Læringsutbytte

Knowledge

Students shall acquire knowledge about:

• Norway’s past and contemporary self understanding
• Norway’s changing role in the world (from viking raids over a peace nation and “model” welfare state, to an oil state)
• Contemporary challenges in Norway and their historical roots (the role of native people, religion etc.)

Skills

Students:

• can use basic social scientific terminology, modes of explanation and theories in their professional work
• can reflect on national history in its interaction with world history and make connections to contemporary social change
• can use and evaluate different tools that can be employed to bring social scientific subjects closer to its students

General competences

Students:

• can keep themselves up to date on the subject matter and reflect their own professional practice
• can critically reflect on social scientific questions

Innhold

Participants in this course in the social sciences will get insight about Norway’s role in the world. We will explore the different aspects of Norwegian identity, both in its historical roots and in its contemporary forms. Why is the whole nation waving flags on May 17th? What are the reasons for Norway not joining the European Union? What makes the Norwegian welfare state so special, and how does it deal with a world on the move, where people live in many different countries, sometimes only visiting as tourists, sometimes coming as permanent migrants?

We will try to answer these questions together with the help of the most current research on these topics, by visiting and talking to experts “in the field”, for example in Oslo, and through group work on selected questions. Since no single academic discipline will be able to answer all of these questions, we are combining perspectives from history, sociology and human geography – always focusing on the problem at hand. But we will also build connections to school life and occupy ourselves for example with school-based peace projects. After completing the course, you will be able to better understand how oil, the Nobel Peace Prize and the egalitarian society of Norway interact and how they together shape the role of Norway in the 21st century.

Arbeids- og læringsformer

We will use a variety of activities to achieve the study goals of this course, among them excursions and discussions with experts, use of sources and in-class discussions.

Designated parts of the program are mandatory, as will be stated in the syllabus.

Vurderingsformer

We will combine two exam forms: a group exam, and either a small practical research unit (annotate a map, do an interview on a subject matter, observe a place – these activities will be documented and accompanied by a brief essay) or an oral exam.

Det tas forbehold om mindre justeringer i planen.