Elective courses
During your second year, you have the opportunity to combine the academic studies with practical experience by choosing between:
- Fieldwork (15 ECTS), or:
- Innovative practice (15 ECTS), or:
- Internship (15 ECTS)
Elective courses
Below are listed those elective courses that primarily can be included in the degree from this programme. The timing of the electives differs somewhat from year to year and the details are laid out at the introductory week of the programme. Some of the courses may, due to timing, be less compatible with the programme schedule. However, solutions can be found and the student is therefore recommended to discuss the choice of electives with the programme coordinator. There are also other courses that can be accepted as elective courses on request by the student.
Fieldwork (15 ECTS)
The course is an opportunity for students who are interested in conducting fieldwork for gathering material for their upcoming Master’s degree project. It is intended for fieldwork in developing countries, which requires more time for preparation and execution. However, other destinations for fieldwork may be considered if duly justified.
Innovative practice in a developing country (15 ECTS)
The course aims at giving the students experience in the practice of developing innovative solutions to address global sustainable development challenges, and to form competencies and skills for working in a development context. It may also serve for gathering material for the forthcoming Master thesis. This course will take place in collaboration with a partner university of a developing country with a similar program, in order to provide a twinning structure where students of both universities collaborate to help to solve practical, real-life innovation challenges. The universities that collaborate is not fixed and depend on current ongoing collaborations involving the department of economic history.
Internship (15 ECTS)
The course provides students with the opportunity of an internship that is relevant to the study programme, and the opportunity to gather material for the upcoming Master’s degree project. With the support of on-site supervision at the internship facility, the student will gain experience through sophisticated work assignments with continuous collaboration.
Globalization of Innovation (7.5 ECTS)
This is a seminar-based course offered only to a limited number of second year students enrolled in the Master program in Innovation and Global Sustainable Development. The course provides a basic understanding of how different innovation strategies are formed for firms to compete globally. It will concentrate primarily on outlining the changing patterns of global organisation of innovation, global resourcing for innovation, and global creation and dissemination of knowledge. It will introduce theories and tools for students to acquire understanding of globalisation of innovation and to develop firm’s global innovation strategy.
Elective courses provided by the Department of Economic History
Development of Emerging Economies (7.5 ECTS)
Over the last decades, global growth dynamics have shifted towards the economies of the non-Western world. The world is no longer divided between the West and the Rest. Nor is the Rest to the same extent marked by stagnation. In the course, growth dynamics of the developing world during the last decades are explored in a comparative and historical perspective. The question of why some developing economies have been able to set in motion catching-up processes, while others remain stagnant, will be discussed aided by historical-theoretical perspectives with the main focus on countries in Pacific Asia, Africa South of the Sahara and Latin America. It will be theoretically and empirically assessed to what extent the growth of the socalled global South might be sustained.
Economic Growth over Time and Space (7.5 ECTS)
Innovation and technical change is central to long term economic growth but it is treated very differently in economic theories. In a comparative manner this course presents technical change within major theoretical approaches: neoclassical growth models, endogenous growth models and evolutionary structural models. Particular attention is given to an economic historical model combined with a spatial theoretical framework of regional trajectories of growth.
Institutions, economic growth, and equity (7.5 ECTS)
This course studies the relations between institutions, modern economic growth, and equality. Problems in the world of today are taken as a point of departure for an historical analysis that covers countries and regions in different parts of the world.
China and Asia Pacific (7.5 ECTS)
This course explores and explains the processes of rapid industrialisation and socioeconomic modernisation in China and the Asia Pacific drawing on a historically –comparative institutional approach. Fundamental factors and forces behind the economic transformation are analysed against the background of leading theories of economic development and social change.
The global economy and long-term economic growth (7.5 ECTS)
This course studies historical processes of growth, convergence and divergence in the global economy over the last millennium, that is, from about AD 1000 up to the present. From a regional perspective, trends in economic growth over the period are presented and analysed using different theories of economic growth. Determinants as well as effects of international trade, migration, movements of capital and technological change are studied.
Population and living standards (7.5 ECTS)
The course consists of two parts. The first part is an overview of the population debate over the past 50 years and its intellectual roots. This part includes theories explaining both the influence of population growth on economic, social, and environmental development and vice-versa. Examples are given, showing how the theories have been used to explain the historical development of population and living standards since the Middle Ages up to modern times. The concept of living standard is extended also to include how short-term economic changes influence population behaviour. Divergence in living standards between different socio-economic groups and institutional arrangements for transfers are studied.
The second part introduces ways to model the complex interrelationship between population and living standards which are appropriate for empirical testing. The students then make use of their knowledge in theory and econometrics to analyze data for a specific country or region using information available at various data bases.
Econometrics II (7.5 ECTS)
The course consists of two parts. The first part consists of more advanced theory and methods relating to causal approaches surpassing the multivariate linear regression, limited dependent variable regression and time series analysis covered by Econometrics I. It also considers how to apply these methods through examples of how such methods are used in economic history.
Advanced Analysis of Economic Change (7.5 ECTS)
This course analyses the major debates in development economics from a long-term perspective. Economists and economic historians are increasingly aware that the process of economic growth is complex and often characterized by path dependency. There is also increasing attention for variation in institutional settings and their consequences, like differences in economic behaviour and economic outcomes. This course reflects these developments by focusing on economic evolution in the long run and on variations between societies.
Consequences of Demographic Change (7.5 ECTS)
The course examines the impact of demographic change on the social and economic fabric of society, with a focus on issues of importance to today's policymakers. The impact of population aging will be examined in detail, as will the possible benefits / pitfalls of migration as a potential solution to population aging. The course will also examine the impacts of demographic change on individuals, through a discussion of the effects of cohort size on economic outcomes. The changing prospects for women in today's economy will also be analysed within the framework of changing family structures. Governmental transfers dependent upon age structure, such as pension systems, will be studied, as will other aspects of intergenerational transfers.
Elective courses provided by the Department of Human Geography
Geographies of Economies: Transforming Places, People and Production (7.5 ECTS)
This advanced level course in economic geography focuses on some of the most important socio-economic challenges that today’s cities, regions and nations face. How does globalisation affect lives and livelihoods in particular places? Why do some regions continue to grow and prosper, whereas other regions struggle with industrial restructuring? What are the drivers of such changes and how can firms and regions cope with them? These themes are analysed from different theoretical perspectives to examine the underlying forces that shape the trajectories and transformations of economic spaces. This course is available to second year students.
Geographical Information Systems for the Social Sciences (7.5 ECTS)
The course provides an introduction to the rapidly growing field of GIS for students interested in applying GIS in their research or work. The course is interdisciplinary in scope and appropriate for students from a diversity of backgrounds. This would include students from the social sciences, the humanities, economics, sustainability and development studies as well as students from a range of other disciplinary and professional backgrounds. The course introduces students to some key conceptual debates and developments in GIS, and it provides an introduction to the most important theories and practises of GIS. During the course, the students will learn about the potential applications of GIS within various fields of study. This course is available to second year students.
Geographies of Economies: Urban and Regional Planning (7.5 ECTS)
This course focuses on some of the most important socio-economic challenges that urban and regional planning has to meet, and how these are addressed and dealt with in different planning contexts. With the background in contemporary economic geography theory, these challenges are analysed, aiming at a deeper understanding of the underlying economic forces that impact the scope and directions in urban and regional planning. Meetings with practitioners in the field of planning, through visits, guest seminars and excursions, are important elements to relate theory and practices. This course is available to second year students.
