BSRS 2008:Courses
Main content
The Bergen Summer Research School targets PhD students and junior faculty. MA level students will be accepted depending on available space and academic qualifications.
Course 1
Course 1
Development from Below: Empowering the Poor
Course leaders
Bertil Tungodden, Professor, Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration (NHH)
Kjetil Bjorvatn, Professor NHH
Invited course leaders
Jakob Svensson, Professor of Development Economics, Institute for International Economic Studies, Stockholm University
Ottar Mæstad, Senior Researcher, Chr. Michelsen Institute (CMI)
Magnus Hatlebakk, Senior Researcher, CMI.
Short course description
The course offers a critical overview of recent work in development economics that has focused on the importance of empowering the poor, by providing information, education, and credit.
The course covers both theoretical and empirical approaches.
A key element of the course will be to introduce the students to ongoing research projects in Africa conducted by the course leaders.
Course 2
Course 2
Human Rights in Development
Course leaders
Siri Gloppen, Associate professor, CMI/UiB
Ivar Kolstad, Researcher, CMI
Invited course leaders
Roberto Gargarella , Professor of Law and Constitutional Theory, Universidad Torcuato Di Tella, Buenos Aires, Argentina/CMI
Ali Yamin , Human Rights Programme, Harvard Law School, USA
Jacki Dugard , Centre for Applied Legal Studies, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa
Short course description
Processes of globalization and judicialization changes the nature of politics in many parts of the world and represent challenges – and opportunities – for economic and political development. Human rights norms – civil and political rights, as well as social, economic and cultural rights – are obligations that states commit to through international treaties as well as in their constitutions.
The commitments are, on the face of it, stronger than ever, and commit leaders to prioritize development for the poor and vulnerable. But what does this imply in practice?
Course 3
Cource 3
Professions and societal development
Course leaders
Tom Skauge (PDF), Associate professor, Bergen University College (HiB)
Tor Halvorsen, Associate Professor, Department of Administration and Organization, UIB
Invited course leaders
Konrad K. Jarausch, Professor, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA
Francis Appiah, Professor, Executive Secretary of the National African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM), Governing Council Secretariat, Ghana
Kjell Underlid, Professor, Faculty of Health and Social Sciences, HiB
Janet Harris, Associate Professor, Centre for Knowledge Based Practice, HiB
Thorolf Krüger, Professor Faculty of Education, HiB
Anne-Mette Magnussen, Associate Professor, HiB
Camilo Pérez-Bustillo, Professor Autonomous University of Mexico City
Short course description
This course is designed for new PhD students as a broad introduction of research on the division of professions and expert labor as well as selected areas of specialization. Professions provide the important link between the world of work and the world of education, the two basic institutions contributing to human and societal development. The course will give an overview of some of the classical texts of the theory of professions and the link between professions and modernity.
Theoretical developments, such as the actor-based framework for the study of the professions developed by Konrad H. Jarausch amongst others and systems of professions as discussed by Andrew Abbott will be of central importance for discussions of relations between professions, professions and the state and questions of how professions have contributed to democratic and societal development. Newer theories on professions and societal development will be discussed against new knowledge on gender, class and culture.
The PhD-course will also raise the issue of professions and societal development in different contexts. Special emphasis will be placed on the role of professionals and the emergence of new knowledge societies and the potential role of knowledge in poverty reduction strategies.
Other themes include a more detailed presentation of systems of and sources for professional knowledge, such as the discussion concerning evidence based knowledge and other sources of expert knowledge. Attention will also be placed on ethical challenges in professional work and education for professional work, leadership in professions and in knowledge based organizations and the dilemma between profession and organization. Trust and power as systems of authorization and market closure are also important issues that will be raised.
Course 4
Course 4
More food from Water? CANCELLED
Course leaders
Petter Larsson, Professor, Department of Biology, UiB
Rune Rosland, Associate professor, Department of Biology, UiB
Jeppe Kolding, Associate professor, Fisheries Biology/Fisheries Management, UiB
Ragnar Nortvedt, Professor in Seafood Quality and Food Processin, UiB
Invited course leader
Christophe Béné, Senior advisor, Small-scale Fisheries and Development, World Fish Center (Cairo), Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR)
Short course description
This course looks at the possibilities and constraints for food production in aquatic ecosystems. The aim is to provide a critical perspective on how aquatic food production of high nutritional quality can be enhanced through harvest practices, ecosystem manipulations and aquaculture development, and potential environmental costs linked with such actions. This course presents a selection of cases within these topics.
The course will look at ecosystem processes that are susceptible for manipulative actions, which methods are available, and how these affect the production of the system. Questions concerning possibilities for improvement, challenges and limits will be addressed.
The course will also address questions concerning environmental effects and the potential costs of actions aimed at increasing aquatic food production.
The final part of the course will look closer into the beneficial utilization of aquatic products and by-products for human nutrition.
Course 5
Course 5
Research methods, impacts and adaptation policies: A Course on research methods in climate change and health
Course leaders
Bernt Lindtjørn, Professor, Centre for International Health, UIB
Asgeir Sorteberg, Researcher, Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research, UiB/Unifob
Helge Drange, Professor, Nansen Environmental and Remote Sensing Centre
Invited course leader
Rainer Sauerborn (PDF), Professor, Department of Tropical Hygiene and Public Health, University of Heidelberg, Germany
Short course description
There is a great need to better understand the scientific links and strengthen the capacity to assess the impacts of climate change and variability on public health with the aim of providing better tools for decision-makers to develop strategies to reduce or prevent such impacts.
The course will explore the links between human health and Earth’s environment and consider the implications of those links for human health in a changing environment.
Course 6
Course 6
Rich and poor countries: Global History matters
Course leaders
Camilla Brautaset, Associate professor, Department of Archaeology, History, Culture and Religion, UiB
Eivind Heldaas Seland, Researcher, Department of Archaeology, History, Culture and Religion, UiB
Invited course leader
Regina Grafe, Associate Professor, Northwestern University, Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, Department of History
Guest lecturer
Stig Tenold, Associate professor , Department of Economics, Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration (NHH)
Short course description
We live in a divided world. The divergence between rich and poor countries has never been as large as it is today. This course aims at providing an overview and insight into important historical processes and experiences that address wealth and poverty in a global perspective.
The empirical framework of analysis stretches from around 1800 towards the present day, but where emphasis is laid upon the development in the 20th century.
We approach the issues by focusing on large geographical entities such as countries and regions. However, the course also offer in-depth analysis of the problem of poverty in micro units in the developing world based on extensive field work.
Combining historical observations with attempts of explanations, we apply a theoretical framework drawing upon research within several academic disciplines such as sociology, history and economics.
Course 7
Course 7
Introduction to mixed methods research
Course leaders
Maurice B. Mittelmark (coordinator), Professor, HEMIL, UiB
Gro Therese Lie, Professor, HEMIL, UiB
Elisabeth Fosse, Associate Professor, HEMIL, UiB
Short course description
The goal of this course is to introduce mixed method social science study designs for the conduct of individual studies, and programmes of study, suitable for research on poverty as a global challenge.
Social science and health researchers have traditionally gravitated towards either quantitative or qualitative research, and few researchers have the skills needed to successfully combine the two approaches. Yet this situation is changing, and mixed methods research is finding acceptance by peers, funding agencies and journal editors.
The appeal is that research combining qualitative and quantitative traditions may offer valuable insight about phenomena that would escape a researcher working in just one or the other tradition.
Course 8
Course 8
Global Reconfigurations of Poverty and the Public: Anthropological perspectives and ethnographic challenges
Course leader
Vigdis Broch-Due, Professor, Department of Social Anthropology, UiB
Invited course leaders
Jean Comaroff, Professor of Anthropology and of Social Sciences, Department of Anthropology, University of Chicago
Alice O'Connor , Associate Professor, Department of History, University of California, Santa Barbara
Short course description
“The Poor”, - a group figuring so prominently in contemporary media and the discourses of aid, human rights and global insecurity, in fact consist largely of the classical subjects of anthropology. While anthropologists continue to produce ethnography about the specificities of different peoples in impoverished settings, few address the problems that arise when all that cultural diversity is subsumed under the headings “Poverty” or “the Poor”. Anthropologists who do address questions of poverty are often sidelined in increasingly globalised policy debates that set quantitative “goals” and seek measurable formulae for attaining them.
Why are anthropologists vocal on the plight of distinct peoples but silent or marginalized on the subject of the “the poor”? How do we as anthropologists research, theorize, let alone compose ethnographies, that focus on such a diffuse, standardised, globalised entity as “poverty” and “the Poor”? Should we? And what are the consequences of remaining on the sidelines? These urgent questions outline the analytical challenges of this PhD course.
The approach will be historical as well as theoretical, drawing on the history of ideas, motives, and technologies for defining poverty and relating that history to contemporary anthropological dilemmas.
The course will, for instance, critically examine the conundrums and ideas arising from the 19th century global reconfiguration of “poverty” and the “public” during the era of colonialism. It will look at encounters with immigrants and with colonized and domestic racial “others.” It will trace the rise of Cold War era development and modernization projects, and it will chart the consequences of the contemporary neo-liberal demotion of poverty from social phenomenon to personal defect.
Understanding these transformations, and the new connections and configurations they have created around the world, is a challenge that has largely been ignored by anthropology to its cost. It is the challenge that this course takes up.
Course 9
Course 9
Disability, Illness, and Poverty: Identities on the margin and the effects of global forces
Course leader
Jan-Kåre Breivik, Researcher, Rokkan Centre
Invited course leader
Stuart Blume , Professor, Department of Anthropology and Sociology, University of Amsterdam. Leader of Innovia Foundation on Medicine Technology and Society – a virtual research institute concerned with user perspectives on new health care technologies.
Guest lecturers
Bodil Ravneberg, Researcher, Rokkan Centre
Thorvald Sirnes, Researcher, Rokkan Centre
Short course description
One of the aims of this workshop is to bring disability studies into the centre stage of social science developments. In order to do this we will draw upon fresh research and literature in the fields of medical anthropology/medical sociology and disability research. We will present new perspectives and new research in this field and invite interested recruits to join this PhD-workshop.
By focusing on concepts such as “Globalization, Technologies, Disability, Illness, Poverty, Bodies and Gender” we aim at providing a fresh and up-to-date outlook on key contemporary questions and challenges.
From various theoretical perspectives (political science, social anthropology, and sociology), and through in-depth analysis of empirical cases, we shall explore common questions: What is the relation between multiple individual identities, cultural diversity and political recognition of group differences? How are differences and hierarchies within groups handled? And how does this affect public policy and service provision for disabled people and people with chronic illnesses? How do the new technologies and services interfere with lived experiences and personal narratives? What is the relation between poverty and illness/disability, and access/usability of services/technology?