OASV4100 Urban Governance Course description

Modern urban governments face challenges due to rapid changes in social, economic and environmental conditions. This course focuses on ideas, models and trends in the governance of urban areas, and students are provided with a set of analytical tools to study contemporary changes and transformations in governance practices and arrangements. These changes include, for example, new types of citizens participation, new types of delivery, emphasis on urban entrepreneurship, aims for sustainable development and smart city initiatives.

The course provides a cross- disciplinary perspective, including political science and sociology. In addition, we follow a comparative approach to urban governance, where urban areas both within and across national contexts are compared. The course will focus explicitly on national and international experiences from three policy areas where the governance challenges are particularly prominent: public spaces, housing, and infrastructure. The main focus are the processes and mechanisms that shape an urban area, as well as strategies and instruments in the governance of these areas.

The course will be taught in English if attended by international students. The course will be taught in Norwegian if attended by only Norwegian speaking students.

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A student who has completed his or her qualification has the following learning outcomes defined in terms of knowledge, skills and general competence:

Knowledge

The student has

• Thorough knowledge about processes and mechanisms that shape a city, including its atmosphere and its functioning
• Thorough knowledge about strategies and instruments to promote sustainable cities, emphasizing economic, social and environmental sustainability.
• Thorough knowledge about national and international approaches to coordinated urban governance, its challenges, benefits and solutions.
• Thorough knowledge about national and international approaches to democracy and participation in urban governance.
• Thorough knowledge about managing public space, housing, and infrastructure in cities and urban areas.

Skills

The student

• Can contribute to the development of urban strategies and implement measures to steer processes in the desired direction.
• Is able to assess the need for and use participatory measures in city policy formulation and implementation.
• Is able to interact effectively with market actors.
• Is able to understand, manage and critically discuss public space, housing and physical infrastructure in an urban context.

General competence

The student

• Can contribute to public sector innovation and reforms.

The course is organized in series of lectures, working groups and student presentations.

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The exam in the course is an individual course paper. The paper must have a scope of 10-15 pages (in addition to front page, table of content and list of references). Font and font size: Arial/Calibri;12 points. Line spacing: 1.5.

The exam can be answered in English or in a Scandinavian language (Norwegian, Danish, Swedish).

Students awarded a fail grade are given one opportunity to submit an improved version of the assignment for assessment.

All aids are permitted, as long as the rules for source referencing are complied with.

Grade scale A-F

The exam papers are assessed by one internal and one external examiner.

At least 25% of the exam papers will be assessed by two examiners. The grades awarded for the papers assessed by two examiners form the basis for determining the level for all the exam papers.