NAVIGATING GLOBALIZATION: Stability, Fluidity, and Friction:
4 - 6 August 2005, Trondheim, Norway

NEWS:
Norwegian state department grants financial support of 100,000 kroners to the globalization conference

Fritt Ord foundation gives 100,000 kroners to "Navigating Globalization"

NTNU Globalization Programme

Some Ethical Consequences of Global Information (02/03/2005) What does Cassandra of Greek mythology have to do with the Information Age? Like humanity has today, Cassandra had a wealth of information available to her - she could foresee the future and Troy's demise. Yet with all her good will, and her efforts to warn the Trojans of their fate, she lacked the power to make change - the Greek god Apollo ensured that her prophecies would never be believed.
The Globalization Research Forum The flood of information available today all too often places humanity in Cassandra's predicament, according to Luciano Floridi, a philosopher from the University of Oxford who came to speak at the Globalization Research Forum on Wednesday, February 2, about the ethical consequences of global information. Read more... | Research: ICT | Ethics | Philosophy | Globalization

Gender and technology( 28/01/2005 ) Perceptions of gender and technology should be reconsidered in the era of the information society, according to nine researchers who contributed to the book He, She and IT - Revisited.

The book takes a synoptic look at the differing relationships that men and women have with technology, and explores common stereotypes that have evolved with the development of the Information Age. Are computers just boys' toys? New and evolving perceptions of gender and technology continuously confirm this common perception. However, researchers in the book tell of girls who use information technology with great enthusiasm. The book also addresses the ways in which public policies have tried to include women in the information society. Prof. Lie is a professor at the Department of Interdisciplinary Cultural Studies at NTNU. (From Gemini.) | Merete Lie (editor):"He, She and IT - Revisited New Perspectives on Gender in the Information Society" |

"Globalisation, identity and standardisation" ( 28/01/2005 ) Interdisciplinary, international workshop in Trondheim , Norway . March 1 and 12, 2005.  
A new conference is planned in the field between the humanities, social sciences and ICT. "Globalization studies have mainly focused on processes of homogenization, commodification and quantification - processes which effect the commensuration of objects, subjects and institutions. However, the same changes provoke efforts to singularize and particularize objects and identities - from commodity branding to the essentialization of postcolonial, gendered and ethnic identities", it says on their preliminary web page . One of the aims of the conference is to see these superficially contradictory processes as dialectically linked, and examine their empirical variation.

"The Resource Curse" ( 28/01/2005 ) This is the title of a doctoral course at the Department of Economics, with particular relevance for students of globalization. Whay is at that one of the puzzling regularities of economic growth is that many countries rich on natural resources have had such a poor growth performance?
The course is organized jointly by:

• Department of Economics, Norwegian University of Science and Technology,
• Center for the Study of Civil War at the International Peace Research Institute, Oslo (PRIO)
• Nordic network on 'The Political Economy of Governance and Conflict' (PEGC)

The course is targeted at PhD students in political science and in economics | More information

"Musicking in a global context" ( 18/01/2005 ) The Department of Music at NTNU is offering this course for the spring semester 2005. The course aims to provide an understanding of global processes of change in relation to folk music, art music, jazz and pop music. This will be a cross-disciplinary exercise involving anthropology, philosophy, music, media studies and educational science. More information

ICT, globalization and ethics ( 11/01/2005 ) The E-CAP 2005 conference takes place in Västerås , Sweden June 2-4, 2005 . It will deal with all aspects of the "computational turn" that is occurring through the interaction between the disciplines of Philosophy and Computing. Of particular interest to globalization researchers are these subjects:

• Computer-based Learning and Teaching Strategies and Resources
• Information and Computing Ethics

- It just isn't fair ( 1/10/2005 ) Department of Philosophy invites to a series of seminars on "global justice" this semester. More information | | Research: Globalization | Social justice | Philosophy

Reconstruction after the tsunami disaster (05.01.2005) NTNU researchers will participate in planning for the reconstruction phase in Sri Lanka. Shortly before the catastrophe on December 26, the NTNU-group was invited to a workshop on post-civil war efforts in Sri Lanka , but the tsunami has made their expertise on internal displacement situations more immediately needed. The research group is part of the Globalization programme at NTNU, and is led by Professor Ragnhild Lund. The group has previous experience from - among other regions - Bosnia. Adresseavisen has more on this story (.pdf copy) | More about the Research group on forced migration. Research: Forced migration | Internal displacement | Civil war

How do we manage the reconstruction in the disaster areas in South Asia? ( 06/01/2005 ) This is the subject in a feature article in the Norwegian national Dagbladet by Hans Skotte. With experience from studies of reconstruction work in Bosnia, he points to the fact that every fifth internationally financed private housing in Bosnia are unoccupied. Why - he asks - with relevance to the Tsunami disaster. Reconstruction is a reflexive process, which must rest on local experience and local social and commercial structures. Research fellow Hans Skotte is member of the research group Forced Migration within the Globalization programme at NTNU. The article is in Norwegian only. Research: Forced migration | Reconstruction | Bosnia | Tsunami disaster | Housing

Globalization conference submission ( 06/01/2005 ) Term of submission for papers and session proposals is January 15! The conference invites experienced and younger scientists alike to send papers and suggest sessions. The Globalization Programme encourages NTNU researchers to seize the opportunity to invite colleagues nationally and internationally to "Navigating Globalization" in Trondheim August 4-6 2005 . Email address is global@hf.ntnu.no.

War on terror creates fear (21.12.04) The campaign against terror has led to an unnecessary fear and anxiety for people with foreign appearances, says Arnulf Kolstad, professor at the Department of Psychology at NTNU - to the Norwegian daily Aftenposten.

Forum for globalization research(24.11.2004) Researcher Jørgen Carling at PRIO was the main lecturer at the forum's meeting at Desember 6. Carling was recently interviewed in the national newspaper Dagbladet.
Here is the programme for Desember 6 (Norwegian only).

Religion and environment (24.11.04) How are values, world views, and spiritualities interconnected with environmental practices and the images of nature? The project "Religion and Environment in Europe" at the Department of Archeology and Religious Studies has received funds from the European Science Foundation.

From the abstract: The project assumes that religion is crucial for the construction of human images of nature, and that values, world views, and spiritualities are reciprocally interconnected with environmental practices and ideologies. The workshop departs from the sociological hypothesis of 'a new emerging earth religion' in Europe (and North America), and it investigates the impact of normative religious models in different geographical, religious, and socio-cultural contexts in Europe on the environmental discourse and the construction of a good life.

The geographical scope of its investigation includes Scandinavian, North West Russian, British, German, Hungarian, and Greek perspectives. Its religious scope extends from Eastern (Russian and Greek Orthodox) and Western (Catholic and Protestant) Christianity to 'new religious processes'.

Regional and traditional differences are studied, as well as the emergence of a new translocal and transcultural emergence of a common understanding of life in general. Scholars from Religious Studies, Theology, Gender Studies and Social Sciences will collaborate on themes of 'environmental ethics', 'rights of the coming generations', 'ecofeminism' 'ecological citizenship', 'religion in globalisation', and 'sustainability'.
Contact: Prof. Sigurd Bergmann Research : Nature | environment | Religion | Theology | Ethics | sustainability |

NEW challenges for global production (09/11/2004 ) Olav Volldal - the CEO of Kongsberg Automotive - finally made it to Trondheim after one earlier unsuccessful attempt. He presented a first-hand view on business challenges regarding global production. From the viewpoint of Kongsberg Automotive, he summed up some key factors and pitfalls. The whole presentation is available from here.

Challenges for global production (30/09/2004) The Globalization Research Forum's recent seminar, "Global production" originally featured Kongsberg Automotive's chief executive officer, Olav Volldal, but Volldal was unable to attend as planned. Kongsberg Automotive has established production facilities in South Korea.
Researchers at NTNU have been able to study Kongsberg Automotive's experience in global production at the micro level. PhD-student Sigrid Damman looked at management processes in a global context, and has interviewed both Scandinavian and Korean employees about job satisfaction and their perceptions of cultural differences. More on her project here.
What should be the foundation of a national plan for Norway's export industry? Not costs, says Professor Ola Strandhagen at the Department of  Production and Quality Engineering. Strandhagen is part of a new cross-disciplinary, multi departmental pre-project. The initial goal of the project is to design an analysis of Norwegian industry in a global setting. The idea is to match industrial opportunities in Norway with research conducted in NTNU's six strategic areas. The project is currently seeking funds.