Norwegian Research Network in Political Geography

Prosjektet er et nettverkstiltak for å fremme forskning innenfor politisk geografi i Norge. Arbeidet i nettverket har fokusert på fire forskningstema blant politiske geografer i Norge: (1) Demokrati og medborgerskap, (2) Naturressurser og styresett, (3) Væpnete konflikter og geografiske informasjonssystemer, og (4) Diskursanalyse og kommunikasjon. Nettverket har organisert årlige forskerkonferanser, tematiske workshops og publikasjonsaktiviteter og PhD-kurs i politisk geografi. Nettverket har både vært en refleksjon av og et bidrag til at politisk geografiske forskningstema i økende grad blir vanlige og synlige ved norske universiteter og forskningsinstitusjoner. Nettverkskoordinatorene vil videreføre dette arbeidet gjennom nye forskningsinitiativ og PhD-kurs etter at nettverkets prosjektperiode opphører ved utgangen av 2015.

The purpose of the Norwegian Research Network in Political Geography is to promote high-quality research and publications in political geography in Norway. The network is initiated by political geographers at the University of Oslo (UiO), the University of Bergen (UiB) and the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), the three Norwegian universities that have departments, extensive research activities and doctoral degree programmes in geography. The network will recruit participants broadl y among researchers and students at Norwegian universities and colleges and research institutes. There will also be a strong emphasis on international research collaboration to enhance the quality and quantity of political geographic scholarship in Norway . The network will be organised around four principal network activities: (1) annual network conferences, (2) thematic research clusters, (3) doctoral courses, and (4) organised information exchange. The work within the network will revolve around them atic clusters that have been identified on the basis of existing research activities and interests as well as their relevance in contemporary society and for the development of political geographic research. The research clusters are: (1) Democracy, (2) N atural resources and democratic governance, (3) Armed conflicts and geographic information systems, and (4) Discourse analysis and communication. The network will be co-ordinated by Professor Kristian Stokke and administered from the Department of Sociol ogy and Human Geography, University of Oslo. It will be governed by a Board consisting of the network applicants - Kristian Stokke (UiO), Jan Ketil Rød (NTNU), Håvard Haarstad (UiB) and Elin Sæther (UiO) - and researchers that will selected to ensure repr esentation of relevant institutes and categories of researchers (including PhD-candidates) within Norwegian political geography.