Current Sociology http://csi.sagepub.com/ Social Change and Social Science in Norway Per Otnes Current Sociology 1977 25: 57 DOI: 10.1177/001139217702500104 The online version of this article can be found at: http://csi.sagepub.com/content/25/1/57.citation Published by: http://www.sagepublications.com On behalf of: International Sociological Association Additional services and information for Current Sociology can be found at: Email Alerts: http://csi.sagepub.com/cgi/alerts Subscriptions: http://csi.sagepub.com/subscriptions Reprints: http://www.sagepub.com/journalsReprints.nav Permissions: http://www.sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav >> Version of Record - Jan 1, 1977 What is This? Downloaded from csi.sagepub.com at Universitet I Oslo on December 18, 2013 SOCIAL CHANGE AND SOCIAL SCIENCE IN NORWAY Per Otnes PRESENT SOCIAL SCIENCE TEACHING AND RESEARCH INSTITUTIONS wo trends are apparent in present Norwegian social science: growth, and dispersion. Norway’s population, (slightly less than say Scotland’s) has shown an increasingly sluggish growth. In the same period our number of social scientists has raced towards unprecedented levels at an increasing rate, up to, if not including, the most recent year or so. For example, at Oslo University, the sociology staff has increased tenfold in 26 years, numbering 22 in 1977. The number of students majoring in sociology and graduating per year slightly exceeds this growth rate, increasing from 2 to about 30. The greatest explosion of all, however, is found in the number of students following one- and one-and-a-half-year sociology courses: from 3 in 1958 to a record of 678 in 1975 (347 in 1976). All these figures refer to Oslo alone. As for dispersion, the last ten years have seen the establishment of academic sociology institutes in the cities of Bergen, Trondheim and Tromso. While staff and student numbers in none of these three can match Oslo’s, they certainly reinforce and accelerate the Oslo growth trend at the national level. Exact figures are not available but national staff and student totals can be estimated at two to three times the Oslo figures of 1977. From ’social science’ as used here are excluded the whole of economics, education, geography and most of psychology. Given that sociology is the main focus of attention, developments in political science, social anthropology, history and philosophy will be touched upon as well, though with no attempt at comprehensiveness. Arbitrary as this choice may seem, it is based on the vagaries of interdisciplinary contact and lack of contact among Norway’s social sciences. Readers looking for information on our economics and geography may be referred to (180, 206, 234) for a start. Thanks are due to Vilhelm Aubert and Else 0ysen for comments on the draft version of this paper; and to Aase Rellsve who computed Table 1. 57 Downloaded from csi.sagepub.com at Universitet I Oslo on December 18, 2013 58 Naturally, most professionals welcome both trends. For the author of an article reviewing them, however, this explosive expansion of the discipline presents difficulties. Today, it is no longer possible to be equally well acquainted with every branch and project in our field. In addition to this general limitation, there may also be personal ones. Though generally fairly well informed, I may be slightly less conversant with developments in Bergen and Trondheim, while possessing some detailed personal knowledge concerning the last decade in Oslo and Troms~. Present-day Norway has no more than four universities. All have sociology institutes, viz. lnstituttet for Sosiologi at the University of Oslo, Sosiologisk lnstitutt at the University of Bergen, lnstitutt for sosiologi og samfunnskwl1lskap at the University of Trondheim, and Iiistitutt for samfu1111svitenskap at the University of Tromsø. All offer students 1-2 year introductory courses, as well as a full professional education of 5-7 years duration (introductory year included). Students majoring in sociology may end up with a number of differently named degrees: Cand.polit., Cand.sociol. (Oslo only), or Mag.art. The former two are designed for a mean duration of some five years. The latter, a scientific degree combining a minimum of compulsory courses with a maximum freedom to choose one’s own reading, is probably intermediate between the MA and the Doctoral level. The duration is more flexible, with an estimated mean of seven years’ study. Interdisciplinary ties are traditionally strong in Norwegian social sciences. In the past, interdisciplinary projects brought together researchers with backgrounds in law, philosophy, psychology, economics, history. Out of this combined effort, sociology, political science and social anthropology gradually emerged as more or less separate disciplines, while maintaining close ties and more than slightly overlapping research interests. All four institutes of course have active research staff members, ranging from between five to twenty-five in number. Exact figures are difficult to state on account of the interdisciplinary tradition: for example, the TromW social science institute has no more than five sociologists as judged by their educational background, but well over twenty-five when sociologists, anthropologists, political scientists, economists, historians, education researchers etc., are included. The stated range limits are minima rather than maxima. Majoring students, who represent from 5-10 times the number of staff at each institute, also make valuable research contributions. Publication lists, with Downloaded from csi.sagepub.com at Universitet I Oslo on December 18, 2013 59 or (lamentably) most often without translations of titles, are obtainable. A number of Regional Colleges (Distriktsh~gskoler) provide an even more marked trend towards dispersion. Started on a provisional basis in 1969, the number has grown almost annually to reach today’s ten. They are situated in the towns of Halden, Kristiansand, Bo, Stavanger, Lillehammer, Sogndal, Volda, Molde, Bodo, Alta. Most, if not all, offer one-year introductory courses in sociology, or with some sociology, combined with other disciplines such as education, business administration or psychology. The courses are designed to have an applied angle - preparing graduates for tasks in the private enterprises, organizations, or public administration of each region. Though not really designed for it, most Regional Colleges do some research as well. Topics may derive from staff and student interest in regional social problems, or from local business, union or administrative demands. The amount of research that should be done at Regional Colleges is a matter of some dispute, however, as is the rating of their courses - on or slightly below university course levels. In addition, Bergens’s National College of Business Administration (Norges Handelshoyskole) should be mentioned. Offering courses to students since 1936, it was a national pioneer in most of the fields it covers. Sociology as a separate institute is not however included, the College having been more concerned with those parts of economics, business and marketing which lend themselves to practical application. The college does comprise Institutes of Psychology of Work and Personnel Administration, and Geography. At Oslo University’s Faculty of Law there is an Institute for Sociology of Law (lnstitutt for rettssosiologi), probably quite unique in the world. Originally built up around the research interests of Torstein Eckoff and Vilhelm Aubert, Thomas Mathiesen holds the senior post today. Several non-sociological university institutes have nevertheless hired sociology staff members, permanently or on a temporary basis: notably Oslo’s Institute of Criminology and Penal Law (lnstitutt for kriminologi og Strafferett), a separate Institute for Press or Mass Communications Research (lnstitutt for presseforskning), and (within Oslo’s Faculty of Medicine) the Institute of Social Medicine (Institutt for sosialmedisin). And, of course, the Institutes of Psychology, and Political Science, have both hired sociologists, and vice versa. When we turn to bodies with no teaching responsibilities, a number Downloaded from csi.sagepub.com at Universitet I Oslo on December 18, 2013 60 of ’pure’ research institutes come to mind. Oslo’s Institute of Social Research (Institutt for sainJi1nfisforskfiiiig) perhaps deserves first and foremost mention. A mere 26 years old, it nevertheless has provided a fertile seedbed for much social science research in our country. Even today it retains, to a degree, the standing of a nucleus in the field. While remaining a private foundation, at present a closer cooperation with the State’s more recent Institute of Applied Social Research (Institu tt for annendt sosiahJitenskapelig forskning, Oslo) is planned. Oslo’s Peace Research Institute (PRIO for short), originally a branch of the Institute for Social Research, started work as a separate organization in the early sixties. A chair for peace research at Oslo University was founded in 1969 for PRIO’s initiator, Johan Galtung. Other research institutes with sociologists on their staff include the State Institute for Alcohol Research (Statens institutt for alkoholforskning), the State Institute for Consumer Research (Statens institutt for forbntkerforskning), The Fund for Market and Distribution Research (Fondet for inarkeds- og distribusjonsforkningJ, the (State) Institutes forr Work Research (Arbeidsforsknings-institutterze, comprising separate Work Hygiene, Physiology, and