University
of Bergen : General information
Faculty of Social Sciences
Established: 1970
Dean: Alf Erling Risa
Director of Faculty: Lise Gundersen
Address: Harald Hårfagres gt. 1
N-5020 Bergen, Norway
Tel: +47 55 58 93 80
Fax: +47 55 58 93 83
E-mail: post@svfa.uib.no
Homepage: http://www.svf.uib.no
Rokkan and Barth
The names of Fredrik Barth and Stein Rokkan are closely identified with
the University of Bergen. Both were members of the committee that drew up
a profile for the social sciences at the University in 1963, and each of
them represented a radically new point of view in Norwegian social science.
When the Faculty of Social Sciences was established in 1971, they had already
created the foundations of a new type of social science research which put
the University in a central position in Norway in this field.
Both Rokkan and Barth broke new theoretical ground in the social sciences.
Barth made Bergen the centre of social anthropology in Scandinavia, with
high status in a wider international context. Rokkan laid the foundations
of such disciplines as comparative politics, administration and organization
theory, and information science.
One consequence of the relatively short history of the social sciences
in Bergen is that we can still trace its founders' ideas in current research
and in the organization of this field at UoB. The development of the social
sciences in Bergen has moved on from an emphasis on the interests of the
actors involved, the real location of power in society and social structures,
to perspectives of organizational theory and a greater interest in cultural
phenomena. Nevertheless, continuity rather than fragmentation is what
characterizes the history of the social sciences at the University of
Bergen.
Comparative politics in China
China has demonstrated its interest in the Scandinavian welfare model.
In autumn 1995, Chinese students had the opportunity to attend lectures
on Scandinavian politics given by academic staff of the University of
Bergen. Researchers from the Department of Comparative Politics have played
a central role in setting up the Scandinavian Centre at Fudan University
in Shanghai. The Centre is a joint effort by the University of Bergen,
the University of Oslo and the Norwegian School of Management.
The first contacts between Fudan University and the Department of Comparative
Politics were set up in the mid-eighties. Associate professor Torstein
Hjellum and Professor Stein Kuhnle have visited the University on a number
of occasions, and Chinese teaching staff have spent periods of time at
the Department in Bergen. Norwegian students can study Asian culture,
languages and politics at the Centre. The Department of Comparative Politics
will also draw its sister departments at other Scandinavian universities
into the development of cooperation with this university in Shanghai,
which is regarded as one of the three best, and most important, in China.
IMER:
research on the migration of peoples
The world is on the move; huge numbers of people are travelling over great
distances. Relationships between ethnic groups are being challenged, and
have become a burning political topic. The IMER programme (International
Migration and Ethnic Relations) run by the Faculty of Social Sciences
is the result of a growing need for knowledge and interdisciplinary research
on the topic of international migration and ethnic relations. The Centre
for Social Research coordinates the programme.
Migration and immigration demand new knowledge in a number of fields,
such as languages, multicultural societies, international relations, the
organization of public-sector initiatives, work, schooling and education.
The IMER programme aims to give this field of research a more broadly-based
foothold at the University of Bergen, and to make this University an international
centre of excellence in the area of international migration.
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