TIK2000 – Innovation and Society

The introductory course ‘Innovation and Society’ explores the concept of innovation and how it affects the economy and society. The goal is to help students understand innovation and their role in it in relation to their respective academic backgrounds. The course examines how innovation happens in different organizations, such as public, private, and community-based, and introduces important tools for analyzing innovation processes. It also offers perspectives on how innovation is a systemic phenomenon, and how it can address the grand challenges of our time.

Through activities like company visits, case studies, and interdisciplinary collaboration, students will enhance their analytical skills, creativity, critical thinking, and presentation abilities. The course also allows students to engage in teamwork, student-led seminars and to relate innovation to their own fields of study.

The course is the mandatory introductory part of the ‘Innovation Certificate’ and provides students with a shared basis for the elective courses in the certificate.

Knowledge

In the mandatory introduction course the students acquire a basic understanding of

• What innovation is and how it can take different forms
• How innovation impacts the economy and society
• How innovation is dependent on and conditioned by social and technological factors
• How innovation occurs through an interplay between different types of actors
• How innovation takes place in different types of organizations
• How policies, infrastructures and institutions may affect and condition innovation
• How innovation can contribute to solving contemporary societal challenges

Skills

• Identify and describe the role of innovation in economic growth and societal change
• Analyse contemporary innovative societal phenomenons
• Critical thinking for innovative problem-solving and decision-making
• Apply theoretical concepts onto real life innovative cases
• Experience from working in interdisciplinary teams
• Understand how innovation can be studied

General competences

• Understanding how your educational background can contribute to innovation in working life
• Understanding the role of innovation in society
• Ability to present your own work and give constructive feedback
• Experience with working, presenting and discussing in English
• Experience with group work
• Being able to interact with representatives from working life

Teaching will be based on a mix of lectures, field trips, workshops and seminars. Students are expected to actively participate in the teaching through discussions and group assignments.

An attendance of at least 80% in lectures, field trips, workshops and seminars is mandatory.

Completion of individual written assignments and participation in group-based workshops and presentations during the term is a requirement to complete final examination.

If you are sick or have another valid reason for not attending the regular exam, we offer a postponed exam later in the same semester.

See also our information about resitting an exam.