Foundational issues in societal safety and emergency management (SAM910)

The course discusses foundational issues in safety management, societal safety and emergency management from various scientific disciplines and perspectives


Course description for study year 2025-2026. Please note that changes may occur.

Facts

Course code

SAM910

Version

1

Credits (ECTS)

10

Semester tution start

Spring, Autumn

Number of semesters

1

Exam semester

Spring, Autumn

Language of instruction

English, Norwegian

Offered by

Content

The course discusses foundational issues in safety management, societal safety and emergency management from various scientific disciplines and perspectives. Recent research literature will be combined with classic text books, but the combinations might be changed in accordance with the topics emphasized. Foundational concepts applied in various societal contexts will be discussed, such as emergency response performance, causal explanations, resilience, risk, systems engineering, learning, multi discipline assessments, and safety management. The course will also discuss foundational challenges in various vocational and professional fields, such as decision making under uncertainty, crisis management, human reactions in crises, experience transfer, and models in emergency preparedness planning.

A project work, in which the topic and major issue shall be developed together with the candidate and supervisors, shall be conducted and presented. The work might be documented as a scientific article.

Learning outcome

The candidate shall become familiar with the foundational issues in the studied topics, he or she must be able to lead discussions about risk management, societal safety and emergency management. The candidate shall be able to relate foundational topics to his or her own major issues in the research project.

Required prerequisite knowledge

None

Exam

Form of assessment Weight Duration Marks Aid
Oral exam 1/1 1 Hours Passed / Not Passed

Oral exam, which includes presentation of own project work and defense in light of the syllabus in the course.

Coursework requirements

Individual assignments must be passed in order to sit for the oral exam.

Course teacher(s)

Course coordinator:

Ove Njå

Head of Department:

Tore Markeset

Method of work

The candidates shall select and define parts of the curriculum themselves under supervision. The course uses seminars as pedagogic platform, in which the candidates present selected parts of the curriculum to an audience which can vary from internal colleagues to external professional staff and academics involved in the specific areas. The candidates will develop a manuscript/paper with a major issue and analysis of the literature.

Open for

Technology and Natural Science - PhD programme

Course assessment

There must be an early dialogue between the course supervisor, the student union representative and the students. The purpose is feedback from the students for changes and adjustments in the course for the current semester.In addition, a digital course evaluation must be carried out at least every three years. Its purpose is to gather the students experiences with the course.

Literature

Search for literature in Leganto