Urban Studies: Urban Business and Development

There are numerous actors in cities that continuously interact to create value out of scarce resources. The ambition of this course is to identify and understand stakeholder interests and analyse what drives and limits their actions. The course will also provide a deepening of the understanding and application of qualitative methods used in research, as well as for academic writing.

The course introduces and problematizes the limitations and opportunities that may exist when different stakeholders interact to develop and shape cities and societies. Furthermore, the course aims to foster deeper understanding of certain qualitative methods that can be used to analyse the interaction and integration of stakeholders and networks. The course is divided into two modules and each module is organised in themes:

1\. Urban Business and Development, 7,5cr
Different stakeholders, such as private, public or non-governmental organisations, play important part in the development of cities and societies. Their different roles, requirements and interests may bring opportunities as well as limitations to creating value. Using different themes, this module will provide different theoretical perspectives to elaborate on the interaction between stakeholders, service production, value creation and service innovation. There are for example different types of contracts that can be used to govern and assess interaction between parties (i.e. contract theory), as well as laws, rules and norms (institutional theory) that set the framework for interaction. The course also aims to provide a broad understanding of how ethics, values, social responsibility and understandings of sustainable development influence and set conditions for urban development.

2\. Qualitative methods, 7,5cr
In order to study and potentially be able to influence stakeholder actions, a deeper knowledge of qualitative methods is necessary. Knowledge from the first module is further developed and applied in this second module using different methods. The methods are applied to theoretical concepts such as co-design, mutual learning, city-making and co-production. Thus, this module includes developing knowledge of how to use interviews, ethnographic and anthropological methods as well as text analysis. The content of the module will prepare students to independently be able to perform research and other advanced analytical development work.

Syllabus autumn 2025

Earlier syllabuses

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