FHE4350 – Politics of Sustainability in Public Health - Data-Driven Critical Conceptual Analysis
Schedule, syllabus and examination date
Course content
The course draws attention to the power of key concepts in the sustainability agenda and more specially, how such concepts have come to accommodate various and sometimes conflicting ideological messages. Concepts such as?sustainability,?empowerment,?partnership?and?resilience can for instance reflect both an urge for global solidarity and a requirement for self-management and improvement. The course engages participants in critical reflection about how concepts and their divergent and sometimes conflicting meanings impact how we frame and address public health and sustainability issues, thus fostering understanding of how socio-political processes affect environmental and health processes.
An important method used in the course is data-driven critical conceptual analysis based on corpora. The development of free, open-access corpora and corpus analysis tools enables students and researchers anywhere in the world to question and investigate the semantic and affective meaning of the concepts they use in everyday language and that they tend to take for granted. This is a particularly powerful, but as yet underused resource by scholars in public health and critical sustainability studies.
The course offers a rare and valuable opportunity for students with many different backgrounds to work together to gather and analyse data, explore areas of agreement and disagreement, and develop a more nuanced appreciation of the diversity of meanings that may be attributed by different people to the same concept.
Learning outcome
Knowledge
After having completed the course, actively participated in seminars, workshops and group work, you are expected to:
- outline/explain the political and ideological implications of the choice of terminology in sustainability discourses;
- describe/summarize existing corpora/sub-corpora, and suitable tools for their analysis
- outline/explain theoretical approaches to the understanding and analysis of conceptual and discursive power in public health
Skills
After having completed the course, actively participated in seminars, workshops and group work, you are expected to be able to:
- identify patterns in linguistic data and explain how they affect the semantic and affective properties of concepts
- offer a critical explanation of the implications of linguistic patterns for the politics of sustainability
- use corpus analysis tools effectively to analyse textual data and key concepts in the sustainability agenda
- analyse the power inherent in language and concepts and how language and concepts impact public health decisions
- address complex questions based on collective, live analysis of data/corpora in a datathon setting
General competence
After having completed this course you should be able to:
- communicate your own subject knowledge to peers outside your discipline
- cooperate productively with peers from different areas of expertise
- present your results clearly to a non-expert academic audience
- elaborate a convincing argument to explain the significance of the results of conceptual analysis
- carry out research in interdisciplinary teams
- offer reasoned justifications for the choice of terminology in sustainable development
- critique taken-for-granted, singular definitions of key concepts that do not attend to disciplinary and cultural diversity;
- reflect on your own research and dissemination practice
Admission
Capacity and prioritizing of students
The total capacity for this course is 40 students. Students are prioritized in the following way:
Institute of Health and Society (20 students)
1. Public Health Science and epidemiology
2. Other master’s students from the Institute of Health and Society
The principle of the first come, first served applies if there are more applicants than seats.
Circle U (20 students)
1. Master's students from the Circle U partner institutions. The aim is two students from each university, additional students from each institution will be evaluated upon availability. Circle U applicants are ranked by GPA average.
2. Master's students from UiO not affiliated to The Institute of Health and Society.
Master`s students from other programs will be considered if there are available seats left. The principle of the first come, first served applies here.
Application procedures for UiO students
Students who are admitted to study programmes at UiO must each semester register which courses and exams they wish to sign up for in Studentweb.
Application procedures for Circle U students
Formal Requirements
- A completed bachelor’s degree of at least 180 ECTS
- Enrolment in a Master’s programme at one of the Circle U institutions
- A bachelor's degree grade average equivalent to a C on the Norwegian grade scale.
A good command of English is expected of all students. It is the student's responsibility to ensure the level of language expected and needed to keep up with teaching and course content throughout the semester.
Documentation
- Diploma and complete transcript of records from the bachelor’s degree
- Confirmation of enrolment at one of the Circle U institutions
If applicable:
- Transcript of records of all other higher education completed to date (master’s courses)
- A list of courses you are registered for this semester with the expected date for completion
If you are completing studies after the application deadline, please upload the following:
- Transcript of records of all other higher education completed to date
- A list of courses you are registered for this semester with the expected date for completion
Ranking of applicants
If there are more applicants than available places, applicants will be ranked, and selection will be based on applicant grade average from their bachelor’s degree. We do not use conversion tables for foreign grades. All foreign education is individually evaluated during the admission process.
How to apply
- Application portal opens:?14 April
- Application deadline: 14 July
Housing
Unfortunately there are currently no available rooms in student housing for exchange students on short-term mobility courses that are less than 2 months in length. Therefore you must either book a hotel room for your stay or rent a room in the private rental market. Please see UiO's useful link on short-term private rental housing.
Travel insurance
You must have your own travel insurance, health insurance or another type of insurance that covers you while you are in Norway if you become sick or injured. Students from the EU/EEA should bring their European Health Insurance Card.
Grant
You may be eligible for an Erasmus+ grant from your home university. Please contact your mobility office for information regarding funding.
Teaching
Course duration: 4–8 December 2023
Exam deadline: 21 December 2023
Teaching will be organized as an one day online introductory seminar, followed by an one-week intensive on-site course. Students will attend a lecture on the broad subject of sustainability as it applies to public health, to be delivered by a guest lecturer on an area of their expertise as a way of starting a discussion among students. The visiting lecturer will remain available throughout the week for consultation. During the first three days, hands-on datathon sessions on corpus analysis involving the whole cohort will be run and supervised by tutors in the morning, and research seminars on corpus-based conceptual analysis will be delivered by expert researchers in the afternoon. Students will submit a brief project outline and specify team composition on the third day. They will work in datathon groups, under the supervision of a mentor, during the last two days.
Compulsory activities:
- Assignment which runs parallel with the lectures and seminars
- Oral presentation of the compulsory assignment
- 80% attendance in the course is required to be eligible to take the exam. Attendance will be registered
Examination
Project report, individual
The following must be completed and approved to be eligible to take the exam:
- 5-10 minutes oral presentation, individual
- 80% attendance in the seminars
Deadline for submission of the assignment will normally be 14 days after the last lecture.
The exam is a 2000-word project report presenting data, analysis and discussion.
The examination will count as the entire portion of the course grade.
Submit assignments in Inspera
You submit your assignment in the digital examination system Inspera. Read about how to submit your assignment.
Use of sources and citation
You should familiarize yourself with the rules that apply to the use of sources and citations. If you violate the rules, you may be suspected of cheating/attempted cheating.
Language of examination
You may write your examination paper in Norwegian, Swedish, Danish or English.
Grading scale
Grades are awarded on a pass/fail scale. Read more about the grading system.
Explanations and appeals
Resit an examination
Special examination arrangements
Application form, deadline and requirements for special examination arrangements.