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Many universities throughout the world apply student-centered approaches. Common to these is that projects, problems, challenges etc. stem from "real life". Mathematics is an effective tool to solve problems, but in this paper, we discuss how we reconcile the fact that mathematics is both a pure and an applied discipline with problem-based learning (PBL) which builds on such authentic real-life problems. How can the learning of pure mathematics benefit from these education approaches? We present a taxonomy to classify types of problems encountered discussing the notion of the problem context -- it can be internal or external to mathematics, or both.

Purpose: This paper aims to explore how an academic graduate from the cross field between the humanities and the social sciences and blue-collar workers learns to scaffold knowing in a small- to medium-sized enterprise (SME). Design/methodology/approach: A case study was conducted in an SME that employed the first academic graduate among the company's blue-collar workers. The paper applies a practice-oriented theoretical framework to study scaffolding knowing among the workers. Findings: An academic graduate does not necessarily apply subject-specific knowledge from his or her university education in the SME practice. Rather, general academic knowing and academic work practice is applied when scaffolding knowing in the SME. Further, this depends not only on the knowing of the academic graduate but also on his/her ability to apply knowing and the willingness to change in practice. Research limitations/implications: The study is a single case study gaining in-depth insights into one particular case. This calls for more research. Practical implications: The study points at the importance for managers and academic graduates in SMEs to foster learning activities and to be aware of and develop ways to integrate the general academic knowing. Originality/value: The case study provides new insights into the concept of scaffolding knowing in practice theory. Further, it gains unique insights into the practical possibility of employing graduates from higher education in SMEs.

This paper presents findings collected from a collaborative implementation project established in Spring 2008 between Aalborg University's IT-department in the Faculty of Social Science (FSS) and the E-Learning Cooperation Unit (ELSA) with the view to implement Moodle in FSS. The purpose of this cooperation was conceived from an organisational desire to establish a virtual learning environment (VLE), where it was possible, to build activities and underpin the pedagogical approach. Another perspective was to further improve the communication between the administration, teachers and students. This paper will highlight the development process and some of the didactic considerations undertaken for the implementation. The evaluations undertaken during the process will also be presented, along with the results collected in the use of Moodle to highlight the educational changes.

Gränsöverskridande Nordisk Undervisning/Utdanelse (GNU, meaning Cross-Border Nordic Education), the larger Nordic project, under which this case study was carried out, aims at developing innovative, cross-border teaching models in different subject domains in elementary school, including mathematics, language, science, social studies and history. This paper provides an in-depth description and analysis of how four social science and history elementary school teachers and their 70 students (5th-7th grades) worked together between November 2011 and December 2012. Previous research regarding the use of information and communication technology (ICT) in history education in elementary schools is limited, thus calling for contemporary investigations in this particular subject domain. The Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) model, enhancing the combination of teachers' pedagogical, content and technical competence, was used as the analytical framework, together with nation-specific curricula and the European Union's recommendations regarding students' skills for lifelong learning. A range of empirical materials was analyzed, such as classroom observations, students' video productions, texts and photos distributed and shared on a mutual blog, real-time interaction and teachers' communication. The teachers tried out two ICT didactic models. In the asynchronous model, the major focus was on the form and content of the video productions being shared, whereas work with the synchronous model concentrated on the content and quality of the communication. Notwithstanding obstacles, cross-border collaboration provided added value. The nation-specific differences triggered curiosity and motivation to produce digital presentations of history content to be understood by the students in the three nations, facilitating goal fulfillment in communication skills and digital competence. However, achieving subject-specific goals in history remained challenging.

The number of outlaw bikers is growing globally. Despite this, little research exists on these groups and their alleged violent tendencies. To address this, the current paper uses unique data to examine whether gang violence causes outlaw biker violence. The period examined runs from mid-2008 until early 2012 during which violent clashes occurred between outlaw bikers and street gang members involved in an alleged conflict in Copenhagen, Denmark. A precise description of each individual act of violence would make it possible to identify whether specific acts were carried out in furtherance of the alleged conflict. This would allow one to determine whether outlaw bikers commit violence on behalf of their club. However, such knowledge is unavailable. The paper therefore takes a different approach by examining whether acts of violence committed by the two groups are statistically associated. In other words, it considers whether one or more acts can be described as retaliatory during the observation periods. The sample consists of 640 individuals involved with the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club or with non-biker street gangs–both of which are present in Copenhagen. Statistical models are used to predict 143 violent events committed by 196 outlaw bikers. The results suggest that violence committed by gang members predicts violence committed by outlaw bikers. This indicates that violent acts committed by outlaw bikers are at least partly a form of retaliation carried out on behalf of their club. The paper expands the literature on the kinds of inter-group, micro-level processes that can lead to reciprocal violence by including outlaw bikers in a literature that has previously focused on non-biker street gangs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper tests the hypothesis that social networks are crucial for regional recruitment and inflows of foreign labour. New survey data on 971 firms located in Region Southern Denmark show that the predominant recruitment method of foreign labour was through networks. Danish municipal data from 1997-2006 furthermore reveal spatial sorting since initial shares of employees with a foreign background out of total regional employment predict foreign labour inflow rates to regional employment. Thus, social networks appear crucial for the recruitment and inflows of foreign labour, suggesting that employee referrals and information about vacancies in local job markets are also important for foreign labour. Resumen Este artículo pone a prueba la hipótesis de que las redes sociales son cruciales para la contratación regional y los flujos de mano de obra extranjera. Nuevos datos de una encuesta sobre 971 empresas ubicadas en la Región de Dinamarca Meridional muestran que el método de contratación predominante de mano de obra extranjera fue a través de redes. Datos municipales daneses de 1997-2006 revelan además una clasificación espacial, ya que las cuotas iniciales de empleados de origen extranjero respecto del empleo regional total predicen tasas de afluencia de mano de obra extranjera para el empleo regional. Por tanto, las redes sociales parecen ser cruciales para el reclutamiento y la afluencia de mano de obra extranjera, lo cual sugiere que las referencias de los empleados y la información sobre ofertas de empleo en los mercados laborales locales son también importantes para la mano de obra extranjera. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose — According to Putnam, civic engagement fosters a cooperative structure and generalized trust. This leads to accumulation of social capital, in the form of inclusive, cooperative networks that are economically productive. The aim of this paper is to evaluate critically this thesis. Design/methodology/approach — Drawing upon data from rural Denmark, this paper double tests Putnam's somewhat simplistic model of social capital leading to higher levels of economic performance. Findings — In test one, which is based on statistical data, it is found that social capital measured as the density of voluntary associations does not in any way influence levels of economic performance. Test two, based on qualitative fieldwork, points at the socioeconomic power of social capital, implying many positive and negative outcomes other than the sheer economic. Research limitations/implications — Data are only from Denmark. Practical implications — This paper reframes the social capital research agenda, displaying to policy makers that they should not overestimate the blessing of voluntary associations. Originality/value — This paper contributes to the sociological critique of the one-sided, positive picture of civic associations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT. Zipf's law for cities is one of the most conspicuous and robust empirical facts in the social sciences. It says that for most countries, the size distribution of cities must fit the power law: the number of cities with populations greater than S is inversely proportional to S. The present paper answers three questions related to Zipf's law: (1) does the Danish case refute Zipf's law for cities?, (2) what are the implications of Zipf's law for models of local growth?, and (3) do we have a Zipf's law for firms? Based on empirical data on the 61 largest Danish cities for year 2000, the answer to (1) is NO--the Danish case is not the exception which refutes Zipf's law. The consideration of (2) then leads to an empirical test of (3). The question of the existence of Zipf's law for firms is tested on a sample of 14,541 Danish production companies (the total population for 1997 with 10 employees or more). Based on the empirical evidence, the answer to (3) is YES in the sense that the growth pattern of Danish production companies follows a clean rank-size distribution consistent with Zipf's law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: The purpose of this paper is to introduce the social science alcohol and drug research undertaken by the Centre for Alcohol and Drug Research (CRF) and at the same time offer an insight into the development in Danish alcohol and drug research throughout the past 15-20 years., Method: A review of articles, books and reports published by researcher from CRF from the mid-1990s until today and an analysis of the policy-making in the Danish substance use and misuse area., Results: CRF is a result of the discussions surrounding social, health and allocation policy questions since the mid-1980s. Among other things, these discussions led to the formal establishment of the Centre in 1991 under the Aarhus University, the Faculty of Social Science. Since 2001 the Centre has received a permanent basic allocation, which has made it possible to appoint tenured senior researchers; to work under a more long-term research strategy; to function as a milieu for educating PhD students; and to diversify from commissioned research tasks to initiating projects involving more fundamental research. Research at the Centre is today pivoted around four core areas: consumption, policy, prevention and treatment., Conclusion: The emergence, continuation, financing and character of the research taking place at CRF can be linked closely to the specific Danish drug and alcohol discourse and to the division of the responsibility for alcohol and drug research into separate Ministries., (© 2010 The Authors, Addiction © 2010 Society for the Study of Addiction.)

In traditional approaches to the history of political ideas, the history of democracy is uniformly studied concerning the point of departure, selection of canonical texts, etc. The paper introduces the Koselleckian conceptual history approach (Begriffsgeschichte) and the principle of a broader selection of texts than in the traditional history of ideas to provide a fuller account of usages of the concept, thereby opening up for alternative conceptions of the inventions and development of democracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inspired by Michel Foucault's notion of subjugated knowledge, this paper elaborates an analytical framework seeking to unsettle the authority of contemporary psychology. This framework focuses on the performative dimension of psychology and other ‘psy-regimes’, namely the practices and actions that may be undertaken on the basis of these forms of knowledge. We probe this framework by exploring the emergence, utilization and demise of spiritualism (1880s to 1920s) and psychotechnics (1920s to 1960s) in Denmark. On the basis of this framework, we argue that the rise and fall of these psy-regimes may be understood neither in terms of (inadequate) epistemological rigour nor in terms of social repression, but instead as radically contingent events that correlated with particular programs and techniques seeking to promote human happiness and productivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper considers how the analysis of cultural engagement can be elaborated through a reworking of the concept of cultural capital, as originally derived from Distinction. Drawing on detailed studies of the UK and Aalborg, Denmark, we show that despite the weakening of “highbrow” culture, cultural oppositions can nonetheless readily be detected. We point to nine oppositions, mostly shared between the nations. Three tensions between (a) participation and non-participation in cultural activities; (b) knowledge and ignorance in cultural issues (such as for music, literature, and art); and (c) an international and a local or national orientation stand out as the most important. We discuss whether these oppositions can usefully be conceptualised as cultural capital. We argue that such a conceptualisation demands, first, that cultural capital is understood in relative rather than absolute terms, and that a field analytic perspective provides the means of understanding cultural capital as such a relative entity. Second, the move from the empirical observation of oppositions to the conceptualisation of cultural capital also demands that the functioning of features such as participation, knowledge and an international orientation in class domination should be demonstrated, as it cannot just be assumed. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The paper discusses research leadership in public universities in a time of transformation. It focuses on the role of entrepreneurial strategies in creating space for research under conditions that increasingly depend on balancing managerial control in the university against openness to other knowledge organizations, arenas and networks. Here the generation of resources is becoming more important than ever, and a creative entrepreneurial strategy is a way to produce new knowledge centres. By analysing two new research groups in social science institutions in Denmark, we show how dilemmas, uncertainty and complex relations to other managerial systems in the universities can be decisive. Entrepreneurial network organizing offers a new platform for innovation in the university. We find that the charismatic traits of the research director have an important impact on the strength of this platform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Monitoring and managing customers’ satisfaction are key features to benefit from today’s competitive environment. In higher education context, only a few studies are available on satisfaction and loyalty of the main customers who are the students, which signifies the need to investigate the field more thoroughly. The aim of this research is to measure the strength of determinants of students’ satisfaction and the importance of antecedents in students’ satisfaction and loyalty in Denmark. Our research model is the modification of European Performance Satisfaction Index (EPSI), which takes the university’s image direct effects on students’ expectations into account from students’ perspective. The structural equation model of student satisfaction and loyalty has been evaluated using partial least square path modelling. Our findings confirm that the EPSI framework is applicable on student satisfaction and loyalty among Danish universities. We show that all the relationships among variables of the research model are significant except the relationship between quality of software and students’ loyalty. Results further verify the significance of antecedents in students’ satisfaction and loyalty at Danish universities; the university image and student satisfaction are the antecedents of student loyalty with a significant direct effect, while perceived value, quality of hardware, quality of software, expectations, and university image are antecedents of student satisfaction. Eventually, our findings may be of an inspiration to maintain and improve students’ experiences during their study at the university. Dedicating resources to identified important factors from students’ perception enable universities to attract more students, make them highly satisfied and loyal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Denmark has an extraordinarily large and well-preserved collection of archaeological skin garments found in peat bogs, dated to approximately 920 BC – AD 775. These objects provide not only the possibility to study prehistoric skin costume and technologies, but also to investigate the animal species used for the production of skin garments. Until recently, species identification of archaeological skin was primarily performed by light and scanning electron microscopy or the analysis of ancient DNA. However, the efficacy of these methods can be limited due to the harsh, mostly acidic environment of peat bogs leading to morphological and molecular degradation within the samples. We compared species assignment results of twelve archaeological skin samples from Danish bogs using Mass Spectrometry (MS)-based peptide sequencing, against results obtained using light and scanning electron microscopy. While it was difficult to obtain reliable results using microscopy, MS enabled the identification of several species-diagnostic peptides, mostly from collagen and keratins, allowing confident species discrimination even among taxonomically close organisms, such as sheep and goat. Unlike previous MS-based methods, mostly relying on peptide fingerprinting, the shotgun sequencing approach we describe aims to identify the complete extracted ancient proteome, without preselected specific targets. As an example, we report the identification, in one of the samples, of two peptides uniquely assigned to bovine foetal haemoglobin, indicating the production of skin from a calf slaughtered within the first months of its life. We conclude that MS-based peptide sequencing is a reliable method for species identification of samples from bogs. The mass spectrometry proteomics data were deposited in the ProteomeXchange Consortium with the dataset identifier PXD001029. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article I analyze empowerment in Copenhagen's 'wild' social work community and I develop the role of expansive learning to understand how to transcend marginalization. The notion of expansive activity developed by Engeström and Holzkamp contributes to the further development of Cultural-Historical Activity Theory. I use a social practice theory of boundary communities to analyze empowerment as a dialectic between individual and collective movement. I define boundary communities as communities that overlap two or more groups and thereby offer potential for border crossing and collaboration among communities. I analyze the personal trajectory of a social street worker, Anas, focusing on dilemmas and possibilities for expansive learning. The 'wild' social work community to which he belongs is constituted by an overlap of different groups in Copenhagen such as the social street workers, professionals from the 'established welfare system,' and local street communities of young men with ethnic minority and Muslim backgrounds. Social street work is analyzed at the time of the street riots that occurred in Copenhagen in February 2008; social street workers facilitated meetings of opposing factions, parties who usually do not enter into dialogue. I discuss how boundary communities may support empowerment of individuals and groups by moving these parties in expansive directions. [empowerment, young ethnic minority men, social work, boundary communities] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are many advantages in establishing National Ph.D. programmes, but so are the challenges in getting them in motion. These challenges are caused by the intensified competition between departmental Ph.D. programmes, which is a product of the emergence of the audit society. The Danish national political science programme POLFORSK has managed to deal with these difficulties and has established a very successful programme that raises the quality of the Ph.D. programmes in Denmark considerably. This has been possible due to governmental funding that has helped to transform the relationship between national and departmental programmes into a positive-sum game, and paved the way for a systematic provision of highly specialised courses with a strong international profile that serve as a valuable supplement to the more basic Ph.D. courses provided by the individual departments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Effective government matters, but what is it? Good governance indicators go some way to provide a definition, but how much do they say about what effectiveness is, why this is so, and how it matters to development? This article argues that much work on the good governance agenda suggests a one-best-way model, ostensibly of an idyllic, developed country government: Sweden or Denmark on a good day, perhaps. The implied model lacks consistency, however, seems inappropriate for use in the development dialogue and is not easily replicated. In short, it resembles a set of well meaning but problematic proverbs. The good governance picture of effective government is not only of limited use in development policy but also threatens to promote dangerous isomorphism, institutional dualism and “flailing states”. It imposes an inappropriate model of government that “kicks away the ladder” that today's effective governments climbed to reach their current states. The model's major weakness lies in the lack of an effective underlying theoretical framework to assist in understanding government roles and structures in development. A framework is needed before we measure government effectiveness or propose specific models of what government should look like. Given the evidence of multiple states of development, the idea of a one-best-way model actually seems very problematic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From 1835 to date Denmark has experienced an increase in life expectancy at birth of about 40 years for both sexes. Over the course of the last 170 years, life expectancy at birth has increased from 40 to 80 years for women and from 36 to 76 years for men, and it continues to rise. Using a new methodology, we show that about half of the total historic increase can be attributed to the sharp decline in infant and young age death rates up to 1950. However, life expectancy gains from 1950 to date can be primarily attributed to improvements in the age-specific death rates for the age group from 50 to 80, although there is also a noticeable contribution from the further decline in infant mortality over this period. With age-specific death rates up to age 60 now at a very low absolute level, substantial future life expectancy improvements must necessarily arise from improvements in age-specific death rates for ages 60 and above. Using the developed methodology, we quantify the impact of further reductions in age-specific mortality. Despite being one of countries with the highest life expectancy at the beginning of the 20th century, and despite the spectacular historic increase in life expectancy since then, Denmark is, in fact, lagging behind compared to many other countries, notably the other Nordic countries. The main reason is an alarming excess mortality for cause-specific death rates related to ischaemic heart diseases and, in particular, a number of cancer diseases. Age-specific death rates continue to improve in most countries, and a likely scenario is that in the future Denmark will experience improvement rates at the international level or perhaps even higher as a result of a catch-up effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the way in which the constitutive condition of anthropology, often dismissed as ‘colonial’, is still inherent in anthropological practice. It is argued that anthropologists are still answering a ‘call of the unknown’ by which to expand the horizon of the modern social imaginary. The vehicle of this discussion is found in early Arctic ethnography, not least in the works of (Danish) Knud Rasmussen. It is shown how ancient images of the far northern world and its people persistently infiltrated the ethnographic descriptions, and how the ‘unknown’ is perceived through ‘known’ images. Nevertheless, the relationship between the known and the unknown is far from stable, because new horizons open and close in the process of understanding and description. This is still the case, and the result is a fluid field of knowledge that serves as a repository of doubt about canonical categories. Résumé Le présent article discute la manière dont la condition constitutive de l'anthropologie, souvent récusée comme « coloniale », est demeurée inhérente à la pratique anthropologique. L'auteur affirme que les anthropologues répondent encore à un « appel de l'inconnu » qui pousse àélargir l'horizon de l'imaginaire social moderne. Sa discussion se base sur les premiers travaux d'ethnographie arctique, en particulier ceux du Danois Knud Rasmussen. L'article montre comment les anciennes images du Grand Nord et de ses peuples ont imprégné durablement les descriptions ethnographiques, et comment « l'inconnu » est perçu au travers d'images connues. Pourtant, la relation entre le connu et l'inconnu est loin d'être stable car de nouveaux horizons s'ouvrent ou s'effacent au fil du processus de compréhension et de description. C'est encore le cas aujourd'hui, et il en résulte un champ mouvant de connaissance susceptible de remettre en cause les catégories canoniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents the report entitled 'Defining International Standards in Basic Medical Education,' by the working party of the World Federation on Medical Education in Copenhagen, Denmark. Assessment and accreditation of medical education; Concept of international standards; Importance of behavioral and social sciences and medical ethics.

The article focuses on sociology in Denmark in the 1960s. It discusses the significance that journal publications have had for Danish sociology. It presents accounts of the some of the significant sociological projects that the Sociological Institute of the University of Copenhagen and its staff have completed in the 1960s. Growth and unrest marked the period during which Danish sociology became recognized within Danish science. Despite this disquiet, the University of Copenhagen has produced a modest but increasing number of young graduates with a masters degree, many of whom are involved in research projects.

The article discusses the anthropology of the modern Scandinavian society, focusing in Sweden, Norway and Denmark. The anthropology of modern Scandinavia can be examined in relation to its welfare states. Its best anthropology is often well written, relatively sophisticated and relevant to a wide readership. One of the main tendencies in contemporary Scandinavian anthropology is the study of identity management within households, communities and ways of life. Anthropological studies in the region tend to reflect on some of the central ideas underpinning and informing the Nordic welfare states while criticizing bureaucratic centralization and standardization.

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