Annual Report 2011 - NTNU

NTNU’s Strategic Area 

Globalization 

Annual Report 2011

NTNU Globalization Research Programme 

Strategic Advisory Council: 

Professor Kathrine Skretting, Dean, Faculty of Humanities, NTNU ‐ 

Director of the Strategic Advisory Council 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kristin Braa, Professor, Department of Informatics, University of Oslo 

Jan Morten Dyrstad, Professor / Dean, Faculty of Social Science and 

Technology Management, NTNU 

Lars Gule, Associate Professor, Faculty of Education and 

International Studies, Oslo University College 

Erik Lundeby, Assistant Director, Confederation of Norwegian 

Enterprise ‐ NHO 

Anju Saxena, Professor, Department of Linguistics and Philology, 

Uppsala University 

Vigdis Moe Skarstein, Director, The National Library of Norway 

Inge Bartnes, Director of Communication, Nord Trøndelag 

Elektrisitetsverk (NTE) 

Tore Ulstein, Deputy CEO of Ulstein Group and managing director of 

Ulstein International 

Nils Petter Gleditsch, Research Professor, Centre for the Study of 

Civil War, Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO) & Professor II of 

political science, NTNU 

Director 

Indra de Soysa 

FA Leader 

Arild Aspelund 

FA Leader 

May Thorseth 

NTNU Globalization Research Programme Management: 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Professor Indra de Soysa, Programme Director 

Adviser Chamila Attanapola, Faculty of Humanities, Program 

Coordinator 

Professor Berit Berg, Leader of Focus Area War, Conflict and 

Migration 

Associate Professor Arild Aspelund, Leader of Focus Area Global 

Production and Communication 

Professor May Thorseth, Leader of Focus Area Intercultural 

Dynamics: Communication, Responsibility and Development 

Professor Ragnar Torvik, Leader of Focus Area Global Economic 

Flows, Governance and Stability 

FA Leader 

Berit Berg 

FA Leader 

Ragnar Torvik 

Program 

Coordinator 

Chamila Attanapola

Focus Area Research Groups: 

Global Production and Communication 

Arild Aspelund (leader), Department of Industrial Economics and Technology 

Management, NTNU 

Carla Dahl‐Jørgensen Department of Social Anthropology, NTNU 

Hans Otto Frøland, Department of History and Classical Studies, NTNU 

Erlend Alfnes, Department of Production and Quality Engineering, NTNU 

Øystein Moen, Department of Industrial Economics and Technology Management, NTNU 

Egil Rensvik, MARINTEK 

Tord Larsen, Department of Social Anthropology, NTNU 

War, Conflict and Migration 

Berit Berg, (leader), Department of Social Work and Health Sciences, NTNU 

Jonathon Moses, Department of Sociology and Political Science, NTNU 

Hans Skotte, Department of Urban Design and Planning, NTNU 

Berit Schei, Department of Public Health and General Pracitce, NTNU 

Intercultural Dynamics: Communication, Responsibility and Development 

May Thorseth (leader), Department of Philosophy, NTNU 

Tor A. Åfarli, Department of Scandinavian Studies and Comparative Literature, NTNU 

Rolee Aranya, Department of Architectural Design, History and Technology, NTNU 

Tanja Ellingsen, Department of Sociology and Political Science, NTNU 

Paul Goring, Department of Modern Foreign Languages, NTNU 

Siri Granum Carson, Department of Philosophy, NTNU 

Allen Alvares, Department of Philosophy, NTNU 

Global Economic Flows, Governance and Stability 

Ragnar Torvik (leader), Department of Economics, NTNU 

Paivi Lujala, Department of Geography, NTNU 

Egil Matsen, Department of Economics, NTNU 

Halvor Mehlum, ESOP, University of Oslo 

Hildegunn Ekroll Stokke, Department of Economics, NTNU 

James A. Robinson, Government Department, Harvard University

Content 

1 NTNU Globalization Research Programme ................................................................. 1 

1.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 1 

1.2 Strategy and Goals of the program ...................................................................................... 1 

1.3 Main Activities at Strategic Areal level 2011 ........................................................................ 2 

1.4 Master’s Program in Globalization ....................................................................................... 5 

1.5 PhD and postdoctoral projects ............................................................................................ 7 

2 Focus Areas ............................................................................................................. 11 

2.1 War, Conflict and Migration ................................................................................... 11 

Rationale and Objectives ..................................................................................................... 11 

Main Activities 2011 ............................................................................................................ 11 

National and International Collaborations ............................................................................ 15 

Publications ......................................................................................................................... 15 

2.2 Global Production and Communication .................................................................. 17 




Publications ......................................................................................................................... 20 

2.3 Intercultural Dynamics: Communication, Responsibility and Development ............. 21 




Publications ......................................................................................................................... 26 

2.4. Global Economic Flows, Governance and Stability ................................................. 27 




Publications .......................................................................................................................... 29 

Appendices 

Globalization Newsletter January–March 2011 

Globalization Newsletter April–June 2011 

Globalization Newsletter July–October 2011 

Globalization Newsletter November–December 2011

1. NTNU GLOBALIZATION RESEARCH PROGRAMME 

1.1 Introduction 

NTNU's Globalization Research Programme is one of six strategic research areas identified by 

the university as especially important for understanding the challenges facing humanity in 

the 21st century. The other research areas are 

 

 

 

 

Energy and Petroleum ‐ Resources and Environment 

Information and Communication Technology 

Marine and Maritime Technology 

Materials 

Medical Technology 

NTNU’s Globalization Research Programme addresses socially‐relevant, topical issues 

concerning the promises and pitfalls of globalization in economic, social and political life. 

This program is based on NTNU’s long‐standing tradition of addressing technology’s role in 

solving social problems, combining academic excellence, interdisciplinarity, and cooperation 

between science and practice. The Globalization Research Programme houses researchers 

and research fellows from the humanities, social sciences, architecture, technology 

management, and medicine, representing 25 departments and seven faculties at NTNU. 

In January 2011, Globalization Research Programme established a new focus area. Currently 

the program centres on four focus areas: 

 

 

 





The Annual Report 2011 presents the strategy, and core research and educational activities 

undertaken by the Programme at the strategic area level as well as within each of the four 

focus areas. 

1.2 Strategy and Goals of the Program – 2011 

In our Strategy Paper 2011, following three goals were identified as the main goals of the 

Globalization Research Programme. 

1. To address socially relevant issues concerning the promises and challenges of 

globalization 

2. To produce high quality academic research 

3. To initiate interdisciplinary research 

1

1.3 Main Activities at Strategic Areal level 2011 

Administration and network building activities 

 

 

 

The new focus area titled “Global economic flows, governance and stability” started its 

activities in January 2011. Professor Ragnar Torvik from the Department of Economics 

leads the fourth focus area. 

In April the strategic area director and the coordinator participated in “styringsdialog” 

with the Rector and Deans of faculties which collaborate with the strategic area. 

Program director, administrative coordinator and three researchers of INDNOR project 

namely; Professor Ragnhild Lund (Department of Geography), Professor Jonathon 

Moses (Department of Sociology and Political Science) and Associate professor Rune 

Skarstein (Department of Economics)) joined the NTNU delegation to India in 7 – 11 

February. During the visit, NTNU signed two Memorandum of Understandings (MoUs) 

with two Indian institutions; the first between the NTNU and the Human Development 

Foundation in Odisha, and the second between the NTNU and the Institute for Peace 

and Conflict Studies in Delhi. 

Contributions to the NTNU’s India2011 http://www.ntnu.no/india2011 (from 1‐ 9 

October): Globalization Programme director worked as a member of the organizing 

committee. 

 

 

 

The programme held the first strategic advisory council meeting on 17 th January and the 

second meeting was held on 30 th August. 

At the strategic advisory council meeting, the program director informed his resignation 

from the position by the end of the year. Advisory council recommended appointing a 

researcher who is already connected to the program as the new leader. 

Professor Ragnar Torvik was suggested and appointed as the leader of the Globalization 

strategic area from 1 st January 2012. 

Research and educational activities 

Following are the research applications initiated and/or funded by the program. 

1. Project title: Resistance to Globalization? Organization and Spread of Maoist violence in 

India. 

Project leader: Indra de Soysa 

Program: Research Council of Norway /NORGLOBAL/HUMPOL. 

Deadline: 12 October 

2. Project title: Environment and Social Friction: Transformations in Globalizing India. 

Project leader: Jonathon Moses 

Program: Research Council of Norway NORGLOBAL/GLOBMEK. 

Deadline: 12 October 

2

3. Project title: Discourses of inclusion and exclusion: Impacts on the well‐being of 

European Muslims 

Project Leader: Ulrika Mortensson 

Program: Swedish Riksbankens Jubileumsfond 

Deadline: 11 February 

4. Project title: Contesting Power(s) for Achieving Rights of Women Factory Workers: A 

Prerequisite for Gender Equality 

Project Leader: Chamila Attanapola 

Program: Research Council of Norway/FRISAM/Postdoc 

Deadline: 2 June 

5. Project title: Understanding the Changing Role and Reality of Borders in the 21st 

Century. 

Project leader Indra de Soysa 

Program: European Research Council / COOPORATION /SSH 

Deadline: 2 nd February 2011 

Status: The application was not funded but it reached the final round with the following 

evaluation from the Commission: “proposal obtained the minimum threshold scores 

against the evaluation criteria as described in work program, the proposal could not be 

retained for funding for insufficient budget.” 

PhD course on globalization, FI8880 ‐ Deliberating controversies in globalization: theory, 

methodology and ethics http://www.ntnu.no/studier/emner/FI8880/2011 was held 

during 5 – 16 September. 

Researchers of the focus area Intercultural Dynamics, including Professor May Thorseth and 

postdoctoral candidate Allen Alvarez were responsible for formulating and organizing the 

course. Students can gain up to 10 credits for the course. 

Organized events 

 

Four guest lectures were organized at strategic area level: 

o Right‐wing radicalism in Norway in the context of the events of 22nd July 2011 

by Lars Gule, Centre for the Study of Professions Oslo and Akershus University 

College of Applied Science. 

o Globalization and political contention: The effects of media and civil society by 

J. Craig Jenkins, Department of Sociology, Ohio State University. 

3

o Under the ash cloud: Globalization, Communicative Modernity and 

Cosmopolitanization by Terhi Rantanen, London School of Economics. 22 

March. 

o Sustainable Mobile Health Information Infrastructures in Low Resource Settings 

by Kristin Braa, Department of Informatics, University of Oslo. 18 January. 

 

Events arranged during NTNU’s India2011 week. 

o Conference “India as a global power: diversity, democracy and prosperity”, held 

on 3 – 4 October. 

o Seminar “Transformation and friction in globalizing India” held on 5 th October. 

o Photo exhibition “Livelihoods and identities of tribal women in Odisha, India”. 

Allocation of PhD scholarships 

NTNU central administration has allocated 2 PhD and 1 postdoc scholaships in the strategic 

area Globalization in 2011. Upon request, the Postdoctoral position was converted to a 3‐ 

year PhD position. The positions were destributed as follows: 

 

 

 

1 PhD position on focus area Global Economic Flows 

1 PhD position on focus area Intercultural Dyunamics: Communication, Responsibility 

and Development. 

1 PhD position on research project “Transformation and friction in globalizing India”. 

The project received one more PhD position from the Faculty of Social Science and 

Technology Management. 

Four PhD positions were announced by the Globalization Research Programme. Fourtithree 

applications were received; 13 applications for the PhD position for Intercultural Dynamics, 

20 applications for the PhD position for global Economic Flows and 10 applications for the 

research project. 

4

1.4 Master’s Program in Globalization 

MSc. in Globalization: Specialization in Global Politics and Culture 

In spring 2011, the third batch of students graduated in the Master’s Program in 

Globalization: Global Politics and Culture. 12 students completed the programme on time. 

The theses presented cover wide themes within globalization research (see table 1). 

Table 1 

Theses completed in MSc. in Globalization: Global Politics and Culture, spring 2011 

Department Supervisor Student Title of the thesis 

Department of 

Sociology and 

Political Science 

Gunnar 

Fermann 

Anna 

Barnwell 

Multiple measurement of international 

regime effectiveness comparative study of 

the international ozone depletion regime 

and climate change regime. 

Jo 

Jakobsen 

Martin Elton 

Veflen 

The political risk of oil and gas mega 

projects: A descriptive empirical analysis. 

Hendrik 

Spilker 

Vedaste 

Uwayigira 

Assessment of communication and 

information flow between Trondheim 

municipality and international employees. 

Sabrina 

Ramet 

Ivana 

Marinkovic 

Democratic consolidation and the impact 

of EU political conditionality: The case of 

Croatia. 

Jonathon 

Moses 

Erlend Sandø 

Kiel 

Remittances, institutions & economic 

growth in developing countries: 

Reconsidering remittances and economic 

growth. 

Jontahon 

Moses 

Sara Linn 

Lillesund 

Hansen 

The effect of state policies on emigration: 

the case of Malaysia 

Department of 

History and 

Classical Studies 

John Osei‐ 

Tutu 

Joseph 

Kachim 

A collaborative approach to local 

development in Ghana: A case study of 

three development projects in Saoba‐ 

Chereponi district. 

Department of 

Interdisciplinary 

Studies of 

Culture 

Gard 

Hopsdal 

Hansen 

Ragnhild 

Dahle 

Local Labor and laowai management 

Chinese Employee Perspectives and 

Multinationals HRM performance 

5

Pål 

Thonstad 

Sandvik 

Duygu Dilek 

Kesen 

How did the US evaluate the Kurdish 

question in turkey from 1978 to 1979? 

American‐Turkish relations during the 

carter administration. 

Department of 

Education 

Cecilie 

Haugen 

Sara Blikstad 

Wågen 

Contrasting discourses of education in 

Taiwan. 

Department of 

Geography 

Cathrine 

Brun 

Daniel 

Ssemugenyi 

Challenges to refugees’ freedom of 

movement in Uganda: A case of selfsettled 

refugees in Kisenyi, Kampala. 

Ragnhild 

Lund 

Line Djernæs 

Sandbakken 

The practice of Chhaupadi: The link 

between local cultural understanding and 

women`s rights in rural Nepal. 

In autumn 2011, 9 new students were immatriculated to the MSc. in Globalization: Global 

Politics and Culture program. 

MSc in Globalization: Specialization in Global Technology Management 

In spring 2011, the first batch of students graduated in the Master’s programme in 

Globalization: Global Technology Management. Two students have delivered their thesis, 

and completed the full programme on time. In autumn 2011, 20 new students were 

immatriculated to the study program. 

Table 2 

Theses completed in MSc in Globalization: Global Technology Management, spring 2011 

Department Supervisor Student Title of the thesis 

Department of 

Production and 

Quality 

Engineering 

Erlend 

Alfnes 

Erlend 

Alfnes 

Eirik Korsnes 

Alexander 

Leervaag 

Welland 

Global Sourcing and supplier 

collaboration in the ship industry. 

Development and construction of a car 

for the international Eco‐Marathon 

competition. 

6

1.5 PhD and postdoctoral projects 

PhD and postdoctoral projects financed by the Globalization Research Programme are listed below. 

Table 3 

Ongoing PhD and Postdoctoral Projects 

Focus Area Name Degree Department 

Final 

Year 

Project Title 

Sarah 

Khasalamwa 

PhD 

Department of Geography, 

SVT 

2012 Comparative perspectives on humanitarian 

response in post crisis situations: The cases of 

northern Uganda and Sri Lanka 

War, Conflict and 

Migration 

Yu Wang PhD Department of Urban 

Design and Planning, AB 

Anders B. 

Asphaug 

PhD 


SVT 

Sunila Shakya PhD Department of Laboratory 

Medicine, Children’s and 

Women’s Health, DMF 

2012 The reconstruction post‐disaster planning of the 

affected natural disaster area with the help of 

social assistance, case studies of the affected 

Wenchuan earthquakes areas 

2012 Life on the border: Exploring the personal 

significance of the state system 

2015 Epidemiology of gynaecological problems 

amongst married women in rural Nepal with 

special reference to the absence of spouse 

because of conflict related factors 

Katinka 

Remøe 

PhD 


SVT 

2014 What drives continuous internal conflict? The 

case of the Naxalite insurgency in India 

7

Margrethe 

Gaassand 

PhD 


SVT 

2014 The real consequences of environmental 

degradation to tribal livelihoods: Tribal peoples’ 

spaces of representation in Orissa, India 

Godfrey 

Mugurusi 

PhD 

Department of Industrial 

Economics and Technology 

Management, SVT 

2014 Offshoring: coordination between parent and 

foreign subsidiary: Implications for purchasing 

Haakon 

Aasprong 

PhD 

Department of Social 

Anthropology, SVT 

2012 Feeling and Dealing with Production Standards in 

the Global Marketplace. A Caribbean Perspective 

Marte 

Giskeødegård 

PhD 

Department of Social 

Anthropology, SVT 

2012 An international business network – working as 

one across borders? 

Global 

Production and 

Communication 

Ingvill 

Stensheim 

Wenche 

Aarseth 

PhD 

PhD 


SVT 

Department of Production 

and Quality Engineering , 

IVT 

2012 R&D in transnational corporations 

2012 Ensuring success in global projects 

Natalia Vakar PhD Department of Industrial 



2012 Evaluation of the impact of corporate social 

responsibility on competitiveness of production 

enterprises operating within global context 

Caroline 

Cheng 

PhD 




2012 Hexagonal balanced scorecard approach in 

managing corporate social responsibility (CSR) in 

global production systems 

Anita 

Romsdal 

PhD SINTEF 2012 Planning and control in fresh food supply chains: 

Principles, concepts and guidelines for 

8

differentiated manufacturing 

Guro 

Busterud 

PhD 

Department of 

Scandinavian Studies and 

Comparative Literature, HF 

2012 Anaforer og binding i norsk som andrespråk. 

Internalisering av et nytt språksystem. 

Intercultural 

Dynamics 

Global Economic 

Flows, 

Governance and 

Stability 

Dongming Xu PhD Department of 

Architectural Design, 

History and Technology, 

AB 

Cornelia 

Vikan 

PhD 

Department of Philosophy, 

HF 

Allen Alvarez Postdoc. Department of Philosophy, 

HF 

Stefan Leknes PhD Department of Economics, 

SVT 

2012 The role of museums in identity formation: 

Studies of the influence of international trends in 

knowledge dissemination on the development of 

historical sites and museums in China. 

2015 Military power and ethics in the grey area of war 

– Afghanistan. A critical ethical‐philosophical 

analysis of the core values of the Norwegian 

armed forces: respect, responsibility and courage 

2012 Intercultural deliberation of ethical controversies 

concerning new technologies: the norms and 

cross‐cultural impact of online discussions about 

ethics of human enhancement 

2014 Empirical analyses of centralization trends, local 

amenities and regional income differences in 

Norway 

9

Table 4 

Completed PhD and Postdoc Projects in 2011 

Focus Area Name Degree Department Project Title 

Intercultural Dynamics 

Timo Skrandies Postdoc. Department of Philosophy, 

HF 

Fufen Jin Postdoc. Department of Scandinavian 

Studies and Comparative 

Literature, HF 

Globalized work and strategies of its 

representation in media 

Norwegian and Chinese as second languages: A bidirectional 

acquisition study 

Lars Peder 

Haga 

PhD 

Department of History and 

Classical Studies, HF 

The Conquerors’ maps: Soviet literary, scientific 

and cultural actors’ mental mapping of East 

Central Europe, 1944‐1953 

War, Conflict and 

Migration 

Global Production and 

Communication 

Marko Valenta Postdoc. Department of social work 

and Health Sciences SVT 

Tor Olav Grøtan PhD Department of Production 

and Quality Engineering , IVT 

Thomas 

Halvorsen 

PhD 

Department of Sociology and 

Political Science, SVT 

Impacts of migration and diaspora in postconflict 

situations ‐ Bosnian evidence 

The role of information and communication 

technology within a "resilient global logistics" 

domain of vulnerability management challenges 

Foreign direct investment in the USA. Location, 

competition, and policy from a sub‐national 

perspective 

10

2. FOCUS AREAS 

2.1 WAR, CONFLICT AND MIGRATION 

Rationale and Research Objectives 

This focus area actively seeks to build knowledge and new insights on forced migration, 

internal displacement, reconstruction after wars and natural disasters and issues relating to 

settlement and integration of refugees and asylum seekers. It encourages studies of postcrisis 

interaction played by various stakeholders in the transformation and the reestablishment 

of order in society, development and reconciliation. Globalisation is seen as a 

process of differentiation, in which individuals, groups or geographical areas may end up 

being excluded. Marginalisation may take place in the wake of globalisation as income 

disparities rise, or when profit‐making and corporate activities take precedence over 

communitarian values and outcomes, often leading to exploitation and neglect. Such 

processes of globalisation overlap with other transformations taking place in globalizing 

societies. Empirical studies on (forced) migration, refugee studies, conflict/peace studies and 

studies of post‐crisis reconstruction are undertaken in order to understand how and why 

marginalisation of people might occur under conditions of globalization. 

The major research objective for this focus area is: 

To identify how processes of globalisation relate to conflict/peace and marginalization. 

Secondary objectives are: 

 

 

 

 

Understand the effects of increasing globalization on societal risks and human 

security.Understand how globalisation impacts conflict‐ridden and marginalised areas 

and people. 

Understand how globalisation impacts receiving communities and refugee populations. 

Understand how migration (forced and not) is an intrinsic part of globalisation, which 

determine people’s livelihoods strategies and rights. 

Understand the significance of post‐disaster reconstruction and recovery, and how such 

interventions relate to globalised discourses, practices, and implementing agencies. 

Main Activities 2011 

In 2011, the focus area prioritized on publication, project initiation, project finalizing and 

student travel grants. Accordingly, the focus area allocated funds on 3 book projects, 

supporting 2 PhD candidates for finalizing theses, 2 project initations and 2 on‐going 

research project for conducting reseach activities. 

The first book project is initiated by Ragnhild Lund and her research collaborative partners of 

the ‘Mobile livelihoods’ project, from Thailand, India and China. The planned book aims to 

11

explore the transformations of indigenous people’s livelihoods through mobility – forced or 

not ‐ under neo‐liberalism, and with particular focus on how these transformations are 

gendered. The second book is entitled “Asylsøker – I velferdsstatens venterom” is edited by 

Berit Berg and Marko Valenta (a former globalization Postdoc). A one‐day conference is 

planned on 15 th May 2012 as part of inauguration of the book to the public, where all 

authors presenting their contributions. The third book project is on attitudes on Muslim 

population in Europe is also initiated by Marko Valenta is granted 80 000 NOK. 

In 2011, the focus area provided 40 000 NOK to students from the Department of Urban 

Design and Planning to participate in a two‐week workshop on recovery and urban 

development in post‐disaster Bhopal, India. Further, 2 PhD candidates (Sarah Khasalamwa 

and Anders B. Asphaug) received grants for finalizing their thesis. Totally 142 000 NOK was 

allocated to Professor Berit Schei to initiate international research collaboration on conflict, 

trauma and gender based violence. As the first stage, two Norwegian researchers visited Sri 

Lanka to meet their collaborative partners and sent an application to the Research Council of 

Norway (preliminary round). As the second stage, a workshop will be held in March 2012 at 

NTNU, where researchers from Sri Lanka, Nepal, Sweden and England together with 

Norwegian researchers discuss the future of the research proposal. An amount of 40 000 

NOK was also allocated on a research project entitled “Multicultural Companies and Post‐ 

Conflict Reconstruction: Cases of Conflict and Cooperation with stakeholders, 1998‐2012, 

lead by Jo Jacobsen at the Department of Sociology and Political Science. Further, 20 000 

NOK was allocated on fieldwork and publication of research article on ‘transnational labour 

migration among Sri Lankan men’. 

The 2 PhD projects connected to the umbrella research project “Transformation and conflict 

in globalizing India” (financed by the Research Council of Norway) explore on issues relating 

to conflict and marginalization. 

12

New PhD Project 

What drives continuous internal conflict? 

The case of the Naxalite insurgency in India 

Katinka Sætersdal Remøe 

Department of Geography 

The aim of this research project is to identify explanatory factors contributing 

to continuous internal conflict by using the Naxalite (Maoist) insurgency in 

India as a case. Specifically, the project looks at natural resource extraction as a 

facilitating factor for conflict, providing resources and opportunities for the 

actors involved. The Naxalite insurgency is one of many long‐term internal 

conflicts taking place within India. Although it has gone through changes in 

both nature and scope, it has endured since its birth in the West Bengal village 

of Naxalbari in 1967 when unfair treatment by landowners towards peasants 

resulted in a peasant uprising and has become one of India’s most serious 

challenges to internal security. The area affected by Naxalite violence, 

commonly referred to as “the red corridor,” is characterized by 

underdevelopment and socio‐economic inequality, and this has been seen as 

the main reason behind Naxalite mobilization and support. 

The project is structured in three parts, each driven by their separate research 

questions. In the first part, a state‐level quantitative study of explanatory 

factors of Naxalite violence will be conducted in order to identify key variables 

for a local‐level analysis. However, given how underdevelopment and socioeconomic 

inequality is also highly present in areas untouched by Naxalite 

violence, are there other factors that could better explain the location and 

spread of the conflict, such as natural resource extraction? 

The next part is an analysis of how to use GIS in choosing a site for fieldwork 

when studying internal conflicts. The GIS methodology will determine where 

the research for the last component of the project will be carried out. The areas 

affected by Naxalite violence are typically abundant in natural resources and is 

attracting industrial investment mostly within the mining sector. Hence, this 

last part is a local‐level analysis exploring the relationship between natural 

resource extraction and the spread of Naxalite violence with a special focus on 

how natural resource extraction provides resources and opportunities for the 

actors involved in the conflict. 

The PhD project is supervised by Associate Professor Jan Ketil Rød, with 

Professor Scott Gates and Associate Professor Päivi Lujala as associated 

supervisors. 

13

New PhD Project 

The real consequences of environmental degradation to tribal 

livelihoods: Tribal peoples’ spaces of representation in Orissa, India 

Margrethe Gaassand 

Department of Geography 

The state Orissa in India is experiencing massive environmental degradation 

caused by waves of industrial establishments. For many people the situation has 

become critical, with industrial expansion stealing the foundations of their 

livelihoods. Tribal groups of Orissa are particularly vulnerable to this 

phenomenon, as they often live in severe poverty in an endless struggle to access 

natural resources for livelihoods. Gradually, but also quickly many of their forests 

have been taken away from them through land acquisition in governmental 

attempts to sell out land to increase industrial productions and income. Many of 

these tribal communities are structurally used by mining companies who hire 

them to do hard manual labour for very low incomes. As they already are at the 

outcasts of society in their position as minority and tribals, most of them do not 

have an option but to take on the labour exploitative of them. 

Within this background, this study intends to explore: 

How do tribal people find new spaces of representation if excluded from 

formal spaces of governance and how do the government respond to tribal 

needs and rights? 

By asking above research question, Gaassand aims to contribute to a debate of the 

lost, found or created spaces of the non‐represented tribal populations of Orissa. 

In doing so Gaassand studies a local tribal community in Orissa, India, which copes 

with environmental degradation and deprivation of entitled land. The study uses 

qualitative methodology; interviews and observations to approach the research 

question. 

As a theoretical foundation for this study Gaassand interlinks political ecology 

with political geography. Political ecology is concerned with situations where there 

is a conflict of environment, e.g. if there are two parts disagreeing about the use of 

a certain environment. In the case of Orissa the government is pushing economical 

developmental goals before considering the state’s own tribal population. Political 

geography is amongst other things concerned with people’s representation. The 

concept of representation can include everything from statistical headcounts in an 

area, to substantial representations of interests in the local governance systems. 

When people search to find representations of their interests, they often find that 

they are excluded from systems, as they are in minor. Although Orissa has quotas 

for minorities in their governments, their voices are seldom spoken out, and they 

are not properly represented in terms of participation, power or politics. 

Linking strands from these schools of theory, Gaassand intends to discover how 

the tribal populations of Orissa create new, or use existing spaces of 

representation. 

The project is supervised by Professor Ragnhild Lund. 

14

National and International Collaborations 

The focus area researchers have established collaborations with researchers from 

international institutions such as Human Development Foundation, Bhubaneswar, India, 

Jawaharlal Nehru University India, Department of Gender and Development, Asian Institute 

of Technology, Thailand, Faculty of Medicine, Colombo, Sri Lanka, and Kathmandu Medical 

College, Nepal. 

The focus area researchers collaborate with a large number of researchers affiliated to 

Norwegian (national) institutions. In her research and consultation activities on asylum 

seekers and immigration, Berit Berg works closely with government authorities such as The 

Directorate of Immigration/UDI and The Directorate of Integration and Diversity /IMDi as 

well as organizations such as the Norwegian Organization of Asylum seekers/ NOAS and 

HERO. 

Publications 

Berg, B. and Ask, T.A. (eds.) (2011). Minoritetsperspektiver i sosialt arbeid. Oslo: 

Universitetsforlaget. ISBN 9788215018867. 

Berg, B. (2011). Fra innvandringspolitikk til mangfoldspolitikk ‐ et bakteppe. Berg, B. and 

Ask, T.A. (eds.) (2011). Minoritetsperspektiver i sosialt arbeid. Oslo: 

Universitetsforlaget: 27 – 55. 

de Soysa, I. (2011). Another misadventure of economists in the tropics? Social diversity, 

cohesion and economic development. International Area Studies Review 14(1): 3‐31. 

de Soysa, I. (2011). The hidden hand wrestles rebellion: theory and evidence on how 

economic freedom prevents civil violence. Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism, 11(2): 

285 – 297. 

Golebiowska, K., Valenta, M. and Carter, T. (2011). International immigration trends and 

data. In Dean Carson et. al (eds.). Demography at the Edge: Remote Human 

Populations in Developed Nations. Ashgate. International Population Studies: 53 – 

84. 

Lund, R. (2011) Researching crisis – recognising the unsettling experience of emotions 

among partners. Emotion, Space and Society, doi:10.1016/j.emospa.2010.09.003 

Lund, R. and Panda, S.M. (2011). New activism for political recognition. Creation and 

expansion of spaces by tribal women, Odisha, India. Gender, Technology and 

Development 15(1): 75 – 99. 

Lund, R., Khasalamwa, S. and Tete, S. Y.A. (2011). Beyond the knowledge‐action gap: 

Challenges of implementing humanitarian policies in Ghana and Uganda. Norwegian 

Journal of Geography 65(2): 63 – 74. 

Moses, J. (2011). Migration in Europe. In Tiersky, R. and Jones, E. (eds). Europe Today. 4th 

edition. New York: Rowman and Littlefield: 371 – 397. 

Moses, J. (2011). Emigration and Political Development. New York: Cambridge University 

15

Press. 

Munos, L.L. and de. Soysa, I. (2011). The blog versus big brother: new and old information 

technology and political repression, 1980–2006. The International Journal of Human 

Rights. Available online at: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/fjhr20 

Valenta, M. and Thorshaug, K. (2011). Failed Asylum‐Seekers’ Responses to Arrangements 

Promoting Return: Experiences from Norway. Refugee Survey Quarterly, 30(2): 1– 

23. 

Valenta, M. and Strabac, Z. (2011). State‐assisted integration, but not for all: Norwegian 

welfare services and labour migration from the new EU member states. 

International Social Work 23(4): 463 – 483. 

Valenta, M. and Ramet, S. (eds.) (2011). Bosnian Diaspora: Integration in transnational 

communities. Milton Park: Ashgate. 

Valenta, M. og Thorshaug, K. (2011): "Avviste asylsøkere i Norge: Erfaringer med 

returmotiverende ordninger". Tidsskrift for Samfunnsforskning 52(2):211 – 235. 

Valenta, M. og Thorshaug, K. (2011). Ansatte med innvandrer‐ og flyktning bakgrunn i norske 

asylmottak: Institusjonens menneskelige ansikt? Sosiologisk Tidsskrift 19(2): 153 – 173. 

Valenta, M. og Thorshaug, K. (2011). Failed Asylum‐Seekers' Responses to Arrangements 

Promoting Return: Experiences from Norway. Refugee Survey Quarterly, doi: 

10.1093/rsq/hdr001 First published online: March 7, 2011. 

Voss, M., Lund, R., Reich, Z. and Harro‐Loit, H. (eds.) (2011). Developing a crisis 

communication scorecard. Outcomes of an international research project 2008 – 

2011. Jyvaskyla Studies in Humanities, Helsinki: Jyvaskylan Yliopisto. 

Forthcoming 

Berg, B. and Valenta, M. (2012), Asylsøker i velferdsstatens venterom. Oslo: 

Universitetsforlaget. 

16

2.2 GLOBAL PRODUCTION AND COMMUNICATION 


Production systems have been increasingly globalized over the past decades and 

production is very often “off‐shored” – a process whereby firms in industrialized 

countries transfer value adding activities to countries with lower costs. This 

development raises several challenging problems both for managers of multinational 

corporations that are getting increasingly geographically spread as well as for the 

societies in which they act. 

The overall research objective of this focus area is to increase our understanding of 

global production, hereunder the environmental, cultural, social, economic, strategic 

and operational challenges companies and societies are facing in a globalized 

economy. 

Doing so, the focus area researchers aim to contribute to the Globalization Research 

Programme’s overall objective of “to increase the profile of NTNU’s research by 

increasing the quality and quantity of research output on globalization‐relevant 

topics”. 

This focus area acts as a hub to pool up the resources at NTNU on research relevant to 

Global Production and Communication. Researchers from Department of Industrial 

Economics and Technology Management, Department of Social Anthropology, 

Department of History and Clasical Studies, Department of Production and Quality 

Engineering and MARINTEK address issues relating to folloing themes: 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The internationalisation of firms 

Management of global production networks 

Innovation and entrepreneurship in global value chains 

Communication within global production systems and with their environment 

Understanding of CSR and its impacts on global production systems 

Social and economic effects of global production 

Main Activties 2011 

In 2011, the focus area Global Porduction and Communication has prioritized three 

activities according to our overall strategy – publications, initiation of research projects with 

external funding, research seminars and building relationships with excellent international 

scholars. 

In terms of the former, the focus area initiatied the writing of a book that summarizes the 

research performed under the GP&C umbrella. The group has invested quite a lot of time 

and money into this project as we believe it is an excellent way of communicating our 

research and simultaniuously stimulate the work of our PhD students. The work is funded 

over the 2011 budget and will be headed by Professor Øystein Moen. We expect the book to 

be ready and printed by the end of 2012. 

17

Our applications for new research projects are listed below. The group sees clearly that the 

effects of the strategy we initiated a couple of years ago of arranging high profile seminars 

with external participation has augmented the research application activity and the research 

sponsors and partners are the same ones that has participated on the seminars. We also 

observe that there are many other applications that are sent as a result of the seminars that 

is not natural to list here (here we only present those that two or more departments 

presented in our group submit jointly). These are sent in from researchers not part of GP&C 

or SINTEF. As these applications all benefit NTNU as a whole we rather see this as a strategy 

to let “ a 1000 flowers blossom” than trying to take control over the process. 

Researchers of our group has also successfully taken part in the processes of establishing 

large research projects at NTNU this year that naturally falls outside of the responsibility of 

GP&C, but falls within GP&C fields of interest. Professor Øystein Moen has been one of the 

promotors of the establishment of CenSES – a social science FME focusing on green energy 

hosted at HF NTNU. Associate professor and GP&C group leader Arild Aspelund has been a 

part of the team that has successfully applied for and received funding for a research school 

in innovation. Both these initiatives fall under the interests points of GP&C according to our 

strategy plan and are expected to contribute to the globalization research at NTNU and also 

promote NTNU as a leading university in future sciences. GP&C will continue to focus on the 

collaboration with these initiatives to promote our globalization research. 

The group has also used some of its funds (35 000) on supporting the research activities of 

PhD students and Post Docs at GP&C. 

Torbjørn Netland was the acting leader of the focus area from January to July 2011, while Arild 

Aspelund was doing his sabbatical at Sup de Co Montpellier, France. 

Fundraising Activities and Research Projects 

Ongoing project 

1. Project title: IGLO ‐ MP 

Project Leader: Annik Magerholm Fet 

Status: The project is approaching its end. Finalizing the project takes a lot of research 

time from several in the group. 

Application sent by affiliated researchers 

1. Project title: GLOPEX 

Project Leader: Torbjørn Netland 

Program: Research Council of Norway 

Deadline: January 2011 

Note: This application received good feedback, but did not get prioritized due to strong 

competition on the program we targeted. The application will be resubmitted in 

February 2012. 

18

New researcher Projects (started in 2011) 

Project title. Entrepreneurship – business acceleration Norway – Cuba 

Project leaders: Morten Henry Westvik and Carla Dahl Jørgensen 

Status: Application for funding is underway. Application will be submitted in 2012. Currently, 

NTNU Globalization Research Programme and UD sponsor the project. 

Conference/Workshop/Seminar Arranged 

 

 

 

 

January 2011: Conference ‐ Global Borders as Barriers and Bridges, responsible Carla 

Dahl Jørgensen 

May 2011: Scandinavian Work Shop on xPS, responsible Torbjørn Netland 

22—24 June 2011: Conference ‐The 13th International Conference on Modern 

Information Technology in the Innovation Processes of industrial enterprises—MITIP 

2011, responsible Heidi Dreyer 

18 November‐ Seminar: Global production in the 21th century, responsible Godfrey 

Mugurusi 


Over the past year the focus area researchers have initiated a broad range of collaborations 

with national and international researchers. As the focus area uses seminars and 

conferences as the main strategy for promoting and initiating research the list of 

collaborators would be very long. Instead the focus area puts forward a few that has specific 

strategic interest for the group. 

First we need to mention our cooperation with Professor Kasra Ferdows at the McDonough 

School of Business and Georgetown University in Washington DC. Professor Ferdows is 

maybe the most promient scholar in operation management in the world and visited 

Trondheim for a GP&C seminar last year. This year Torbjørn Netland is visiting at 

Georgetown for a full year working on his PhD thesis on international operations 

management. They are now doing joint research that hopefully will be published in 2013. 

We have also established collaboration with two institutions in France. Primarily the 

department for management research, Sup de Co, Montpellier, France. We are doing joint 

research on in the intersection between economic geography and international 

entrepreneurship primarily with associate professor Frank Lasch. In France we have also 

initiated a collaboration with the department of finance and management at the University 

of Chambery on the topic of international entrepreneurship. These French connections have 

been very productive and the research publications from this collaboration will emerge 

already in 2012. 

19

In global sourcing we have also inititated collaborations that are very valuable both to 

position our group for high quality research and future research applications. First, we 

would mention our collaboration with researhers at Erasmus University in Rotterdam, the 

Netherlands that has contributed to several activities on global sourcing. Currently, we are 

also initiating a collaboration with Torben Pedersen and colleagues at Copenhagen Business 

School. They are, like us, trying to build up research focus and capabilities on international 

offshoring of production and we therefore share research interests. CBS has been pioneers 

in establishing research in this field that GP&C thinks will be massive in the years to come 

due to the sheer number of firms that adopt such strategies. This collaboration will aid PhD 

student Godfrey Mugurusi in his research projects. 

Publications 

Aarseth, W.; Rolstadås, A. and Andersen, B. (2011). Key factors for Management of Global 

Projects. International Journal of Transitions and Innovation Systems, 1(4): 326 – 345. 

Frøland, H.O. (2011). De harde 30‐årene i ferd med å gjenta seg? Dine Penger 1: 58 – 61. 

Frøland, H.O. (2011). Euro‐krise. Dine Penger 6: 64 – 66. 

Hvolby, H.; Steger‐Jensen, K.; Alfnes, E. and Dreyer, H.C. (2011). Collaborative Demand 

and Supply Planning Networks. In Cruz‐Cunha, M.M. and; Varajão, J. (eds.). 

Enterprises Information Systems Design, Implementation and Management: 

Organizational Applications (496 – 504). New York: IGI Global. 

Løvdal, N. and Aspelund, A. (2011). Characteristics of Born Global Industries ‐ The Birth of 

Offshore Renewables. In Gabrielsson, M. and Kirpalani, V.H.M. (eds.) Handbook of 

Research on Born Globals (285 – 309). Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing. 

Løvdal, N. and Aspelund, A. (2011). International Entrepreneurship in the Offshore 

Renewable Energy Industry. In Wüstenhagen, R and Wuebker, R.J. (eds.) Handbook of 

Research on Energy Entrepreneurship (121 – 141). Cheltenham: Edward Elgar 

Publishing. 

Mello, M. H.de; Strandhagen, J.O. and Alfnes, E. (2011). Understanding the role of supply 

chain management in the shipbuilding industry. In MITIP 2011 The 13th International 

MITIP Conference The Modern Information Technology in the Innovation Processes of 

the Industrial Enterprise (479 – 489). Trondheim: Tapir Akademisk Forlag 2011 ISBN 

978‐82‐519‐2816‐8. 

Netland, T. H. and Alfnes, E. (2011). Proposing a quick best practice maturity test for supply 

chain operations. Measuring Business Excellence 15(1): 66 – 76. Netland, T. H. and 

Andersen, H. (2011). Bedriftsspesifikke produksjonssystemer ‐ XPS: Kontinuerlig 

forbedring satt i system. Logistikk & Ledelse (9): 26 – 30. 

Neumayer, E. and de Soysa, I. (2011). Globalization and the empowerment of women: An 

analysis of spatial dependence via trade and foreign direct investment. World 

Development 39(7): 1065 – 1075. 

Stensheim, I. (2011). R&D practices and communities in the TNC‐‐proximities and distances. 

Journal of Economic Geography doi: 10.1093/jeg/lbr037. 

20

2.3 INTERCULTURAL DYNAMICS: COMMUNICATION, RESPONSIBILITY AND 

DEVELOPMENT 


While globalization has increased the interconnectedness within places and people, it 

has also complicated the encounters among people with different cultural 

backgrounds. Interplay, relationships and negotiations, which operate at socio‐political 

and economic arenas, have become complex due to cultural diversities among people. 

Emphasis is given to contemporary intercultural dynamics and to normative 

approaches which seek to identify constructive ideas for the shaping of future 

interculturalism. The focus area does not, though, exclude historicist analyses of 

intercultural issues and welcomes research into events and conditions which produced 

contemporary phenomena and situations. 

The main objective is to foster the exploration of cultural borders and intercultural 

contact from perspectives associated with the humanities and thereby to strengthen 

the involvement of the humanities within NTNU's Globalization Programme. 

Research within this focus area addresses issues relating to the flowing three themes: 

 

 

Intercultural communication 

Sustainable development 

Governance, natural resources and climate change 

The focus area brings together the work of scholars from the Department of 

Philosophy, Department of Linguistics and Comparative Literature, Department of 

Architecture and Urban Design and Planning, and Department of Sociology and 

Political Science. 


In 2011, the focus area Intercultural Dynamics prioritized publication, project initiation and 

project finalizing. Accordingly, the focus area allocated funds for 4 conferences, 1 workshop, 

1 project initiation (writing an EU project proposal) and travel/network building. In addition, 

the focus area was responsible for organizing the PhD course; Deliberating Controversies in 

Globalization: Theory, Methodology and Ethics. 


 

18 ‐19 September: Workshop Globalization, Governance and Natural Resources. 

Workshop was organized in collaboration with focus area Global Economic Flows. 

21

3 October: Conference Dialogue on Aquaculture: Nature, Technology, Governance. The 

workshop was organized in collaboration with the Strategic Area Marine and Maritime 

Technology. 

5 – 6 October: conference Urban India. The conference was organized by the Faculty of 

Architecture and Fine Arts during NTNUs India with the financial assistance from focus 

area Intercultural Dynamics. 

8 – 9 September: 3 open lectures by Thomas Pogge from Yale University. (This was also 

a part of the PhD course) 

Lecture topics: 

What is global justice? 

Moral Universalism and Global Economic Justice 

Eradicating Systemic Poverty: Brief for a Global Resources Dividend Place 


In 2011, focus area researchers participated in following applications sent to funding 

institutions. 

1. Project title: Understanding the Changing Role and Reality of Borders in the 21st 

Century. 

Focus area researcher: Allen Alvarez (Department of philosophy) 

Funding source: European Research Council/ Socio‐economic Sciences and Humanities 

(SSH) FP7‐SSH‐2011‐1 

2. Project title: BHOPAL2012‐15 Humanitarian Policy, Planning and Practice. 

Focus area researcher: Rolee Aranya (Department of Urban Design and Planning) 

Funding source: Research Council of Norway / HUMPOL program 

Deadline: 12 October 2011 

Status: Application is under review 

Focus area researchers participate in developing following research projects. 

1. Project title: Governing Access to Europe, GATE 

Funding Source: EU FP7 2012 call program: COOPERATION/Social Sciences and 

Humanities (SSH) 

Project partners: Department of Philosophy and Department of Sociology and Political 

Science, NTNU, NTNU Social Research, and Royal Holloway, University of London. 

Project Manager: May Thorseth 

Post‐doctoral fellow Marit Hovdal Moan coordinates the proposal writing group. 

Project summary: The proposal is organized around the three aspects of seasonal and 

circular migration that the Commission focuses on: 

Origins: the significance of transnational networks; 

22

Impact: the impact that (circular) seasonal migration programs may have on social 

cohesion; 

Governance: a study of the governance of (circular) seasonal migration at EU and 

national level from the perspective of different contexts of reception, or different 

migration regimes in Europe (i.e. West‐Europe, South‐ Europe, East‐Europe and 

North Europe). 

2. Project title (Tentative): Norwegian business in developing countries 

Focus area researcher: Siri Granum Carsson (Department of Philosophy) 

Project is partly funded by Amnesty International 

Project management: Sør Trøndelag University College – HiST / Economics Department ‐ 

TØH 

3. Professor Tor Åfarli (Department of Scandinavian Studies and Comparative Literature) 

collaborates with Professor K.V. Subbaro, University of Hyderabad and Dehli University 

in developing a project. 

New researcher Projects started in 2011 

1. Project title: Rights to a Green Future, 

This project is a European Science Foundation (ESF) project, financed by the Research 

Council of Norway for the period of 5 years (2011‐1015). The project consists of a network of 

ca. 40 researchers from different European countries. Four main areas are identified: 

 

 

 

 

Reflection on future climate developments and methods to predict them (coordinator: 

Joachim Spangenberg, Köln). 

Critically assessing moral and legal frameworks (esp. human rights) in an 

intergenerational perspective. (coordinator: Marcus Düwell , Utrecht). 

Developing a concept of moral and political responsibility that takes the openness of the 

future into account. (coordinator: Lukas Meyer, Graz). 

Investigating the main psychological and institutional obstacles to a sustainable politics. 

(coordinator: May Thorseth, Trondheim). 

2. Project title: Applied ethics: Technology and governance of health and natural resources. 

Objectives 

ES486042 FEST‐NTNU (Research institution‐based strategic project ‐ ISP‐FIDE) 

The primary objective of this project is to strengthen the area of applied ethics as a growing 

field within Norwegian philosophy. We aim at stronger cooperation with other relevant 

Norwegian Philosophy institutions, by way of targeted cooperative arrangements such as 

joint workshops and joint research applications. The secondary objective of the project is to 

improve the quality of publications, through co‐authorship and more extended informal 

23

eviewing from colleagues at other institutions. These objectives are highly motivated by 

recommendations in the evaluation of research in philosophy and history of ideas in Norway 

2004‐2008, undertaken by the Research Council of Norway. 

The project will be coordinated by NTNU, Department of Philosophy, by the Research group 

of Ethics, Society and Technology (FEST), with professor May Thorseth as the project 

manager. Post doc Allen Alvarez and associate professor Siri Granum Carson are also 

participating in this project. ca. 2 million NOK is allocated on this project. 

Cooperative national partners: University of Bergen, Dept. of Philosophy: Prof. Reidar Lie; 

University of Bergen, SVT, Prof. Matthias Kaiser; University of Tromsø: Associate professors 

Kjersti Fjørtoft, Erik Christensen and Erik Lundestad; University of Nordland: Prof. Ove 

Jacobsen and Vice Dean, Associate professor Dagfinn Døhl Dybvig. 

3. Post‐doctoral fellow Allen Alvarez collaborates with Professor Peter Danielson of the 

Centre for Applied Ethics, University of British Columbia since July 2011 in developing 

and conducting three deliberative online surveys (as survey author) using his Centre's N‐ 

ReasonsSurvey platform. The three surveys are: 

a. Radical Life Extension 

b. Human Enhancement 

c. Cognitive Enhancement 

N‐Reasons Surveys are part of a funded project led by Peter Danielson as Principal 

Investigator. Granting Agency: UBC Teaching & Learning Enhancement Fund / Subject: 

Computer Enhanced Experimental Ethics Education / Amount per year: 50,000 CAD / Years: 

2011‐2012 / Principal Investigator: Peter Danielson 

National and international Collaborations 

May Thorseth is part of an international expert group of 14 scholars from different European 

countries, among them previous prof. II of the Globalisaion Research Programme and the 

Programme for Applied ethics, NTNU Professor Charls Ess, and Professor Luciano Floridi, 

Universities of Oxford and Hertfordshire. Professor Floridi is directing the EU project Concept 

Reengineering in the Realm of the Digital Transition. This cooperation contributes to 

maintaining international contacts within the information‐ and communication technologies, 

ICT. Main goal of this network are distribution and application of ICTs and how these are 

adapted and utilized in society, thus having a radical influence of our (human) conditions. 

Research project ‘Rights to a Green Future (RGF)’ http://www.greenrights.nl/ has opened 

up collaborations with a number of international researchers including professor Marcus 

Düwell, Utrecht, Nederland (project manager). In addition, the project provided an 

opportunity to expand research collaboration across disciplines within the NTNU including, 

economists, social scientists and biologists those attached to the strategic area Marine and 

maritime research. Further, these researchers are interested in collaborating with other 

globalization focus areas such as Global Economic Flows. 

Research collaboration is established between Professor May Thorseth and Professor 

Jennifer Bailey (Marine and Maritime Technology and Department of Sociology and Political 

24

Science) on topic ‘Dialogues on Aquaculture and Water Footprint’. This is a theme that 

enhances the research cooperation among philosophy, political science, biology, economics 

and NTNU Centre of Fisheries a d Aquaculture (SeaLab). 

Cross‐cutting activities are initiated between the Globalization focus areas Global Economic 

Flows and Intercultural Dynamics (topic: Governance of natural resources). 

New PhD project 

Military power and ethics in the grey area of Afghan war: A 

critical ethical‐philosophical analysis of the core values of the 

Norwegian Armed Forces: Respect, responsibility and courage 

Cornelia Vikan 

Department of Philosophy 

The point of departure of this project is Norway`s military efforts in the 

war in Afghanistan, which is understood as a complex conflict. The focus 

is on ethical dilemmas arising in this context. One important aspect of the 

Afghanistan case is that scenarios on the ground, which the soldiers face, 

shift continuously between regular warfare and an after war scenario. 

This situation gives rise to ethically grey areas for the application of the 

rules of war, and creates new challenges for military agents, partly related 

to their traditional role in war. The empirical basis for this project is the 

core values of the Norwegian Armed Forces (respect, responsibility and 

courage) and cases from military operations in Afghanistan. 

The project proceeds from a descriptive to a normative perspective and 

asks following questions: 

What do ethical dilemmas in complex conflicts look like from a military 

perspective? 

How should such dilemmas be approached? 

This PhD project is connected to the Globalization focus area Intercultural 

Dynamics: Communication, Responsibility and Development. Professor 

May Thorseth from the Department of Philosophy and Henrik Syse from 

PRIO supervise the project. 

25

Publications 

Aranya, R.; Ni, P.; Cheng, Z. and Huang, J. (2011). South Asian Cities in Globalization. In 

Taylor, PJ et al (eds.) Global Urban Analysis: A Survey of Cities in Globalization (93 – 

102). London & Washington: Earthscan. 

Aranya, R.; Ni, P.; Zhang, Y. and Huang, J. (2011). Indian Cities In Taylor, PJ et al (eds.) Global 

Urban Analysis A Survey of Cities in Globalization (218 – 224). London & Washington: 

Earthscan. 

Carson, S.G.; Fet, A.M.; and Skaar, C. (eds.) (2011): Etikk i praksis 2011, 5(1). 

Carson, S.G.; Fet, A.M.; and Skaar, C. (2011). A Nordic Perspective of Corporate Social 

Responsibility (CSR) Introduction. Etikk i praksis 5(1): 3 – 7. 

de Soysa, I. and Vadlamannati, K.C. (2011). Does being bound together suffocate, or 

liberate? The effects of economic, social and political globalization on human rights 

1981‐2005. KYKLOS 64(1): 20 – 53. 

Ess, C. and Thorseth, M (eds). (2011). Trust and virtual worlds. Contemporary perspectives. 

New York: Peter Lang. 

Ess, C. and Thorseth, M (2011).Trust and Virtual Worlds. Introduction. In Trust and Virtual 

Worlds. Contemporary Perspectives (vii – xxixx). New York: Peter Lang Publishing. 

Thorseth, M. (2011). Deliberation Online: An impediment against fundamentalism offline. 

Oñati Socio‐Legal Series 1(5): http://opo.iisj.net/index.php/osls/article/view/21 

Thorseth, M. (2011). Global communication Online against fundamentalist knowledge 

offline? In Tauris, I.B. (ed.) Fundamentalism in the Modern World Volume 2 (25 – 

49). London: I.B. Tauris. 

Thorseth, M. (2011). Virtuality and Trust in Broadened Thinking Online. In Trust and 

Virtual Worlds. Contemporary Perspectives (162 – 179). New York: Peter Lang. 

Forthcoming 

Ellingsen, T. 'Democracy and Civilizations: Is Democracy ‐ Electoral and Liberal ‐ Universally 

Applicable?' Under review in Conflict Management and Peace Science. 

Dyrstad, K., Ellingsen, T. and Rød, J. K. 'Ethnonationalism or Multiculturalism: The Quest for a 

National Identity in Postwar Bosnia‐Herzegovina and Kosovo'. Under review in Political 

Psychology. 

26

2.4 GLOBAL ECONOMIC FLOWS, GOVERNANCE AND STABILITY 


Over decades international trade has grown substantially more rapid than total world 

production. Improved technological possibilities for trade and capital flows, and 

reduced regulations on the movements of goods and capital between countries, have 

made economies more open at the same time as they have become more 

interdependent. Over the last 50 years there are some broad and important patterns 

of world growth. The western world had rapid growth in the first decades after the 

second world war. In recent decades Asia has been the growth winner. In 1960 per 

capita income was about the same in Asia and Africa. However, from then on we see a 

divergence – where Asia has grown and Africa has not. With current growth rates, half 

of the world population doubles its income every 10 th year. 

The fast growing countries have at least two important common characteristics: They 

have plenty of cheap labor, but they have few natural resources. The result has been 

high prices on natural resources, and low prices on manufactured goods. This shift in 

relative prices has benefitted thos ecountreis that export natural resources and import 

manufactured goods – in particular Norway. At the same time globablzation has gone 

hand in hand with increased international macroeconomic imbalances. Most western 

countries have expanded their public or foreign debt. 

While on the other hand in particular China have had huge current account surpluses. 

Today most people would agree that the current economic imbalances are not 

sustanable, and many would also claim that they are a major cause of the recent 

financial crisis. 

The focus area aims to study how the recent developments of globalization (as 

described above) affect the economies and politics of different countries by 

addressing following three research questions. 

 

 

 

Why does China save so much? 

Why does natural resources breed success in some countries but failure in others? 

How does globalization affect governance? 


In 2011, the focus area started its activities and prioritized network building with a priority 

on international cooperation. The research area where also active in project initiation and 

publication. Accordingly, the focus area allocated funds on scholars’ international travelling, 

project initations and hiring a Professor II position (Professor Halvor Mehlum, Department 

of Economics, University of Oslo). The focus area also had a workshop joint with focus area 

Intercultural Dynamics, which attracted a number of leading international scholars. 

27

Moreover researchers from the focus area are active as policy advisors and board members 

in e.g. the Executive Board of Norges Bank and the Board of Statistics Norway. Ragnar Torvik 

was invited speaker on Høstkonferansen 2011 with the topic “Why does China save so 

much? – and why is this important for Norway”. There have been many appearances in 

seimiars, national press and also international press such as CNN. In particular, it should be 

noted that the foreword of the book, which Paivi Lujala is one of two editors, was written by 

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who was awarded the 2011 Nobel Peace prize. 

New PhD project 

Empirical analyses of centralization trends, local 

amenities and regional income differences in Norway 

Stefan Leknes 

Department of Economics 

The present time is characterized as the ''urban millennia''. The migration trends 

often described through concepts of urbanization and centralization have led to 

over half of the world's population now living in cities. It is estimated that over 

60% of the population will live in cities by 2030. The movement of human capital 

and firms is often described as traits of the globalization process and leads to 

increased interconnectedness throughout the world. Globalization is a 

phenomenon affecting nations, but the same processes have effects also at the 

local level. This aspect of population movement motivates studies of regional 

differences. 

The main focus of this project is to investigate household and firm location 

decisions and the effect of the spatial distribution by using econometric methods. 

Clustering of households and firms can be understood with relating to the 

production and consumption aspects of the economy. From a production 

viewpoint, clustering of households and firms is often seen as favourable process 

by economists because of agglomeration economy. Agglomeration economy is the 

increasing return from scale that stem from clustering. The reason for arising 

agglomeration effects can be spatial differences in the level of human capital 

and/or non‐human endowments. Another possibility is arising interaction effects 

like better input‐output linkages between intermediate and final‐goods suppliers, 

matching of worker and firms in thick labour markets, and technological 

externalities. One goal of this project is to identify and quantify these effects on 

wages. 

Historically, cities have been regarded as production centres. Today cities can be 

seen as loci for consumption. The trend is that industry moves out of the cities and 

service businesses flourish in its place. This gave a spark to a literature concerning 

quality of life that the researcher draws on. 

Methodologically the project utilizes panel data from Statistics Norway both on 

regional and household level. The key variables to establish a causal relation are 

wage, productivity, housing prices, local amenities and quality of life measures. 

This PhD project is connected to the Globalization Focus Area Global Economic 

Flows, Governance and Stability. Professors Hildegunn Ekroll Stokke and Bjarne 

Strøm from the Department of Economics supervise the project. 

28


Researchers of this focus area have participated in following applications. 

Application sent by affiliated researchers 

1. Project title: A Blessing, Not a Curse: Managing Revenues from High‐Value Natural 

Resources 

Project leader: Paivi Lujala (Department of Geography) 

Program: Research Council of Norway/FRISAM/researcher project 

Deadline: 2 June 

Note: This application received good feedback, but did not get prioritized due to strong 

competition. The application will be reworked and resubmitted in 2012. 


 

 

26 th April: Seminar Words versus Bullets: Media and Democracy with Coercion, by 

Professor Juan Vargas, University of El Rosario, Colombia 

18 ‐19 September: Workshop Globalization, Governance and Natural Resources. 

Workshop was organized in collaboration with focus area Intercultural Dynamics. 


Focus Area researchers have initiated collaborations with national institutions such as ESOP 

at the University of Oslo, and the Research Department of Norges Bank. 

Focus Area researchers have collaborations with international institutions such as 

Department of Economics Brown University, Government Department Harvard University, 

Economics Department Universidad de los Andes, Economics Department Universidad del 

Rosario, and Economics Department MIT. 

Publications 

Acemoglu, D., Robinson, J.A. and Torvik, R. (2011). Why do voters dismantle checks and 

balances? National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper 17293, Cambridge: 

Massuchusetts. 

Chacon, M.; Robinson, J.A. and Torvik, R. (2011). When is democracy equilibrium? Theory 

and evidence from Colombia’s la violencia. Journal of Conflict Resolution 55(3): 366 – 

396. 

De Soysa, I. (2011). Another misadventure of economists in the tropics? Social diversity, 

cohesion and economic development. International Area Studies Review 14(1): 3 – 31. 

29

Lindset, S. and Matsen, E. (2011). Human capital investment and optimal portfolio choice. 

European Journal of Finance 17: 539 – 552. 

Lujala, P. and Rustad, S. A. (2011). ‘Å bygge fred etter krigen’ [Post‐Conflict Peacebuilding]. 

Kronikk [Op‐Ed]. Dagsavisen October 25: 4. 

Nichols, S.S.; Lujala, P. and Bruch, C. (2011). When Peacebuilding Meets the Plan: Natural 

Resource Governance and Post‐Conflict Recovery. The Whitehead Journal of Diplomacy 

and International Relations 12: 9 – 24. 

Torvik, R. (2011). The political economy of reform in resource rich countries. In Rabah Arezki, 

Thorvaldur Gylfason and Amadou Sy (eds.) Beyond the Curse. Policies to Harness the 

Power of Natural Resources IMF. 

Forthcoming 

Bergholt, D. and Lujala, P. (2012). ‘Climate‐related Natural Disasters, Economic Growth, and 

Armed Civil Conflict’, 2012. Journal of Peace Research 47(1): 147 – 162. 

Claussen, C.A., Matsen, E., Røisland, Ø. and Torvik, R. (2012). Overconfidence, Monetary 

Policy Committees and Chairman Dominance. Journal of Economic Behavior & 

Organization 00(0): 00 – 00. 

Lujala, P. and Siri Aas Rustad (eds.) (2012). High‐Value Natural Resources and Post‐Conflict 

Peace building. New York: Earthscan. 

Mehlum, H. (2012). The case for open access publishing. International Studies Perspectives, 

Mehlum, H. and Moene, K (2012). Aggressive elites and vulnerable entrepreneurs: Trust and 

cooperation in the shadow of conflict. In Michelle R. Garfinkel and Stergios Skaperdas 

(eds.) Oxford Handbook of the Economics of Peace and Conflict, Oxford University 

Press UK. 

http://www.oup.com/us/catalog/general/subject/Economics/Social/?view=usa&ci=97 

80195392777 

Mehlum, H.; Moene, K. and Torvik, R. (2012). Mineral Rents and Social Development in 

Norway. In Katja Hujo (ed.) Mineral Rents and the Financing of Social Policy: 

Opportunities and Challenge. Palgrave: Macmillan. 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mineral‐Rents‐Financing‐Social‐Policy/dp/023037090X 

Robinson, J.A. and Torvik, R. (2012). Institutional comparative statics. Proceedings of the 

World Congress of the Econometric Society. 

Ross, M.L.; Lujala, P. and Rustad, S. A. (2012). ‘Horizontal inequality, decentralizing the 

distribution of natural resource revenues, and peace’. In Lujala, P. and Siri Aas Rustad 

(eds.) High‐Value Natural Resources and Post‐Conflict Peace building. New York: 

Earthscan. 

Rustad, S. A. ; Lujala, P. and Le Billon, P. (2012). Building or spoiling peace? Lessons from the 

management of high‐value natural resources. In Lujala, P. and Siri Aas Rustad (eds.) 

High‐Value Natural Resources and Post‐Conflict Peace building. New York: Earthscan. 

30

NTNU Global 

JANUARY—MARCH 2011 

NTNU Research Strategic Area Globalization 

In this issue 

News 1 

Focus area: Global 

Economic flows, 

Governance and 

Stability 

India Delegation 

visit 

2 

Publications 6 

Organized events 7 

3—5 

WELCOME to the NTNU Global, the newsletter from the NTNU’s research 

strategic area Globalization. 

NTNU’s Globalization Research Programme addresses socially-relevant, topical 

issues concerning the promises and pitfalls of globalization in economic, social, 

cultural and political life. 

NTNU’s globalization research centers on four focus areas: 



Intercultural dynamics: Communication, Responsibility and Development 


NEWS 

Strategic Advisory Council 

meeting (strategisk råd møte) of 

the Globalization Research Programme 

was held on 17th January at 

the Rica Nidelvan Hotel. Three new 

members joined the Strategic Advisory 

Council from January, namely 

Inge Bartnes (Nord Trøndelag Energiverket—NTE), 

Tore Ulstein 

(Ulstein Group) and Nils Petter 

Gleditsch (PRIO / NTNU). 

2 MoUs were signed between 

globalization research partner 

institutions and NTNU 

Read more on the delegation to India 

with Rector on pages 3-5. 

Call for Applications 

Globalization Research Programme 

has announced vacancy of 4 PhD 

positions; 2 PhD positions within 

the focus areas Intercultural Dynamics 

and Global Economic Flows and 

2 PhD positions within the research 

project “Transformation and friction 

in globalizing India”. 

Application deadline: 06. May 

Please see our website 

www.ntnu.edu/global or Jobbnorge 

for more information 

Guest lecture on “Globalization 

and Contentious Politics". 

Craig Jenkins, Professor of Sociology, 

Political Science & Environmental 

Science from the Ohio State 

University will give a lecture on 

“Globalization and Contentious 

Politics". 

Time: 12th May 12.15—14.00 

Place: D 153, Dragvoll Campus 

India 2011 activities 

Globalization researchers received 

funding for arranging 3 activities 

during INDIA 2011 week in October. 

1. A conference—India as a 

global power: Diversity, democracy 

and prosperity 

2. Workshop on INDNOR research 

project. 

3. Photo exhibition on 

“Indigenous women in India”. 

PhD defence /disputas 

Cand.philol Lars Petter Haga 

(Department of history and Classical 

Studies) will defend his PhD dissertation 

entitled The Conquerors’ Maps: 

Soviet Literary, Scientific and Cultural actors’ 

mental mapping of East Central Europe, 

1944-1953) on 14th April. Haga’s PhD 

project was affiliated with the globalization 

focus area Intercultural Dynamics.

JANUARY—MARCH 2011 NTNU GLOBAL PAGE 2 

New Research focus Area 


In January 2011, Professor Ragnar Torvik, 

Department of Economics instituted 

a new research group within the 

globalization program entitled ‘Global 

Economic flows, Governance and Stability.’ 

This research group adds a valuable 

component to globalization research 

at NTNU and will make a heavy 

contribution for tackling the most relevant 

social challenges facing society. 

Professor Torvik describes some of 

these challenges below: 

“Over decades international trade has 

grown substantially more rapid than 

total world production. Improved technological 

possibilities for trade and 

capital flows, and reduced regulations 

on the movements of goods and capital 

between countries, have made economies 

more open at the same time as 

they have become more interdependent. 

Over the last 50 years there are some 

broad and important patterns of world 

growth. The western world had rapid 

growth in the first decades after the 

World War II. In recent decades Asia 

has been the growth winner. In 1960 

per capita income was about the same 

in Asia and Africa. However, from then 

on we see a divergence – where Asia 

has grown and Africa has not. With 

current growth rates, half of the world 

population doubles its income every 

10 th year. 

The fast growing countries have at least 

two important common characteristics: 

They have plenty of cheap labour, but 

they have few natural resources. The 

result has been high prices on natural 

resources, and low prices on manufactured 

goods. This shift in relative prices 

has benefitted those countries that export 

natural resources and import 

manufactured goods – in particular 

Norway. 

At the same time globalization has gone 

hand in hand with increased international 

macroeconomic imbalances. 

Most western countries have expanded 

their public or foreign debt. While on 

the other hand in particular China has 

had huge current account surpluses. 

Today most people would agree that the 

current economic imbalances are not sustainable, 

and many would also claim that 

they are a major cause of the recent financial 

crisis. 

The patterns of economic globalization 

motivate three broad research questions 

for this focus area: 

Why does China save so much, what 

are the consequences and solutions? 

High growth in China is due to high investments. 

At the same time China supply 

more goods on the world market than 

they demand. The combination of high 

investments and large current account 

surpluses can by definition only be possible 

when savings are high. The high savings 

rate in China may be seen as a puzzle. 

Much economic theory would predict that 

a country growing as fast as China should 

save less. 

The high savings rate in China is important 

to understand not only to explain the 

current global economic imbalances, but 

also to predict future economic development. 

The development of Chinese savings 

will be key to future world economic 

development. In particular, for Norway 

the high prices of natural resources such 

as oil could get even higher if the savings 

rate of China decreases over time, as this 

could lead to even higher demand for 

natural resources. 

Why does natural resources breed success 

in some countries but failure in 

others and how best to manage success? 

The increase in prices of natural resources 

with globalization has implied massive 

income gains to resource abundant countries. 

In the 1950s and onwards economists 

argued that countries with their 

comparative advantage in production 

based on natural resources would suffer 

from declining terms of trade. The price 

of raw materials relative to industrial 

goods would decline over time, making 

specialization in natural resource based 

production unattractive. Paradoxically, 

recently economists have argued that specialization 

in natural resources is unattractive 

for exactly the opposite reason; such 

specialization is so economically beneficial 

that in fact it may turn into a curse. 

But the average effect of oil in Norway 

and Nigeria, or the average effect of diamonds 

in Botswana and Sierra Leone, 

may not be the most interesting nor relevant 

question. Rather than the average it 

is more important to understand the 

variation. Why has oil induced prosperity 

in some countries but stagnation in others? 

Why, and when, do natural resources 

fuel civil conflict? 

How does economic globalization 

affect governance and what can be 

done to create global stability and 

prosperity? 

Economic institutions and economic 

reform are main drivers for economic 

and political development after the discovery 

of valuable natural resources. At 

least two questions form: How do countries 

reform when they receive resource 

rents? How should countries reform when 

they receive resource rents? 

Key elements of constitutions in many 

countries are “checks and balances” – 

institutional rules that limit the political 

abuse of power, balance political power, 

and may enhance growth. However, it 

seems to be the case that in countries 

where such rules are particularly important 

– for example because the country 

has substantial public income from natural 

resources – the institutional rules are 

undermined by politicians. If checks and 

balances limit political rents, why would 

voters support their removal as they have 

done in e.g. Bolivia, Ecuador, and Venezuela?”

Delegation visit to India 

Four researchers including Professor Indra de Soysa (leader of the strategic area) Professor Ragnhild Lund 

(Department of Geography) Professor Jonathon Moses (Department of Sociology and Political Science) and 

Associate professor Emeritus Rune Skarstein, (Department of Economics) and coordinator Chamila Attanapola 

represented the Globalization Research Programme on the NTNU delegation that visited India during 7—11th 

February. 

The purpose of the visit of globalization researchers was to sign MoUs with research institutions in India with whom 

they collaborate with in various research projects financed by the Research Council of Norway. 

During the first three or four days, the researchers visited their respective research partners to discuss the budget, 

work roles and administrative hurdles relating to the initiation of the INDNOR project. 

Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies (IPCS), care of Dr. Subachandran 

Jawaharlal Nehru University 

 

 


Centre for International Politics, Organization and Disarmament, School of International Studies, Jawaharlal 

Nehru University (CIPOD/JNU), Care of Professor Moushumi Basu 

Centre for Economic studies and Planning, School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University (CESP/ 

JNU), care of Professor Emeritus Amit Bhaduri 

Human Development Foundation – HDF Bubhaneswar, Orissa, care of principal research partners, Professor 

Hari Bandu Panda and Professor Smita Mishra Panda. 

Delegation visit to Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi 

NTNU Delegation led by Pro-rector 

Kari Melby was warmly welcomed by 

a group of researchers and leaders at 

the JNU. The meeting was chaired by 

Professor Harjit Singh, who is in 

charge of international collaborations 

at JNU. 

Even though the JNU leaders were 

positive to the research collaborations 

already established between the researchers 

at NTNU and JNU, JNU 

was in the opinion that they needed 

more time to sign a MoU with 

NTNU. Partners agreed to sign MoU 

at lower level for conducting already 

established research activities such as 

the INDNOR project 

“Transformation and friction in globalizing 

India”. 

Professor Harjit 

Singh gave a memento 

that represents 

the logo of 

the university 

(JNU) to NTNU 

Pro-rector Kari 

Melby. 

NTNU Delegation visited the JNU 

From left—Professor Emeritus Rune Skarstein, Professor Jonathon Moses, Professor Ragnhild Lund, Head of 

the International section Hilde Skeie, Dean of the Faculty of Social Science and Technology Management, Jan 

Morten Dyrstad, Pro-rector Kari Melby and also the Professor Harjit Singh (JNU)


Delegation visit to Human Development Foundation, Orissa 

A delegation from NTNU led by Pro-rector Kari Melby visited Bubhaneswar, Orissa, to sign a MoU with the Human 

Development Foundation (HDF) and to participate in a field visit. 

First, the delegation including pro-rector Kari 

Melby, Professor Ragnhild Lund, senior advisor 

Nina Sindre, Globalization coordinator 

Chamila Attanapola, and professor Britt Andersen 

were taken to an “Adi-vasi” / 

indigenous exhibition, where the tribal people 

in Orissa exhibited aspects of their culture 

and livelihoods. 

Left: An entrance decorated with Adi-vasi arts. 

Right : Tribal woman with her traditional 

cloths and accessories 

MoU signing ceremony at HDF 

The MoU signing ceremony was organized by the 

HDF, where Minister of Education at Bhubaneswar 

Province, representatives from the Department of Rural 

Development and Planning and local honorable 

persons attended. Most importantly, students and staff 

of the School of Human Development Management 

were among the guests. Further, there were a large 

number of TV and newspaper journalists who covered 

the event. 

The MoU between the NTNU and the HDF was signed to consolidate already 

existing research collaboration for the following projects as well as to 

establish new research and educational collaboration between the two institutions: 

 

 

 

Mobile livelihoods – Counter geographies of indigenous people 

India and China Revisiting gender; Complexities in Asia 

INDNOR sub-project Environment security in Orissa 

Left: Pro-rector 

Kari Melby 

(NTNU) and 

Director Professor 

Haribandu Panda 

(HDF) Signing the 

MoU. 

Right: Senior advisor 

Nina Sindre 

was interviewed by 

several journalists 

MoU between NTNU and HDF was a 

result of 20-years of research collaboration 

between Professor Ragnhild Lund, NTNU 

and Professor Smita Panda, HDF


NTNU GLOBAL PAGE 5 

Delegation visit to Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies, Delhi 

NTNU delegation headed by the pro-rector Kari Melby, Globalization researchers, Dean of the Faculty of Social Science 

and Technology Management Jan Morten Dyrstad and the head of the International section, Hilde Skeie visited 

the IPCS. The delegation was welcomed by the director Amithab Matto and the INDNOR principle researcher Dr. 

Subachandran. The IPCS is eager to establish long term research collaborations with NTNU, which led to the signing 

of an MoU. 

Top: IPCS director Amithab Matto and NTNU pro-rector Kari Melby congratulating each other on MoU 

Left: Professor Emeritus Rune Skarstein and Dr. Subachandran 

Right: Research Director at the Globalization Research Programme Professor Indra de Soysa and Major general 

Dipankar Banerjee 

INDNOR project — The way forward 

On Friday 11th October—the final day of the delegation visit the INDNOR research partners gathered at the Lalit 

hotel to discuss how to proceed with the sub-projects. Each research partner presented research questions and research 

methodologies which will be adopted in their studies. Further the researchers discussed the possibility for 

applying for larger project and how to use the results of the pilot studies / sub-projects to generate a larger research 

project and pursue funding options.


Latest Publications on Globalization 

de Soysa, Indra and Vadlamannati, Krishna Chaitanya (2011). Does Being Bound Together Suffocate, 

or Liberate? The Effects of Economic, Social, and Political Globalization on Human Rights, 

1981–2005. Kyklos (Basel), 64(1): 20-53. 

Golebiowska, K., Valenta, M. and Carter, T. (2011). International immigration trends and data.. 

In Dean Carson et. al (ed.). Demography at the Edge: Remote Human Populations in Developed Nations. Ashgate. 

International Population Studies. ISBN 978-0-7546-7867-0: 53-84. 

Haga, L.P. (2011). Imaginer la démocratie populaire. L’Institut de l’economie mondiale et la carte 

mentale soviétique de l’Europe de l’Est (1944-1948). Vingtième siècle. Revue d’histoire No 109: 13-30. 

Skrandies, Timo (2010). Ästhetische Räume, künstlerische Strategien und die Politik der Kunst. Das 

Beispiel Gregor Schneider. I: Identität - Bewegung - Inszenierung. Peter Lang Publishing Group 2010, 

ISBN 978-3-631-59457-5: 205-224. 

Skrandies, Timo (2010). “Hog to Hog" - Trekt all Mab". Work, Image, Life. Weimarer Beiträge, 56 

(4): 629-633. 

Valenta, M. and Strabac, Z. (2011). State-assisted integration, but not for all: Norwegian welfare 

services and labour migration from the new EU member states, International Social Work 

002087281039281. doi:10.1177/0020872810392811. First published on March 15, 2011. 

Valenta, M. and Thorshaug, K. (2011). Failed Asylum-Seekers’ Responses to Arrangements Promoting 

Return: Experiences from Norway, Refugee Survey Quarterly, doi: 10.1093/rsq/hdr001. First 

published online: March 7, 2011. 

Professor Fet spoke at the closing conference of the Sustainable Consumption, 

Production and Communication project in Budapest 

On January 21, Professor Annik Fet at 

the Department of Industrial Economics 

and Technology Management, participated 

in the Closing Conference of 

the Sustainable Consumption, Production 

and Communication project funded 

by the Norway Grant. She opened the 

conference with a presentation on Environmental 

Product Declarations. Professor 

Fet has initiated collaboration 

between NTNU and the Corvinus University 

through the Globalization Research 

Programme. 

Professor Fet presenting at the Institute of Environmental Sciences, Department 

of Environmental Economics and Technology, at Corvinus University 

in Budapest 

Annik Fet also took part in the 14th 

EMAN Conference: Accounting for 

Climate Change – What and How to 

Measure on January 24-25, 2011. Both 

events took place in Budapest, Hungary.


GUEST LECTURES 


During the first quartile of 2011, Globalization Research Programme has organized two guest lectures. The first was 

held on 18th January with the title “Sustainable Mobile Health Information Infrastructures in Low Resource Settings” 

by Professor Kristin Braa, Department of Informatics at the University of Oslo. 

Professor Braa (left) presented results from her research project HISP (http:// 

www.ifi.uio.no/research/groups/gi/hisp.html) - Health Information Systems Program. 

She pointed out that even in this era of globalization, a large number of developing 

countries in the world lack proper infrastructure facilities vital for better quality of life. 

Especially within the health sector, poor infrastructure leads to higher mortality rates 

from diseases as well as inequalities in health among populations. Her project in India 

shows how important mobile phone systems are for rural communities, where there is 

no proper electricity or transportation system as a way of communication. HISP looks 

at how mobile phones are used as a medium for effective data exchange and communication 

in public health by health care personnel. Cost and low maintenance, less energy 

use, as well as less complicated learning process are the major advantages of mobile 

phones over computers. 

India telecom market 

Mobile penetration close to 60% with 706 million mobile connection as of October 2010. 

20 million new phones are sold in India every month, vs. 6 million computers sold in an entire year. 

15 million new mobile users per month while 14 million new Internet users for a whole year. 

The cost of calling in India is among the lowest in the world. 

Internet penetration in India is one of the lowest in the world which is about 7% of the population and 

with only 19 % growth in one year. 

India has 25 PCs per 1,000 people. 

Sixty-six million people access the Internet via their handsets. 

The second guest lecture was held on 22nd March by 

Professor Terhi Rantanen from the London School of 

Economics. “Under the Ash Cloud: Globalization, 

Communicative Modernity and Cosmopolitanization” 

was the title of her lecture. 

Professor Rantanen argued that social media has become 

an important mode of self organization across boarders 

when responsible authorities such as governments, airlines 

and travel agencies were unable to assist people. 

Concluding her presentation Rantanen provided four 

arguments. First, we live in a global risk society where 

risks, their anticipation and their elimination have become 

a major task for national and international organizations. 

Second, global risks can become cosmopolitan 

events. Third, The three forms of communication (interpersonal, 

mass communication, and mass selfcommunication) 

coexist, interact, and complement each 

other rather than substituting for each other. Finally she 

asks whether we could define these developments as 

globalization or cosmopolitanization.

NTNU Globalization 

Research Programme 

is based on NTNU’s long-standing 

tradition of globalization research and 

combines academic excellence, interdisciplinary 

cooperation and social relevance. 

NTNUs Globalization Research Programme 

includes researchers from the humanities, social 

sciences, architecture and technology, representing 

25 departments at 7 faculties throughout the 

university. Researchers work within the three 

focus areas. 

A major challenge is to facilitate synergies 

between these areas by formulating crosscutting 

research themes and linking them 

closer together through increased 

collaboration. 


Management 

Postal address: 


Faculty of Humanities 

Norwegian University of Science and Technology 

N 7491 Trondheim 


Advisor Chamila Attanapola, Coordinator, Faculty 

of Humanities 

Professor Berit Berg, Department of Social work 

and Health Science. Leader of focus area War, Conflict 

and Migration 

Associate Professor Arild Aspelund, Department 

of Industrial Economics and Technology Management. 

Leader of focus area Global Production and 

Communication 

Professor May Thorseth, Department of Philosophy. 

Leader of focus area Intercultural Dynamics: 

Communication, Responsibility and Development 

Professor Ragnar Torvik, Department of Economics. 

Leader of focus area Global Economic Flows, 

Governance and Stability 

Dean Kathrine Skretting, Faculty of Humanities. 

Leader of the Strategic Advisory Council 

Tlf: 47 73 59 68 55 

Fax:: 47 73 59 10 30 

Email: global@hf.ntnu.no 

Website: http://www.ntnu.edu/global


APRIL—JUNE 2011 

NTNU’s Strategic Research Area - Globalization 

In this issue 

News 1 

Organized 

events 

Research 

and Publications 

About the 

Globalization 

Research 

Programme 

2 

3— 

4 

5 

WELCOME to NTNU Global, a newsletter from NTNU’s strategic research focus on globalization. 

NTNU’s Globalization Research Programme addresses socially‐relevant, topical 

issues concerning the promises and pitfalls of globalization in economic, social, cultural 

and political life. 






NEWS 

berg) and Professor 

Pranab Kumar Bardhan 

Globalization Programme 

contributes with three events 

We are glad to announce that the Globalization 

Research Programme will contribute 

to NTNU’s India2011 programme 

by organizing three events. 

Conference India as a global power: Diversity, 

democracy and prosperity, from 3 –4 

October at Rådsalen, Gløshaugen Campus 

The conference will focus on topics such 

as India’s role as a great power, the governance 

of diversity, economic growth 

and development, and India’s role in the 

region and international community as 

the world’s largest democracy. 

The conference features lectures by Professor 

Sumit Ganguly (Indiana University), 

Professor Emeritus V. N. 

Balasubramaniyam (Lancaster University), 

Dr. Sunila Kale (University of 

Washington), Dr. C. Christine Fair 

(Georgetown University), Professor 

Subrata K. Mitra (University of Heidel 

(University of California). 

Seminar Transformation and friction in globalizing 

India, on 5 October at Auditorium 

DL 34 and D6, Dragvoll Campus 

Project collaborative partners from 

NTNU and India, including Professor 

Amit Bhaduri (Council of Social Development), 

Associate Professor Moushumi 

Basu (Javeharlal Nehru University) Professor 

Smita Mishra Panda and Professor 

Haribandu Panda (Human Development 

Foundation) together with NTNU researchers 

will present proposed research 

ideas and preliminary results of the IND- 

NOR project coordinated by the Globalization 

Programme. 

Photo exhibition Livelihoods and identities 

of tribal/ Adivasi women in Odisha, India, on 

1—9 October at Dragvoll Campus -Gata 

Throughout history India’s tribal communities 

have been marginalised economically, 

culturally and politically. Thus, 

today they live under conditions of severe 

poverty. The photo exhibition is 

designed to provide a glimpse of the lives 

of Adivasi women in Odisha India, particularly 

focused on their livelihoods, 

activism, and identity. 

All these events are open to the public. 

Please reserve the dates to join with us. 

For more information on the events see: 

http://www.ntnu.no/india2011 

Huge interest in PhD positions 

within the Globalization Programme 

By the application deadline on 6th May, 

the Globalization Research Programme 

received a large number of applications 

from both Norwegian and foreign applicants 

for the announced vacancy of 4 

PhD positions. The focus area, Intercultural 

Dynamics received 18, Focus area 

Global Economic Flows received 20 

while the research project 

“Transformation and friction in globalizing 

India” received 10 applications. 

Strategic Advisory Council meeting 

(strategiskråd møte) of the Globalization 

Research Programme will be held 

on 30th August at Britannia Hotel.

APRIL—JUNE 2011 Conferences, Seminars and Workshops NTNU GLOBAL PAGE 2 

NTNU Rector Torbjørn Digernes opening the 

conference…. 

Conference MITIP – 2011 

The 13 th International Conference on Modern Information Technology in 

the Innovation Processes of industrial enterprises—MITIP 2011 was held 

on 22—24 June. 

The conference was organized by the Department of Production and 

Quality Engineering in collaboration with SINTEF Technology and Society, 

Operations Management. Globalization focus area Global Production 

and Communication provided financial support. 

The main theme of the conference was ICT enabled intelligent manufacturing 

and supply chain. 47 papers were presented under four themes namely, information 

and communication technology, operational excellence, supply 

chain management and Manufacturing and supply chain planning and control. 

The conference concentrated on the dissemination of ideas, knowledge 

and experiences about ICT-driven innovation in intelligent manufacturing and supply chains. The conference was targeted at scholars 

and practitioners involved in research activities focusing on (but not limited to) the role of ICT in intelligent manufacturing and 

supply chain operations. For several years, MITIP has proven to be an important forum for researchers from academia and industry. 

You will find more information about the conference at: http://www.mitip.org/ 

Guest Lecture 

Globalization and Political Contention: 

The Effects of Globalized Media and Civil Society 

“Internationalization of protest, which uses the international 

media as a stage, is argued to have extended 

to more violent forms of contention. This 

‘globalization‐contentious politics’ linkage, however, 

has received little analytic attention and there is little 

systematic empirical evidence at the global level evaluating 

these arguments.” 

Addressing students and researchers at 

Dragvoll Campus on 12th May, Professor 

Craig Jenkins from the Department 

of Sociology, Ohio State University 

presented results from his latest research 

on effects of globalization of 

political contention on the globalized 

media and the civil society. 

Using cross-national pooled time-series 

analysis Jenkins and his colleagues examine 

the effects of international mass 

media and integration into global civil 

society on four types of contention: (1) 

anti-governmental protests; (2) terrorist 

attacks on civilians; (3) guerrilla warfare; 

and (4) the onset of civil wars. They 

find evidence supporting the central 

role of international news bureaus and 

international civic organizations. Both 

contribute to protests and terrorist attacks 

and combine to jointly contribute 

to these two forms of contention. 

Although the internet discourages contention, 

it interacts positively with international 

media to create protest and 

terrorism. Integration into global civil 

society also works to magnify terrorism 

and guerrilla war. The onset of civil 

war, however, is relatively unaffected by 

globalization. Globalization is creating 

Professor Craig Jenkins at NTNU on 

12th May 

a new stage for contentious actions that 

center on securing third party support 

from the international community. 

For a more detailed appraisal, see his 

paper in our Working Paper Series 

3/2011.

APRIL—JUNE 2011 NTNU GLOBAL PAGE 3 

The Conquerors’ Maps: Soviet Literary, Scientific and Cultural Actors’ 

Mental Mapping of East Central Europe, 1944-1953 

Lars Peder Haga 

Department of History and Classical Studies 

Lars Peder Haga defended his thesis on 

14th April. Haga’s PhD project was 

affiliated with the globalization focus 

area Intercultural Dynamics. Professor 

György Péteri at the Department of 

History and Classical Studies supervised 

the thesis. 

Summary of the thesis 

After the Second World War, the Soviet 

Union had gained recognition as a 

global political player, and acquired an 

East Central European periphery of 

communist-dominated countries. After 

a while, these countries became known 

as the ”Soviet Bloc”. This simplification 

has made it too easy for posterity to 

ignore that in 1944-45, no common 

terminology existed to describe these 

countries, and they were not commonly 

thought of or discussed as a single, unified 

group of countries or region. After 

the completion of the military conquest, 

the intellectual conquest still remained 

to be done. 

This intellectual conquest, or mental 

mapping is the object of inquiry in the 

thesis. The term mental mapping is 

taken from Larry Wolff, whose work on 

18th century writings on East Central 

Europe, together with among others the 

work by Edward Said and Maria Todorova 

on Western perceptions of the 

Orient and the Balkans, have inspired 

the methodology applied in the thesis. 

As its starting points, the analysis take 

four operations of mental mapping: 

Association – intellectually combining a 

group of diverse countries and naming 

them as a single region; Comparison – 

comparing the newly 

conceptualised region 

with other regions and 

countries, almost always 

ordering them in a hierarchical 

manner; Peopling 

– describing the inhabitants 

of the region, and 

ascribing certain traits to 

them; Addressing – proscribing 

to the people(s) 

of the region how they 

should order and organize 

their society. 

The empirical cases have 

been found in a play and 

a novel by the two 

prominent Soviet writers, 

Konstantin Simonov and Oles’ Honchar; 

In the publications and archives of two 

research institutes under The Soviet Academy 

of Sciences, The Institute of World Economics 

and World Politics and The Institute of 

Economy; And in archival materials of the 

Soviet Cultural exchange organization 

VOKS, The All-Union Society for Cultural 

Ties Abroad. Periodically, the thesis deals 

with the period from the end of the war 

until Stalin’s death – what may appropriately 

be named the pioneering phase of 

Soviet mental mapping of East Central 

Europe. 

At the centre of the analysis is how the 

justification of Soviet political, economical 

and cultural hegemony over East Central 

Europe was an integral part of the processes 

of mental mapping. A particular 

problem in this respect was that the degrees 

of industrialization and urbanization, 

as well as levels of education and 

prosperity in these countries were measurably 

higher than in the Soviet Union. 

In addition came a less tangible idea of 

their belonging to a culturally more developed 

West. This frustrated the construction 

of an unambiguously hierarchical 

relationship, where the Soviet Union 

was positioned as a natural superior and 

leader. The various strategies employed 

to handle this problem are central to the 

conclusions. 

The findings in the thesis expand upon 

and explain important aspects of the Soviet 

imperial project in East Central 

Europe, in particular the connections 

between cultural and scholarly production, 

identity politics and political domination. 

It clearly shows how the Soviet 

Union’s ambition to be established as an 

alternative global leader, on par with or 

even superior to the ”West”, was frustrated 

by both quantifiable and nonquantifiable 

indicators of development.

APRIL—JUNE 2011 

A New Online Tool for the Evaluation of Emergency 

Communication is Developed in an European 

Research Project 

European research teams have developed 

a new online tool for the evaluation 

of emergency communication, the 

'Crisis Communication Scorecard'. It 

helps public authorities improve the 

communication before, during and 

after emergencies or disasters. The 

free online tool is developed with EU 

funding by researchers from Finland, 

Norway, Israel and Estonia. 

The Crisis Communication Scorecard 

with guides and scientific background 

materials are available on the website: 

www.crisiscommunication.fi 

Who are the users? 

The measurement instrument is intended 

for authorities such as rescue 

services, the police and health care, as 

well as municipalities, provinces, ministries 

and other kinds of organizations 

responsible for crisis management. 


Latest Publications 

Chacon, M.; Robinson, J.A. and Torvik, R. 

When is democracy equilibrium? Theory and 

evidence from Colombia’s la violencia. Journal 

of Conflict Resolution 55(3): 366-396. 

De Soysa, I. Another misadventure of economists 

in the tropics? Social diversity, cohesion 

and economic development. International Area 

Studies Review 14(1): 3-31. 

De Soysa, I. and Vadlamannati, K.C. Does 

being bound together suffocate, or liberate? 

The effects of economic, social and political 

globalization on human rights 1981-2005. 

KYKLOS 64(1): 20-53. 

Ess, C. and Thorseth, M (Eds). Trust and 

virtual worlds. Contemporary perspectives. New 

York: Peterlang. 

The tool is called the Crisis Communication 

Scorecard and it helps governmental 

and other organizations to improve 

the crisis preparedness. The 

online audit tool is designed : 

 

 

 

to conduct a preparedness audit 

and test crisis communication 

planning, 

to evaluate communication in 

an emergency preparedness 

exercise, and 

to learn from what happened in 

a post crisis evaluation. 

About the project 

The research project 'Developing a 

crisis scorecard' leading to these results 

has been funded as part of the 

European Community's Seventh 

Framework Program (FP7/2007- 

2013) under grant agreement n° 

217889. 

This EU-funded project is coordinated 

by the University 

of Jyväskylä in Finland, and the other 

research teams are: the University of 

Tartu in Estonia, Ben Gurion University 

of the Negev in Israel, NTNU 

(Professor Ragnhild Lund at the Department 

of Geography), and the 

Emergency Services College 

in Finland. 

Please pass on this information 

to others who may want to test 

this free tool for public organisations. 

Lund, R. and Panda, S.M. New activism for 

political recognition. Creation and expansion 

of spaces by tribal women, Odisha, India. Gender, 

Technology and Development 15(1)75-99. 

Neumayer, E. and de Soysa, I. Globalization 

and the empowerment of women: An 

analysis of spatial dependence via trade and 

foreign direct investment. World Development 39 

(7): 1065-1075. 

Fulbright Research Scholarship to a Globalization Researcher 

Researcher Torbjørn Netland affiliated with the Department of Industrial Economics and 

Technology Management, NTNU and SINTEF Industrial Management / Logistics has 

been awarded the prestigious Fulbright Research Scholarship for the academic year 2011- 

2012. The scholarship was awarded at the ceremony held at the Norwegian Nobel Institute 

on 8 th of June. 

Netland will be visiting Georgetown University in Washington DC from September 2011 to 

August 2012. While in Washington, he will continue his research on company-specific production 

systems of multinational companies under the supervision of Professor Kasra Ferdows. 

Netland is a research member of the Globalization research focus area Global Production 

and Communication and was the acting leader of the focus area from January to July 2011. 

Torbjørn Netland at the 13th MITIP 

conference held at NTNU

NTNU’s Globalization 











focus areas. 






Globalization Research Programme 

Management 



of Humanities 



and Migration 




Communication 














Tlf: 47 73 59 68 55 

Fax:: 47 73 59 10 30 



NTNU GLOBAL 

JULY—OCTOBER 2011 

NTNU Research Strategic Area 

Globalization 

In this issue 

News and upcoming 

events 

Organized events 2-6 

Latest Globalization 

publications 

About the Globalization 


1 

6 

7 

WELCOME to NTNU Global, the newsletter from NTNU’s strategic 

research area —Globalization. 

NTNU’s Globalization Research Programme addresses sociallyrelevant, 

topical issues concerning the promises and pitfalls of globalization 

in economic, social, cultural and political life. 




Intercultural dynamics: Communication, Responsibility and 

Development 


News 

The Strategic Advisory Council meeting 

of the Globalization Research Programme 

was held on 30th August at Britannia 

Hotel. 

On 31st August, a guest lecture entitled 

Right-wing Radicalism in Norway in the 

Context of the Events of 22 nd July 2011 was 

given by post doctoral fellow Lars Gule from 

the Oslo University College (Right). Large 

number of students and academics including 

dean of the Faculty of Humanities Professor 

Kathrine Skretting attended. 

NTNU researchers in collaboration with Indian research partners sent two applications to the 

Research Council of Norway under the GLOBAMEK program. 

On 3rd October, Globalization focus area; Intercultural Dynamics in collaborating with the Marine 

Strategic Area has organized an international workshop entitled Dialogue on aquaculture: 

Nature, technology, governance. 

Department of Music organized a workshop and concert with the famous Israeli musician and 

writer Gilad Atzmon. Gilad Atzmon, ex Israeli and internationally recognized jazz musician has 

just released his latest book entitled “The Wandering Who? A Study of Jewish Identity Politics”. The 

book has receiving international recognition as the most accurate assessment to date on Jewish 

identity and political drive. On 31st October Atzmon gave a talk about his first encounter with 

Jazz music and its impact on his ethical and philosophical stand and his journey form hard core 

Zionism towards a humanist opposition to Zionism, racism and exclusiveness. 

Upcoming Events 

18 th November: Seminar on 

Global Operations and 

challenges of operating 

internationally 

This is a follow-up event to 

last year’s Global Sourcing 

seminar organized by the 



Management (IØT) in collaboration 

with SINTEF’s 

MARGIN project, CRI Norman 

and SMARTLOG network. 

Dr. Michael Mol from Warwick 

Business School is invited 

to give the keynote 

speech. 

Please register for this event 

by sending your name, email, 

affiliation, position and telephone 

number to Mieko Igarashi: 

mieko.igarashi@iot.ntnu.no.



PAGE 2 

Workshop: Globalization, Governance and Natural Resources 

On the 18 th and 19 th of September, researchers 

from a variety of countries 

and fields of research came together for 

a workshop organised by the NTNU 

Globalisation research programme. The 

event, entitled ”Globalization, Governance 

and Natural Resources” took place 

at Britannia Hotel and represented a 

unique forum for economists, political 

scientists and philosophers to discuss 

their diverse approaches to addressing 

the common problems associated with 

the proper governance of natural resources. 

Discussion was stimulated by a 

wide range of issues and concerns. 

Economist Thorvaldur Gylfason 

(below) from the University of Iceland 

presented a paper entitled “Commodity 

Price Volatility, Democracy and Economic 

Growth”. The paper, coauthored 

with Rabah Arezki of the IMF, 

studied the impact of commodity price 

volatility on economic growth by analysing 

a new dataset. Using a sample of 158 

countries over the period 1970-2007 

Gylfason and Arezki find that commodity 

price volatility tends to increase 

growth in democratic countries, while it 

has no effect among autocracies. Gylfason’s 

explanation for this finding is 

that volatile commodity prices tend to 

lead to higher rates of national savings 

in democracies, while in autocratic systems 

net savings appear to decrease 

during periods of volatility. 

Simone Valente (ETH Zurich) discussed 

the effects of different regimes of control 

rights over the exploitation of critical 

resources in a presentation entitled 

“Domestic Ownership, Foreign Control 

and Income Levels: Theory and 

Evidence”. Valente and co-author 

Christa Brunnsweiler develop a theoretical 

model to compare regimes where 

home control, foreign control and international 

partnership predominate. According 

to this model international partnership 

is always superior to foreign control 

in generating domestic income. They 

support these predications empirically 

using a new dataset comprising 68 countries 

over the period 1867-2005. 

Karsten Klint Jensen, from the University 

of Copenhagen (above) presented 

work carried out together with Christian 

Gamborg and Peter Sandøe. With a 

presentation entitled “Procedural vs. 

Substantial solutions to the challenge 

from Conflicting Environmental Values”, 

Jensen used the case of recreational 

hunting in Denmark to illustrate an 

argument in favour of using ethical theory 

in our understanding of conflicts between 

groups and actors whose views 

stem from distinct sets of values relating 

to the environment. 

In a lectured entitled “Petro populism” 

Gisle Natvik of Norges Bank discussed a 

theoretical model developed together 

with Egil Matsen and Ragnar Torvik of 

NTNU. They seek to model how oil 

revenues lead to populist spending policies 

both by benevolent and rent-seeking 

politicians. The model indicates that both 

types of government would tend towards 

populism, but for different reasons. 

While rent-seekers may overspend to 

stay in power by appearing benevolent, 

benevolent politicians also have an incentive 

to increase spending to avoid 

losing an election to the rent-seeker. 

Either way, oil revenues will likely lead 

to both types of politician to over extract 

the resource and discount the future. 

Philosopher Marcus Düwell (below) of 

Utrecht University gave a talk titled 

“Scarcity of natural resources and 

human rights”, where he discussed the 

various challenges to the human rights 

framework presented by the need for 

action on issues like climate change, 

population growth and resource scarcity. 

In his lecture he attempted to conceptualise 

these challenges, relating human 

rights to the concept of sustainability 

and moral claims with regard to ecological 

challenges. 

Siri Granum Carson of NTNU with her 

presentation “Global corporate citizenship 

– a play for legitimacy?” 

discussed the legitimacy of “global corporate 

citzenship”. Using the cases of 

Shell in the Niger delta and Statoil in 

Azerbaijan she discussed how, despite 

initiatives to improve labour rights and 

transparency, it remains unclear whether 

the companies’ operations are really 

supportive, or obstacles to healthy development 

in those countries. Carson 

takes issue with the concept of 

“corporate citizenship” as an adequate 

description of the changing political role 

of global businesses, where companies 

are increasingly acquiring the rights as 

well as responsibilities of individuals.



Workshop: Globalization, Governance and …. continues 

Political scientist Michael Ross from 

UCLA (above)presented work done 

together with Jørgen Juel Andersen of 

BI in his lecture on “Oil and Democracy”. 

The main objective of their recent 

cooperation has been to examine 

the findings of a recent study that finds 

no negative effect of oil on democracy 

– in contrast to several previous works. 

Ross argued that these recent findings 

were not based on testing most credible 

versions of the resource curse hypothesis, 

as well as being based on assumptions 

that he considers implausible. By 

using the same data Ross and Andersen 

show that oil is strongly correlated with 

authoritarianism in the post 1970s period. 

The explanation for this trend is 

that this period saw governments acruing 

increase revenues from an oil industry 

that had been nationalised in the 

years proceeding. Their forthcoming 

publication is titled: “Making the Resource 

Curse Disappear: A reexamination 

of Haber and 

Menaldo’s “Do Natural Resources 

Fuel Authoritarianism?””. 

The first to present on day two was 

economist Rick van der Ploeg from the 

University of Oxford (below). He lectured 

based on a recent paper 

“Harnessing natural resource windfalls 

in low income countries”. 

Using the example of Ghana’s recent 

discovery of oil reserves and the problems 

this presents for government in 

deciding the best way in which to manage 

and invest the 

revenues. Standard 

policy advice has 

been to set up a 

type of sovereign 

wealth fund that 

enables a permanent 

increase in 

consumption that 

is supported by 

interest accrued 

from foreign assets. 

In contrast to 

this, van der Ploeg 

argues that in 

countries where 

capital investment is scarce, governments 

should rather invest more of the 

revenues domestically, thereby prioritising 

present generations over future 

ones. 

Allen Alvarez from the Philosophy Department 

at NTNU talked on “Radical 

life extension and the problem of 

overpopulation”. Alvarez described 

“Radical life extension” as “ambitions 

to prolong human lifespan indefinitely”. 

He went on to discuss the potential 

problems that could arise in world 

where people live for significantly longer 

periods of time. He went on to discuss 

some of the moral and ethical questions 

related to the topic in relation to individual 

rights as well as potential stresses 

on natural resources. Alvarez went on to 

highlight some key points that should be 

considered in the event that science 

progresses further in extending peoples 

lives. Healthy life extension, and not 

only life extension in itself should be the 

goal; the issue should be related to discussions 

on sustainable use of resources 

and not just to debates on population 

control and questions should be asked 

regarding whether radical life extension 

is in fact compatible with out cultural 

values. 

In the final lecture of the workshop 

Jørgen Juel Andersen of BI presented a 

paper titled “Oil and Political Survival”. 

Since several theories have been put 

forward as to why oil and other resources 

could prolong the duration that 

regimes stay in power, or lead to conflict 

or other events that see them leave office 

sooner, the forthcoming paper sets 

out to test some of these ideas empirically. 

As such, Andersen and co-author 

Silje Aslaksen study the potential natural 

resource revenues have to increase the 

longevity of political leaderships. They 

find that the impact can be positive or 

negative and depends both on the types 

of resources and the type of institution 

in question. Their results suggest that 

resource revenues in less democratic 

countries are associated with longer periods 

in power, while not in democratic 

systems. Additionally, they find that 

while oil and non-lootable diamonds 

tend to increase leadership duration, 

minerals appear to have a negative effect. 

Rick van der Ploeg (above) and Jørgen J. 

andersen (below)



The Globalization Research Programme conducted three events during NTNU’s INDA2011 program which 

was held from 1–9 October. The conference—India as a global power: Diversity, democracy and prosperity 

- held between 3-4 October was opened by NTNU’s pro-rector for research Professor Kari Melby. 

While India has done much beer in terms of 

economic growth in the last three decades 

than in the preceding two hundred years, and 

the polity and society have shown a great 

deal of resilience, one should not underesmate 

the many structural weaknesses and 

polical uncertaines that cloud the horizon. 

Professor Pranab K. Bardhan 

Pro-Rector 

Professor Kari 

Melby opening 

the conference 

Professor Pranab Kumar Bardhan from the University of California 

Berkeley (above) gave the first key note speech on India’s 

economic rise: Impressive but troubled. Bringing statistics on 

India’s economic growth for over a century, Bardhan argued 

that India has become the second fastest growing country in 

the world next to China. However, lack of infrastructure facilities, 

unfavourable demographic condition, and corruption 

hider growth significantly. Further, unequal distribution of 

resources leads to fewer people being lifted out of poverty 

than in many other places. Bardhan is cautiously optimistic 

about Indian success following similar patterns as China has 

done. In addition five excellent academics were invited. 

Professor V. N. Balasubramanyam (Lancaster University) presented 

research on the topic A Tale of Two States: Growth and 

Development Experience of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. This 

research shows that policy matters for lowering poverty and 

not just the rate of growth. 

A disaggregated view of globalizing India was the title of the speech 

of Associate Professor Sunila Kale (University of Washington) 

who addressed the question of the political economy of energy 

policies, which are at the heart of infrastructure development. 

The second key note speech was given by Professor Sumit 

Ganguly (Indiana University) on The Sources of Continuity and 

Change in Indian Foreign Policy. Dr. D. Suba Chandran (Institute 

of Peace and Conflict Studies, Delhi) provided complementary 

insights into the regional implications of India’s foreign policy 

in a talk entitled Regional Insecurity and Indian Foreign Policy. The 

first day ended with research from Assistant Professor Christine 

Fair, George Washington University on the Prospects for 

Effective Internal Security Reforms in India. 

The conference continued on the second day with a panel discussion 

on the causes and consequences of India’s growth for 

social development and peace. In particular, the experts discussed 

ideas about future research on the Naxalite conflicts 

currently spreading throughout many states. 

From left: Professor V.N. Balasubramanyam, Professor Sumit Ganguly, Assistant Professor Christine Fair and Associate Professor Sunila Kale



PAGE 5 

Continues……... 

Project seminar Transformation and friction in globalizing India was 

held on 5th October at Dragvoll Campus. Six researchers including 

key Indian research partners presented the results of 

the sub-projects affiliated with the umbrella project, which is 

financed by the Research Council of Norway. . 

Professor Emeritus Amit Bhaduri (Council for Social Development, 

New Delhi) presenting on Extraction of Natural Resources 

and Patterns of Industrialization. Environmental Insecurity and Social 

Friction: Case of Rural Odisha was the subject of the talk given by 

Professor Haribandu Panda (Human Development Foundation, 

Orissa), who identified several impacts of land degradation 

due to the rapid development of India. For example, in 

Koenjhal District, >60% of the people resided in areas surrounding 

highly polluting mining activity. He also gave examples 

of lost livelihood due to mining, the loss of natural springs 

(4 major springs) damaged/affected due to on-going mining, 

and suggested that the annual income of more than 40% of the 

farmers was reduced significantly, and that rapid changes have 

led to 35% of the traditional healer leaving their practice. Apparently, 

mining activity has led to high instance of respiratory 

& skin disease. 

Presenting results of the sub-project, Migration Flows, Labour 

Market Policies, and Social Friction Associate Professor Moushumi 

Basu (Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi) showed how 

rural poor migrant workers are exploited in different “informal 

and unorganized ” sectors in urban India, primarily in Delhi. 

Dr. D. Suba Chandran (Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies, 

New Delhi) presented different Motivations and Organization 

of Naxalite Violence in India while Associate Professor Jan 

Ketil Rød (Department of Geography, NTNU) presented maps 

that have been generated using data gathered for research in the 

program. The maps showed a high correlation between mining 

activity and the incidence of Naxalite violence, an issue that will 

be closely researched by the team in the coming months. Finally, 

PhD fellow from Heidelberg University Krishna Vadlamannati, 

presented his research on what do we know and don't know 

about the spread and organization of Naxalite violence. 

Professor Jonathon Moses (Department of Sociology and Political 

Science) chaired the seminar. 

Map of Orissa: Relationship between the percentage of tribal people 

and scheduled cast people living in the area and the number of violent 

incidents. 

Over: From left Dr. Suba Chandran, Professor Haribandhu Panda 

Below: Professor Amit Bhaduri and PhD fellow Krishna 

Vadlamannati 

Moushumi Basu presenting the working conditions of informal workers in gold industry (left) and almond shelling industry (middle)

JULY—OCTOBER 2011 NTNU GLOBAL PAGE 6 

Latest Globalization- 

Publications 

de Soysa, I. (2011). The hidden hand wrestles 

rebellion: theory and evidence on how 

economic freedom prevents civil violence. 

Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism, 11(2): 

285–297. 

Lund, R., Khasalamwa, S. and Tete, S. Y.A. 

(2011). Beyond the knowledge-action gap: 

Challenges of implementing humanitarian 

policies in Ghana and Uganda. Norwegian 

Journal of Geography 65(2): 63–74. 

Moses, J. (2011). Migration in Europe. In Migration 

today. 4th edition. New York: Rowman 

and Littlefield: 371–397. 

Golebiowska, K., Valenta, M. and Carter, T. 

(2011). "International immigration trends 

and data", in Dean Carson et. al (ed.). 

Demography at the Edge: Remote Human Populations 

in Developed Nations. Ashgate. 53–84. 

Ashgate 2011 (ISBN 978-0-7546-7867-0) 

31 s. International population studies. 

Valenta, M. and Ramet, S. (ed.) (2011). Bosnian 

Diaspora: Integration in transnational communities. 

Ashgate. 

The Bosnian Diaspora: Integration in 

Transnational Communities provides a 

comprehensive insight into the situation of 

the Bosnian Diaspora, including not only 

experiences in 'western' countries, but also 

the integration experiences of Bosnian migrants 

in neighbouring territories, such as 

Croatia, Serbia and Slovenia. 

The book presents the latest trans-national 

comparative studies drawn from the US and 

Australia as well as countries across Europe, 

to explore post-crisis interactions among 

Bosnians and the impact of post-conflict 

related migration. Examining the common 

features of the Diaspora, including the responses 

of migrants to changes within Bosnia and the position of displaced 

people in both Bosnian society itself and local political discourses, this volume 

addresses the influence of global anti-Muslim rhetoric on the Bosnian Diaspora's 

self-identification and refugees' relationships to their home country. The 

extent to which refugees and returnees can be described as agents of globalization 

and social change is also considered, whilst addressing the issue of Bosnian 

integration into various receiving countries and the influence exercised 

by European reception policies on receiving nations outside Europe. 

PhD Course: Deliberating Controversies 

in Globalization Theory, 

Methodology and Ethics 

The NTNU Globalization Research Program 

conducted its first intensive PhD 

Course last September 5 to 16, 2011. It 

was attended by PhD candidates from 

three Norwegian universities: Trømso, 

Bergen and Trondheim (NTNU). With 

the theme 'Deliberating Controversies in 

Globalization Theory, Methodology and 

Ethics' the PhD Course started with a 

twin-lecture on approaches to social research 

and pre-history of globalization 

given by Torbjørn Knutsen of NTNU 

Department of Sociology and Political 

Science. The second day was devoted to 

a series of four lectures given by University 

of Warwick Professor Jan Aart 

Scholte on defining, explaining, assessing 

and enacting globalization. Two lectures 

on quantitative research on globalization 

were given on the third day. The first 

lecture was given by the Director of 

NTNU’s Globalization programme Indra 

de Soysa. 

This was followed by Tanja Ellingsen of 

the Department of Sociology and Political 

Science giving a lecture on quantitative 

and theoretical approaches to globalization, 

culture and conflict. For the 

fourth and fifth day, a series of three 

lectures on global justice were given by 

Thomas Pogge of Yale University. Two 

philosophers from Stockholm University- 

-Torbjörn Tännsjö and Gustaf Arrhenius 

--gave a series of lectures on global democracy 

and the democratic boundary 

problem respectively on the sixth and 

seventh day of the course. On the eight 

day, Ulrika Mårtensson of NTNU Department 

of Archaeology and Religious 

Studies gave two lectures on democracy 

and Islamic fundamentalism which was 

followed by a lecture on global online 

communication against fundamentalist 

knowledge given by course leader/ 

organizer May Thorseth of NTNU Philosophy 

Department, Applied Ethics 

Program and Intercultural Dynamics 

Globalization Focus Area. The final day 

of the course Ruth Macklin of Albert 

Einstein School of Medicine in New 

York gave a lecture on general obligations 

in conducting international research 

followed by a workshop on deception 

and withholding information in social 

research which Ruth conducted with 

Allen Alvarez who also co-organized the 

PhD Course. More details can be viewed 

by visiting the course webpages at http:// 

folk.ntnu.no/allena/glob. 

Professor Thomas Pogge maps out the relations 

between global institutional arrangements, 

governments of the most powerful 

countries, corporations and citizens












focus areas. 







Management 





of Humanities 



and Migration 




Communication 












Tlf: 47 73 59 68 55 

Fax:: 47 73 59 10 30 




NOVEMBER— DECEMBER 2011 

In this issue 

News 1 

Organized events 2 

Publications 3 

New Projects 3 

About 4 

WELCOME to the NTNU Global, the newsletter from the NTNU’s research 

strategic area Globalization. 

NTNU’s Globalization Research Programme addresses socially-relevant, topical 

issues concerning the promises and pitfalls of globalization in economic, social, 

cultural and political life. 




Intercultural dynamics: Communication, Responsibility and Development 


NEWS 

Message from the Director of 

the Globalization Research 

Programme 

I use this opportunity to say “good 

bye” and “thank you” to colleagues 

and friends of the Globalization Research 

Program. 

I have accepted the post of Warden of 

St. Thomas´College Mt Lavinia in Sri 

Lanka for a term of 3 years. The faculty 

has kindly given me an 80% leave of 

absence, so I am still an NTNUer. I 

have enjoyed my position as director of 

the globalization research program, 

largely because it has been such a pleasure 

working with and collaborating 

with many of you. The discussions 

between us have been stimulating and 

encouraging. 

I also appreciate greatly the input and 

encouragement received from the advisory 

council of the Globalization Research 

Programme, which has shown 

tremendous collective erudition. The 

chair and dean of the faculty of humanities 

has shown enthusiastic support 

and skilled leadership. 

Moreover, I leave in the confidence 

that the new director, Prof. Ragnar 

Torvik, will take 

the program to new heights and be a 

steady hand in the approaching critical 

years when the entire TSO system will 

be reconsidered. I wish him and the 

rest of the leadership all the very best 

in this process and continued good 

work. I sincerely hope that the globalization 

TSO continues or that there is 

something like this platform for collaborative 

research when I return. 

As the director, my strategy was to 

encourage collaborative research and 

produce interesting findings worthy of 

publication in international journals, so 

as to raise interest in the thematic area 

on campus and our profile in Norway 

and abroad. Whether or not we have 

been successful in achieving even a 

small part of that ambition is for others 

to judge, but I am very satisfied 

with how I have been able to use my 

time as director to try to lead by example. 

I am happy to report at least 24 

international publications, mostly in 

collaboration with others, including 

over 20 refereed journal articles in the 

time that I have been director. We 

have also been relatively successful at 

raising research money and we have 

been involved heavily in the activities 

on campus, whether student related or 

otherwise, such as the India2011. 

None of these successes would have 

been possible without the collaboration 

of dedicated scholars affiliated 

with our program and our coordinator, 

Chamila Attanapola, whose efficient 

management of the globalization 

program is a cornerstone of its success. 

I bid you all every success in the 

future.

PAGE 2 


Seminar: Global Operations and Challenges 

On the 18th November, 2011, the 

Globalization Focus Area, Global Production 

and Communication (GP&C) 

organized a seminar entitled “Global 

operations and challenges of operating 

internationally” that was held at NTNU 

Gløshaugen campus. 

The event which was organized in collaboration 

with the Department of Industrial 


Management (IØT) and SINTEF’s 

MARGIN project, CRI Norman and 

the SMARTLOG network attracted 

over 50 participants who included researchers, 

practitioners and students. 

Arne Otto Flataas (left), Professor L. de Boer (centre), Dr. M. Mol and G. Mugurusi (right) 

in discussion 

Dr. Michael Mol (above), an accomplished 

strategy and international business 

scholar from Warwick Business 

School (UK) was the key note speaker 

at the event, where researchers including 

Godfrey Mugurusi (NTNU), Marco 

Semini (SINTEF) shared experiences 

and research. 

Industry executives Arne Otto Flataas 

(Kongsberg Maritime) and Ståle Sæther 

(Aqualine) shared practices, successes 

and challenges involved when companies 

operate and deal with suppliers, 

customers that span across the globe. 

Dr. Mol was sceptical of ways companies 

operate in a global paradigm, describing 

this as “a messy reality than 

facts actually tell us” but was swift to 

propose a structured (not a recipe) approach 

on how they could go about the 

international operations in a more processual 

way. 

Godfrey also presented his PhD work 

that draws inspiration from the “viable 

systems model” to understand how 

globally dispersed companies go about 

the process of “offshoring” but also 

how they organise and coordinate their 

operations especially purchasing activities. 

Marco Semini presented SINTEF’s 

work with numerous Norwegian companies 

and emphasised how these companies 

leveraged their internal capabilities 

in the global market to remain 

competitive in both the short and longterm. 

Marco went on to highlight two 

key points for companies: one, that 

what, why and how companies offshore 

and how they carry out global 

operations differs, and two, that competitive 

solutions depended on product, 

market and industry characteristics. 

From industry, Arne Otto Flataas from 

Kongsberg Maritime shared some of 

the company’s successes and challenges 

with their offshore operations in China 

(Zhenjiang, Jiangsu) and Korea 

(Busan). Arne’s presentation emphasised 

the importance of having a good 

human resource function and the fact 

that while china offers big opportunities 

for growth, customs bureaucracy 

and cultural differences pose a huge 

problem to achieving that growth. 

Ståle Sæther from Aqualine, a company 

that designs and installs floating fish 

farming cages and mooring systems, 

emphasised the role of coordinated 

shipping in their operations and quality 

as key starting point for each unique 

customer project. The biggest challenge 

for Aqualine was coordinating the 

whole operation from Norway, yet 

sourcing system components from all 

over the world. This, Ståle observed, 

had extensive challenges to the company’s 

just-in- time principle, especially 

when production stopped because only 

a single component was missing. 

The event concluded after parallel discussions 

where companies shared these 

challenges in more detail with participants 

in order to map out possible solutions. 

A common message from the two 

companies, ‘learning by doing’ left a big 

impression to the participants. 

In closing the seminar, Professor 

Luitzen de Boer, the event’s moderator 

mooted the need for companies to seek 

more synergies with researchers and 

always attend such knowledge sharing 

workshops when invited. 

This was the fourth in series of seminars 

organised with funding and support 

from NTNU’s Globalisation Research 

Programme, IØT and SINTEF 

collaboration and once again, it was a 

great success!

NOVEMBER— DECEMBER 2011 

PAGE 3 

Latest 

Globalization 

Publications 

Aarseth, Wenche, Rolstadås, Asbjørn 

and Andersen Bjørn 

(2011) Key factors for 

Management of Global 

Projects. International Journal 

of Transitions and Innovation 

Systems, 1(4): 00-00. 

Attanapola, C.T.; Brun, C. and 

Lund, R. (2011). Working 

gender after crisis: partnerships 

and disconnections 

in Sri Lanka after the Indian 

Ocean tsunami. Gender, 

Place & Culture, 

DOI:10.1080/0966369X.2 

011.625080 

Berit Berg og Torunn A. Ask 

(eds.) (2011): Minoritetsperspektiver 

i sosialt arbeid. Oslo: 

Universitetsforlaget. 

Upcoming events 

5—7 January 2012. Workshop 

“Objectification, measurement 

and standardization” at 

Dokkhuset, Trondheim 

The workshop marks the beginning 

of a planned interdisciplinary 

and international project 

called “Objectification, Measurement 

and Standardization as Social Processes”. 

The project is in part a continuation 

of the activities of the 

“standardization group” at 

NTNU which organized the conference 

“Globalization, Identity and 

Standardization” in 2005. The new 

project is intended to break new 

ground, but it is also continuous 

with work that began more than a 

decade ago, spawning doctoral 

and master’s theses as well as 

scholarly papers. 

The ambition of the new project 

is three-pronged. First, we wish 

to examine some of the contemporary 

trends which to a large 

extent define our present era. 

For more information, please 

contact: tord.larsen@svt.ntnu.no 

Military power and ethics in the grey area of Afghan war: A critical ethicalphilosophical 

analysis of the core values of the Norwegian Armed Forces: 

Respect, responsibility and courage 

Cornelia Vikan 

Department of Philosophy 

The point of departure of this project is 

Norway`s military efforts in the war in 

Afghanistan, which is understood as a 

complex conflict. The focus is on ethical 

dilemmas arising in this context. One 

important aspect of the Afghanistan case 

is that scenarios on the ground, which the 

soldiers face, shift continuously between 

regular warfare and an after war scenario. 

This situation gives rise to ethically grey 

areas for the application of the rules of 

war, and creates new challenges for military 

agents, partly related to their traditional 

role in war. The empirical basis for 

this project is the core values of the Norwegian 

Armed Forces (respect, responsibility 

and courage) and cases from military 

The present time is characterized as the 

''urban millennia''. The migration trends 

often described through concepts of urbanization 

and centralization have led to 

over half of the world's population now 

living in cities. It is estimated that over 

60% of the population will live in cities by 

2030. The movement of human capital 

and firms is often described as traits of the 

globalization process and leads to increased 

interconnectedness throughout 

the world. Globalization is a phenomenon 

affecting nations, but the same processes 

have effects also at the local level. This 

aspect of population movement motivates 

studies of regional differences. 

The main focus of this project is to investigate 

household and firm location decisions 

and the effect of the spatial distribution 

by using econometric methods. Clustering 

of households and firms can be 

understood with relating to the production 

and consumption aspects of the 

economy. From a production viewpoint, 

clustering of households and firms is often 

seen as favourable process by economists 

because of agglomeration economy. 

Agglomeration economy is the increasing 

return from scale that stem from clustering. 

The reason for arising agglomeration 

effects can be spatial differences in the 

New PhD Projects 

operations in Afghanistan. The project 

proceeds from a descriptive to a normative 

perspective and asks following questions: 

What do ethical dilemmas in complex 

conflicts look like from a military perspective? 

How should such dilemmas be approached? 

This PhD project is connected to the 

Globalization Focus Area Intercultural 

Dynamics: Communication, Responsibility 

and Development. Professor May 

Thorseth from the Department of Philosophy 

and Henrik Syse from PRIO supervise 

the project. 

Empirical analyses of centralization trends, local amenities and regional 

income differences in Norway 

Stefan Leknes 

Department of Economics 

level of human capital and/or nonhuman 

endowments. Another possibility 

is arising interaction effects like better 

input-output linkages between intermediate 

and final-goods suppliers, matching of 

worker and firms in thick labour markets, 

and technological externalities. One goal 

of this project is to identify and quantify 

these effects on wages. 

Historically, cities have been regarded as 

production centres. Today cities can be 

seen as loci for consumption. The trend is 

that industry moves out of the cities and 

service businesses flourish in its place. 

This gave a spark to a literature concerning 

quality of life that the researcher 

draws on. 

Methodologically the project utilizes panel 

data from Statistics Norway both on 

regional and household level. The key 

variables to establish a causal relation are 

wage, productivity, housing prices, local 

amenities and quality of life measures. 

This PhD project is connected to the 

Globalization Focus Area Global Economic 

Flows, Governance and Stability. 

Professors Hildegunn Ekroll Stokke 

and Bjarne Strøm from the Department 

of Economics supervise the project.












focus areas. 







Management 





of Humanities 



and Migration 




Communication 




Norwegian University of Science and 

Technology 


Norway 







Telephone: 47 73 59 68 55 

Fax: 47 73 59 10 30

Annual Report 2011 - NTNU

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