Geography Research in Norway
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Geography research in Norway An evaluation Evaluation Division for Science Geography research in Norway An evaluation Evaluation Division for Science © The Research Council of Norway 2011 The Research Council of Norway P.O.Box 2700 St. Hanshaugen N–0131 OSLO Telephone: +47 22 03 70 00 Telefax: +47 22 03 70 01 [email protected] www.forskningsradet.no/english The report can be ordered at: www.forskningsradet.no/publikasjoner or green number telefax: +47 800 83 001 Design: Blanke Ark Photo/illustration: Colourbox.com Printing: 07 Gruppen / The Research Council of Norway Number of copies: 350 Oslo, February 2011 ISBN 978-82-12-02889-0 (printed version) ISBN 978-82-12-02890-6 (pdf) Preface The panel for the evaluation of geographical research in Norway hereby submits the following report to the Research Council of Norway. The panel is unanimous in its assessments, conclusions and recommendations. The evaluation is based on seven research environments where geographical research is conducted. Although the whole field of geography is encompassed the emphasis is on human geography and on the interdisciplinary aspects of geography. A total of 109 publications by 57 researchers were reviewed. Altogether, 23 persons from the evaluated units (management, academic staff, and Ph.D. students) were interviewed in Oslo. The panel wishes to thank the individual researchers for participating in the evaluation and the representatives of the research units for stimulating discussions during the interview sessions. The panel also wishes to thank the Research Council of Norway for giving us this opportunity to a stimulating exploration and reflection on the status of our discipline. Dr. Jannecke Wiers-Jenssen, Nordic Institute for Studies in Innovation, Research and Education (NIFU), acted as a most efficient and knowledgeable secretary to the panel. January 2011 Mats Widgren, Chair of the panel Stockholm University Kirsten Simonsen Ari Lehtinen Roskilde University University of Eastern Finland Mats Lundmark Madelene Ostwald Örebro University Lindköping University 3 4 Table of contents Executive Summary........................................................................................................... 7 1.1 Objectives and scope of the evaluation ................................................................ 11 1.2 Terms of reference and the evaluation tasks ......................................................... 12 1.2 Data sources and the tasks of the evaluation panel .............................................. 13 2 Overview of Norwegian geography research.......................................................... 16 2.1 Overview of the Norwegian geography research community and the delimitation of the evaluation............................................................................... 16 2.2 National collaboration .......................................................................................... 21 2.3 Personnel at the selected units.............................................................................. 22 2.4 Master’s candidates, researcher training and recruitment .................................... 27 2.5 Major funding sources.......................................................................................... 28 2.6 Overview of scholarly publications...................................................................... 33 2.7 Summary of background statistics ....................................................................... 36 3 Unit profiles................................................................................................................ 38 3.1 Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU): Department of Geography ............................................................................................................ 38 3.2 University of Bergen (UiB): Department of Geography...................................... 41 3.3 University of Oslo (UiO): Department of Sociology and Human Geography..... 44 3.4 Agder (University of Agder and Agder Research)............................................... 48 3.5 University of Tromsø (UiT): Department of Sociology, Political Science and Community Planning............................................................................................ 51 3.6 University of Life Sciences (UMB): Department of International Environment and Development Studies, Noragric..................................................................... 55 3.7 Nord-Trøndelag University College (HiNT): Faculty of Agriculture and Information Technology....................................................................................... 57 3.8 Summary of main observations and overall structural issues .............................. 60 4 Scope and quality of research: Subfield profiles .................................................... 63 4.1 Subfield and major thematic areas in Norwegian geography............................... 63 4.2 Economic geography............................................................................................ 64 4.3 Social and cultural geography .............................................................................. 70 4.4 Political geography and development studies ...................................................... 75 4.5 Landscape geography........................................................................................... 79 4.6 Environment and livelihoods................................................................................ 82 4.7 Physical geography and climate........................................................................... 84 4.8 Summary of main observations: Subfields in an international perspective ......... 90 5 Conclusions ................................................................................................................ 93 5 5.1 The evaluation – scope and limitations.................................................................93 5.2 Norwegian geography in perspective....................................................................93 5.3 Summary of main observations.............................................................................96 5.4 Recommendations.................................................................................................98 References ........................................................................................................................100 Appendix 1: Evaluation documents and evaluation panel ..........................................103 Appendix 2. Publications reviewed................................................................................119 Appendix 3 General Information about the Norwegian research system..................128 Appendix 4 Notes on data sources .................................................................................132 Appendix 5 Journals/series at Level 1 and Level 2 per 2010 ......................................134 Appendix 6 NIFU STEP report on Scholarly publications .........................................140 6 Executive Summary This evaluation of the research in geography in Norway has been carried out for the Research Council of Norway (RCN). The intention of the evaluation is to contribute to the further development of geography research in Norway. The evaluation is based on information from seven research environments conducting geographical research in Norway. Three of these are geographical departments at the oldest, traditional universities, three others are (related to) multidisciplinary units at new universities, and one is at a university college. A panel of five Nordic geographers has performed the evaluation. In accordance with the Terms of Reference, the evaluation is based on the following sources of information: self- evaluation reports prepared by the selected research units, publications submitted by senior personnel at the selected research units, CVs and publication lists from the selected researchers, interviews with representatives from the units evaluated and background reports from NIFU. In addition, the panel has used different internet resources such as the homepages of the institutions evaluated, the RCN and the Frida database. The evaluation gives a description of research activities of the evaluated research communities. The quality of research is mainly evaluated according to subfield. The research communities In their self-evaluations and in the interviews, the different units reveal different perspectives and experiences in building creative research environments, and in the cooperation between different fields, especially between physical and human geography. In all cases the boundaries between different research groups and clusters appear to be rather porous at all of the units. The evaluated units are all small enough to promote creative interaction between research groups. Where they differ, however, is in their ambition to create synergies. The geographers at NTNU have launched a common research programme to inspire cooperation across research groups as well as across the traditional divide between human and physical geography. Despite the lack of an explicit strategy for collaboration the human geographers in Oslo have, nevertheless, managed to renew research at the interface between different research clusters, especially in the field of environmental geography, a field which has benefited from the strong tradition of critical human geography in Oslo. In Bergen the signs of integration are less obvious and the department