Education in Human Geography
Are you interested in learning more about the world you live in? Would you like to understand why life looks a certain way in various places and how the increasing mobility of people across the world can be explained? Human Geography is a subject focused on relations between and changes in societies, places, and populations.
When you study Human Geography at Karlstad University, you learn about a wide range of issues related to the life and activities of mankind on earth, at the global, regional, and local levels. Questions studied concern among other things urbanisation, city planning, the history of the cultural landscape, and political, environmental, and economic aspects of demographic development in an increasingly global world. Why do 20% of the global population use 80% of the global resources? How can we understand the undoing of national borders in relation to local, national, and global identity issues? How are cities and rural areas interdependent and what are the differences between the challenges that they are facing? These are some of the questions discussed in the subject of Human Geography.
The Spatial and Social Planning Programme
Would you like to help form tomorrow’s society and the city planning of the future? Do you want to understand how global events influence local conditions for social planning? The Spatial and Social Planning Programme provides you with the knowledge required to handle ongoing change and plan for sustainable development. Social planning involves adapting society to the changes that are always underway in the world, as well as creating conditions for a desirable development.
The Spatial and Social Planning Programme at Karlstad University aims to help you understand how societies work and are structured in terms of political and geographical perspectives. You will learn to understand relations between individuals, groups, and communities. The programme of study emphasises Swedish social planning, but also includes courses with an international focus, for instance on Europe and the EU. In addition, you will receive knowledge about important instruments of planning such as the Planning and Building Act, the Environmental Code, and crucial tools for social planning such as GIS (Geographic Information Systems) and 3D visualisation programmes.
As part of the programme, you will be in continuous contact with employers, for instance through visits from guest lecturers, excursions, field trips, projects, and internship opportunities.
You can enroll in the Spatial and Social Planning Programme at Karlstad University for three years of full-time study at Bachelor’s level (180 ECTS credits). The programme leads to a Bachelor’s degree with specialisation in one of the majors Human Geography, Political Science, or Sociology. You can also choose to take some of the courses included in the programme as independent courses.
When you have completed the programme of study, you can go on to study for a Master’s degree. A Master’s degree qualifies you for doctoral study. Karlstad University currently offers doctoral programmes in Human Geography, Political Science, and Sociology.
Programme coordinator Hans Olof Gottfridsson
Programme coordinator Lena Grip