Water Management, Development Trajectories and the Modern World
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Course leaders: Professor Terje Tvedt, Department of Geography, UiB, and Dr Tore Sætersdal, Assistant Director, UiB Global
This course addresses one of the major global challenges in a world of climate change and the widening gap between demand and supply of safe water. How are societies affected by changing water cycles and by efforts at controlling and modifying the waterscape? And how have they been affected in the past by managing these differences in water--society relationships?
The main aims of this course are twofold: To offer a truly multidisciplinary approach to understanding water--society relations. And to provide reflections on the need for a long term historical perspective on changes and differences in conditions and possibilities for different types of water management. The course will give PhD candidates insight into and knowledge of relevant theoretical and historical literature on water management and water control.
The course lecturers, mainly historians and archeologists, aim to offer an original and refreshing perspective on water--society relations. Everybody is talking about the need for multidisciplinarity in the study of water. This course addresses this task.
The course will also organize an excursion into the waterscape of Bergen and its surroundings to show how people on the Scandinavian rain coast manage their waters.
Terje Tvedt is the Series Editor of the 9-volume series A History of Water (2016), the author of numerous books and articles, including Water and Society. Changing Perceptions of Societal and Historical Development (2016), and the author and presenter of three award winning documentaries, including "A Journey in the History of Water" and "The Future of Water" (on Netflix from 2016).
Tore Saetersdal is the Director of the Nile Basin Research Programme, leader of the WASO-program and leader of Bergen Summer Research School.
Please refer to the BSRS programme for common BSRS sessions
