Annual Report 2011 - NTNU

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.