College, on excursions and at workshops.

At the workshops the students will be assigned different analytical and practical tasks in relation to the main objectives of the workshops and the modules of the course. At the end of the course the student shall write a report from the workshop they participated in, where they are expected to use and synthesize the different theoretical and practical components of the course. This explains the 6+4 ECTS credit model, that which indicates that 4 out of the 10 credits each of that the modules consists of, i s directly related to the community workshops, including planning, field work as well as writing papers and a project report .

An ad-hoc resource group, consisting of staff members from different departments and faculties at the College, will be established to assist the communities through the workshops and the development program. Members of the group will also take part in teaching and tutoring of students.  

Advanced Emphasis Details:

1. Regional Economics and Innovation
The student will be introduced to national and regional economic geography and history. The main theme will be to create a general understanding of the dynamics of regional economic development.  

Important issues will be endogenous economic growth, agglomeration and clustering, innovation systems and learning processes in small and medium size enterprises (SME).         

2. Management of change and development
Regional politics, planning and development
Regional innovation and innovation systems
Organization theory and organization development
Project management, networking and partnership models for development

3. Natural resource based businesses and industries
Description and analysis of the organization and economics of resource based industries in the Barents Region (fishing and aquaculture, reindeer and outfield businesses, non-renewable recourses (oil, gas and minerals)).

Sustainable development and development processes
Environment assessment analysis 

Case studies of specific businesses, with emphasis on innovation and product/process development.

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