The course will present different strands within philosophy of science and involve the course participants in discussions about the implications of each of these meta-theoretical positions for research and professional practice within spatial planning, landscape architecture, land management and health policy. The lectures include a session providing a general overview of the main traditional positions within philosophy of science, as well as sessions where some influential contemporary strands (phenomenology, poststructuralism, critical pragmatism and critical realism) will be presented and discussed more in depth. The possibilities and limitations of 'research by design' will also be addressed, and at the end of the course there will be a discussion of main ethical challenges and dilemmas in research within the fields of spatial planning, landscape architecture, land management and public health policy.

A considerable part of the ourse will be dvoted to diussion of papers written by the parrticipants and submitted to the organizers prior to the course. These paprs should normally focus on the ontological, epistemologial and methodologica assumptions on which the partcipants' PhD projects are based, or ethical dilemmas related to their research, but papers focusing on other topics relevant to the content of the course may also be accepted.