Conference and PhD Course Announcement
Northern Encounters
6-8 August 2007
University of Tromso
Registration Deadline: Friday, 13 April 2007
For further information, please go to:
http://uit.no/planlegging/northernencounters
or contact:
Eva S. Braaten
E-mail: evab [at] sv.uit.no
Northern Encounters, an international conference and PhD course, will be
held on 6-8 August 2007, at University of Tromso, Norway. Scientists and
students are invited to share and develop knowledge on the impact and
meaning of increased cooperation, social encounters, communication, and
globalization in the North. The conference is also being offered as a
PhD course where participating students can earn five European Credit
Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS) credits.
People throughout the vast areas of the North today solve common
problems and develop visions for their societies by communicating across
regional and state borders. The situation is characterized by ethnic
diversity and major cultural, economic, political, and social
differences, especially between northwestern Russia and the Scandinavian
countries. In many respects, living conditions and life situations
differ strongly in geographical and historical terms. Life experiences
differ between generations - those who lived within the reality of the
Iron Curtain and the young generation accustomed to global forms of
communication and ideas and expectations, which are not framed by the
old borders and images of borders.
The conference is meant to foster the formation of new knowledge and to
challenge many of the traditional conceptions about growing up and
living in the North. By combining perspectives, by looking across
sectoral divisions, and with a strong focus on involving not only the
corporate sector and public authorities but also citizens and civil
society in northern development issues, the conference should produce
both valuable insights for practitioners and also stimulate increased
research efforts in scientific communities.
Northern Encounters is a cooperation between Citizenship, Encounters and
Place Enactment in the North (CEPIN), a research school in the Faculty
of Social Sciences at University of Tromso; the research project
"Globalization from Below? Localized Transformations in a Northern
Perspective," coordinated by the Department of Planning and Community
Studies and funded by the Norwegian Research Council; and Changing
Identities in the Barents Region, an interdisciplinary network project
funded by the Barents Secretariat and NordForsk.
For further information and to register for the conference, please go
to:
http://uit.no/planlegging/northernencounters