Scandinavian Studies

This course provides international students with an overview of Danish architecture and urban planning over the last 100 years with an emphasis on the human perspective of architecture. Examples of architecture with a Nordic approach to the planning and design of the physical environment are demonstrated. The course discusses the key elements of culture, climate, and scale in relations to the way the profession and the Nordic welfare states have been dealing with the international trends and styles as they have been translated into the local settings. Field trips to explore examples of the architecture and planning are important elements of this lecture based course.

The course offers a wide-ranging survey of Scandinavian history and culture (literature, film, and the visual arts), with a focus on the Viking Age, the later Middle Ages and the Nordic Enlightenment. Students learn about the individuality of the Scandinavian nations, of their shared heritage, and their connections with Europe as a whole in respect of the periods studied. No language knowledge is involved and all texts are dealt with in translation. When available, this course can be taken together with Scandinavian Civilisation B (when available) to form a 40 credit block, ideal for outside subjects and full-year visiting students.

This course is a cursory introduction to the recent socio-environmental history of Denmark that focuses on such issues as social cohesion, pollution, energy, biodiversity, climate change, knowledge production, governance, economy, technology and everyday environmentalism will form the common ground for transnational and transdisciplinary comparisons. In seminars and discussions, various analytical approaches and their reach and applicability for a truly sustainable development are examined.

The course offers students an introduction to modern Swedish society from an anthropological perspective. It is based on issues of politics, social norms, and social change in Sweden and on a number of ethnographical research studies. Anthropology is often based on an empirical understanding of people's experiences and can therefore provide insights into the everyday life of people and organizations. The course enables students to investigate and analyze case studies of social and political changes in Swedish society. Examples of this include the views of political governance, work and education, and focusing on the way they affect the people concerned.