CRIKOK Study Module in Crisis and Security (25–30 cr)

The multidisciplinary program “Crisis and Security” is an open module to all students of the University of Jyväskylä. It consists of five courses that provide students an overall view on crises, conflicts, and security issues from a number of perspectives. Contemporary political and military crises and conflicts have triggered many kinds of challenges to human security. At the same time, the political aim to elevate security as the highest human value and to make society as secure as possible have posed a challenge to the fundamental values of freedom, equality, and human rights. The multidisciplinary program “Crisis and Security” addresses this and a number of other questions and paradoxes connected with the phenomena and concepts of crisis and security. It encourages students to reflect on the analytical and ethical assumptions that shape crisis and security conceptions in contemporary global politics. After locating debates about the meaning of crisis, conflict and security in historical context, it explores different theoretical approaches to crisis, conflict and security from a range of critical perspectives.

After completing this program a student is able to understand causes of conflict, tensions and violence in the world system, as well as how to mitigate them. She is familiar with critical security theories and the historical development of the concepts of crisis and security. She will also gain in depth knowledge of migration theories and how these theories have developed to fit the new trends of migration flows imposed by globalization, economic and political changes. In addition, she will gain an understanding of the nature of global ethical problems and their special characteristics as well as acquire intellectual tools to understand the multiple challenges in both global and local development contexts.