North American Studies, 25–60 cr

Throughout history, North America has played an important role in world affairs. North American presence is seen in several dimensions: in culture, history, and popular culture, to name a few, but key aspects are found in the North American political and economic impacts. Politically, North America has a global effect which can be seen through foreign relations and also through the intense interest and scrutiny of the US presidential elections and domestic affairs. North America has an equally large economic impact. The focus of this program, correspondingly, explores the politics and economics inside North America and North America's political and economic impact in a global connection. The program focus includes Canada, Mexico and the USA. Reflecting the location of the program, the North American Studies program is a comparative program. Thus, courses go beyons understanding events, policies and issues in North America to understanding these events, policies and issues in general, with North American cases - and Nordic cases - serving as special examples.

The North American Studies program at the University of Tampere applies analysis from political science and economics but also incorporates other fields, including history, sociology, and others. The program draws from these rich multidisciplinary resources, with each field applying its own methodology, approaches, and perspectives to explore the creation, actions, and impacts of the political and economic systems and impacts of North America globally and vice versa.

North American Studies -site.

Upon completing the programme, students will be able to:

- familiarize with how the issue of social institutions is addressed in the fields of political science, economics, history and sociology

- understand social sciences from a comparative (North America and Europe) and multidisciplinary perspective

- acquire in depth understanding of the politics and economics of North America

- understand both advantages of and barriers to social and political cooperation which is essential in predicting needs for and success of policies (theory of collective action, game theory, and politics)

- discuss relevant current literature