Europe and Glob­al Mega­trends

Course content

This course deals with “megatrends” or ‘driving forces that are observable now and will most likely have significant influence on the future' in terms of the challenges and opportunities they pose for states, businesses and societies in the European context.

The course material focuses on four megatrends 1) New Forms of Social Change, 2) The Climate Crisis 3) New Forms of Technological Disruption, 4) Shifts in Global (Economic) Power. Each ‘global force for change’ brings about challenges and opportunities for societies, business and states in different sectors and industries.

Those challenges and opportunities that derive from each megatrend are discussed separately in each lecture around selected topics throughout the whole course.

The lectures and exercise classes explore the observable implications of the megatrends for the rapid shifts observed in the European economy and society. As such, they discuss each megatrend in terms of how it shapes and is shaped by firms, states and cities.  To make sense of these analytical linkages, the course introduces a set of focused concepts, theoretical frameworks and cases dealing with critical issues such as labour markets, natural resources, financial markets, commodity markets, social policy, wealth accumulation, green investment, digitalization and cyber security, and global trade disputes. The lectures discuss and touch upon each megatrend at both the global and the European level for private and public sectors, as well as for  societies.

The theoretical and conceptual backbone of this course is introduced in two first two lectures, dealing with competing conceptualizations of the state in the economy. These approaches – spanning theories of the regulatory state, the entrepreneurial state, the market-oriented state, and the self-regulation promoting state – provide different theoretically informed understandings about the relationship between state and market actors in dealing with emerging risks and long-term trends. Further, the readings and the lectures will enable students to synthesize the knowledge and skills acquired in the program as a whole, including in courses such as ‘Denmark in Comparative Perspective’, ‘Internationalization beyond Europe and Qualitative Methods’, or ‘Political Economy of European States.’ 

The course is an integrative platform for the European Business program, mobilizing the knowledge and skills develop through the program in order to understand and analyze the complexity and the challenges that the megatrends pose to European businesses, societies and states.

Nordic Nine: You will learn how to formulate and answer policy questions related to global megatrends shaping the European political economy in ways that pose trade-offs between competitiveness, security and a compassionate society. You will develop arguments, critically reflect on conventional wisdom and assess the plausibility of your suggestions about how to deal with the megatrends (NN2, NN3, NN6, NN8). You will learn how to approach key societal challenges and ethical dilemmas with conceptual depth and analytical rigor and clarity by identifying and articulating the tradeoffs entailed by alternative policy approaches to the megatrends (NN3, NN4, NN5).