UT-407 Place, identity and diversity

The course is connected to the following study programs

• Master's Programme in Samfunnsplanlegging, sted og prosess
• Master's Programme in Global Development and Planning

Teaching language

Norwegian

Course contents

For this course a basic understanding of mobility as an important factor in people's everyday life this course is key. Mobility must be understood as a factor influencing cultural expressions, identity and development of place. Mobility is thus expressed in themes such as migration and translocality, diaspora and integration. The course has a critical perspective that allows for new ways of understanding mobility, identity and cultural diversity, as well as the (inter)connection between these terms.

The course offers a multidisciplinary theoretical approach to the overarching themes mobility, identity and diversity, including different forms of migration and diaspora challenges, the connections to construction of place and identity as well as understandings and construction of identity in multicultural societies. The course addresses understandings of social, political and religious dimensions of mobility, including integration challenges as well as planning for diversity and cultural complexity in different geographical and cultural contexts.

The following topics will be discussed in the course:

• • Mobile worlds and mobile lives

  • Rural, urban and translocal identities

  • Mobility and politics, participation, reciprocity, inclusion and exclusion

  • Integration and cultural diversity

  • Cultural diversity and significance for planning and development of place

From theoretical discussions to practical examples: this part of the course is based on case studies from different cultural context illustrating how mobility, translocality and integration must be understood differently depending on the geographical context, understanding of identity and political system and welfare system

Learning outcomes

When having completed the course students are expected to:

• Have thorough knowledge about different theoretical and methodological approaches to the study of mobility, identity and place, for instance through migration studies, cultural studies, anthropology and geography

• Have gained the required theoretical understandings for analysing different forms of migration as well as translocality and descendant generations, challenges within integration and cultural diversity as a dimension of a multi-cultural society

• Be able to discuss and analyse the different connections between mobility, place and identity

• Have throughout knowledge of empirical examples through different places, identity and mobility in different geographical and cultural contexts

• Have produced a written essay with focus on one particularly chosen topic relevant to the course

Teaching methods

Campus based classes, full day seminars .

Evaluation

The person responsible for the course decides, in cooperation with student representative, the form of student evaluation and whether the course is to have a midway or end of course evaluation in accordance with the quality system for education, chapter 4.1.

Assessment methods and criteria

Portfolio assessment with various work requirements and submissions. The grades A-F are used (ECTS grading scale).