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Ansvarlig avdeling: AVDELING FOR NÆRINGS- OG SOSIALFAG
Studieområde: ØKONOMI OG ADMINISTRASJON
Studiepoeng: 15 (10+5)
Kode:
Godkjent: DK 31.03.08
Semester: Spring
Lecturer: Tor Gjertsen and Sigurd Westgaard
Purpose
The aim of this course is to give the students theoretical and practical knowledge about the global challenges communities in the Circumpolar North are facing and how they are coping with them. Models and methods used in community governance and community development, both on a local and regional level, will be presented and discussed in relation to development theory and a selection of empirical cases from Northern Canada and the Euro-Arctic (Barents) region, with emphasis on Northern Scandinavia. The student will become familiar with different local and regional development models and coping strategies in use, that will be identified and analyzed through the course, especially processes developing with a bottom-up strategy, involving joint efforts of local authorities, civil society actors and enterprise networks (different kinds of governance, partnership and network models).
Under pedagogical guidance and following up the students shall have the opportunity to practice, and at the same time analyze and reflect on, some of the development models and methods taught in the course, through their participation in planning, organizing and evaluation of local and/or regional development workshops.
Teaching language
English. Norwegian students can present case term papers and their final exam in norwegian. If there are no foreign students the course will be taught in norwegian.
Prerequisites
Basic knowledge in political and organization theory and/or practice in local development work
Contents
This course is mainly about how communities in the North or the Circumpolar Area can develop as a whole, politically, socially and economically, in ways that serve their needs and are appropriate to their environment, culture and their own expectations. Emphasis will be both on the conceptual and definitional elements of core ideas in the course and empirical findings of the students through participation in the project local and regional development workshops. The methodology used is based on a comparative case study approach, in which the global, central-local dimension of community development is fundamental.
Module 1: Global and local dimensions of development.
Within the process of globalization, the ambiguous consequences of radical modernity might be more apparent in the Northern regions of Canada, Russia, USA and the Nordic countries, than anywhere else in the World. The circumpolar region is an extremely modernized periphery, no matter the strong dependency upon natural resources. How do and can local communities in the region organize themselves politically and socially to take advantage of what we often find to be a privileged natural resource situation and from that develop long term sustainable coping strategies and processes in a more and more globalized world? We will give special attention to small, peripheral communities in the North, included indigenous communities.
Module 2: Inclusive Democracy and Empowerment.
Recent research in the field of local and regional development has come up with concepts like civil society organizations, social capital, empowerment, embeddedness, networking, partnership, local knowledge and not to forget the importance of broad, open and participative political decision processes in their attempt to identify and explain successful community development projects and processes.
Module 3: From Government to Governance in steering of local and regional development processes.
When it comes to management or steering of local or regional development processes the same researchers have identified an important political success factor, namely a change from a “government” to “governance” type of processes, in other words, what Friedman (1992) describes as “inclusive democracy” in “Empowerment: The Politics of Alternative Development”.
Module 4: Community Development – in a regional circumpolar context.
In this module different models and methods used in community development in the Circumpolar area will be presented and discussed in relation to local and global challenges. Communities all over the Circumpolar North are facing very much the same type of social, political and economic challenges. The smallest communities do not always have the human, organizational and economic resources necessary to initiate broad community development processes. It is therefore useful to have a regional perspective on community development, including regional development agencies, both private and public, and inter-community/municipal cooperation. The main focus will be on planning, execution and evaluation of local and/or regional development programs and workshops.
Design
Lectures will be combined with seminars and excursions to local communities (municipalities) and other development and research institutions in the region. In planning and organization of local and/or regional development workshops students will be assigned analytical and practical tasks in relation to the main objectives of the workshops and the modules of the course. This work shall preferably be done through teacher organized student groups. The students group semester paper can, if the students choose so, be written based on their experience with the community workshop they participate in. Here they are expected to use and synthesize the different theoretical and practical components of the three courses in the study program
Teaching methods
Active self-studies among the students, literature search, also using different net-based tools, paper presentations and discussions, mainly at seminars, group work based on empirical cases, student involvement in the planning, execution and evaluation of local and/or regional workshops
Formative evaluation
Obligatory group/individual case term paper. The paper has to be approved before the students can present themselves for the final exam
Summative evaluation
Individual written 5 hours exam
Marks
A - F, A is the best mark, E is the lowest mark for pass. F is fail
Litterature
A reading list will be presented at the start of the course
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