Local and national communities and conflicts

The course addresses social, political, economic, and cultural communities in national, regional, and local contexts in Norway, both historically and in the present. The course studies cooperation and conflicts within and between different communities, and examines the causes and consequences of exclusion. This is done through two main themes:

(1) The Norwegian nation and its background for community, exclusion, and conflicts. The main theme will touch on nationalism, nation-building, and external factors affecting the nation’s sovereignty. The Norwegian society and democracy’s influence on economic and political globalization, transnationality, and supranationality are included. The main theme also studies challenges arising from the nation’s relationship with internal diversity. Here, topics such as indigenous peoples, national minorities, migration, integration, and exclusion will be examined.

(2) The rural/urban dimension. This main theme emphasizes relationships, communities, conflict lines, culture, and identity in the meeting and division between rural and urban areas in Norway and in the relationship between the local and the national. The theme also emphasizes urban development, how urban development occurs and has occurred, and which actors influence the development.

From a didactic perspective, the course’s themes are related to how we handle and should handle disagreement and conflict both in public spaces and in the classroom. Freedom of expression and a culture of debate are central. The course also addresses how place, memories, and representations of the past can form the basis for identity and community. The course emphasizes academic writing, text analysis, concept formation, and concept learning in social studies.

Knowledge

The student

• has in-depth knowledge of how place, region, and nation can form the basis for community, identity building, and conflict.

• has advanced knowledge of various communities and processes that create identity, integration, and trust, as well as the causes and consequences of segregation and exclusion.

• has advanced knowledge of the relationship between nation and nationalism, supranationality and transnationality, and democracy, and some selected conflicts that nation-building has created.

• has in-depth knowledge of regional comparison, theories of regional development, and the significance of dividing lines in the rural/urban dimension.

• has advanced knowledge of migration and relocation, segregation, and differentiation from a place and city perspective.

• has in-depth knowledge of how children and young people encounter disagreement and conflict about politics and society and what this means for citizenship, freedom of expression, and opinion formation.

Skills

The student

• can use academic writing, concepts, text analysis, as well as maps and statistics both as an entry point to research and as a basis for critical social studies teaching.

• can analyze and critically relate to research on the interaction between local, regional, and national conditions and use this insight in teaching.

• can apply debate, discussion, and academic terminology in learning contexts.

• can critically analyze processes that shape identity and belonging and what creates segregation and exclusion.

General Competence

The student

• can analyze public opinion formation and debate based on social science insights from the course.

• can analyze and assess professional and ethical issues related to political, social, resource-related, and economic conditions in the interaction between local, regional, and national levels.

Lectures, seminars, independent work, and group work. Completion of mandatory and other assignments individually and in groups. Fieldwork and exploratory teaching where geographical, historical, political, and social conditions are discussed and examined.