Last Day

Last Day Bonfire

Today we went out Vestamager to a nature reserve. It was a really nice time to get out into the nature, and I thought the contrast between the city and nature was also really interesting to see.

We talked about two main theories regarding happiness and nature. One was from an evolutionary perspective, which proposed that we gain wellbeing from nature because that is what our ancestors lived in. There has barely been any time evolutionarily for us to adjust to the city culture, so we find the greatest wellbeing in the type of environment we evolved in. The other theory was from a neurological perspective, which believes that we gain wellbeing from being in nature due to the fact that we don't have as many stimuli as we do when we are in a big city. When we go to work we get a spike of stress, and when we come back, we may never fully come down to relaxed state, so we might be continually increasing our stress levels.

Another topic we talked about was healing gardens. Jonatan told of instances in which people with PTSD were allowed to work in gardens and they showed improvement from it. It could be the case that they are gaining both hedonic and eudamonic wellbeing, in that they are feeling more at peace and they are also gaining meaning and autonomy from the work they are doing in the garden. He also described the criteria for being a healing garden, which included many species of animals, openness, peace, and the feel of being in a different world. The nature reserve that we were at definitely had a relaxing feel to it.

We were able to chop wood and also made some bread on spears, which was interesting. At the end we had a chance to reflect on the entire course. I definitely enjoyed my time being in the course, and I feel that my favorite aspect of the course was our instructor, Jonatan. I know the ideas of hedonic and eudamonic happiness will stick with me. I also enjoyed being able to experience different aspects of Danish culture, such as going to the park in Copenhagen and talking with Danes. Overall, I'm really glad I took the course, and I feel that I got a lot out of it.

Final Presentations

Final Presentations

Today we had the second round of presentations for our second project. All of the presentations were very well done, and I got a lot out of the comparisons between Denmark and the US. One presentation topic I thought was interesting had to do with the drinking culture between Denmark and the US. The group presented the ideas that in Denmark it is okay to drink some alcohol at 16, and the heavier alcohol at 18. In the US, the drinking age of 21 tends to make people be secretive about their drinking, especially when they are younger, below the legal limit. One topic that they brought up that I found interesting was how there was a movement against alcohol, in that it became more taboo to be seen drinking or drunk. I had not thought about it before, but coming to Denmark has definitely made it more apparent that in the US, it is almost looked down upon to be drunk, while in Denmark, it is a part of the culture and there is a lot smaller percentage of people that completely abstain from alcohol in Denmark than there is in the US. Probably the most conspicuous difference between the two drinking cultures is how it is legal to drink in public, e.g. the metro, on the street, here in Denmark, but that it is illegal to do so in the United States. The drinking culture here seems a lot more open and valued, while in the US it is almost demonize drinking in general. I think that drinking can be helpful to a culture when used appropriately. While it is not necessary in social settings, I feel that it can help improve the connectivity between the people at a social gathering, as they are more open to communicate with each other. Obviously, there a serious potential for abusing alcohol, but I feel like in Denmark people accept and value alcohol in a respectful way, using it to have fun and not as a crutch or an escape from every day life.

Meeting the Danes

Meeting the Danes

 Today, we had the opportunity to talk to some of the Danes that Jonatan brought in to help us understand cultural differences. For the first part of the day, we made a poster of what we thought wellbeing meant in regards to the Danes - for ours we focused on the biking culture, as well as the prevalence of alcohol in the culture - as well as rating the US and Denmark on the five dimensions of Hofstede's theory. Following this, we did an activity with a group of students and a Dane in which we were given different scenarios related to being on an island. The Dane that was in our group was a guy named Nils. He was very interesting to talk to as he told us of how he did a lot of activities related to surviving in the wilderness, as well as teaching kids to be able to survive in the wilderness, so he had a lot of good input on the activity. For instance, for the first round, we had to pick five items off a list of about 15 based on what would be most useful for us. We then talked through different scenarios that related to Hofstede's five dimensions. For instance, we came up with a scenario for the Power Distance dimension relating to someone in the group on the island declaring that they were going to be in charge and how we would deal with that. During this time we also got to talk to Nils about different aspects of Danish culture. One thing that I found very interesting was his take on the tax system. He described how he totally supports the tax system, as it gives everyone the opportunity to live without the stress of having to deal with different unknown factors in life - illness, education, etc. He told us of how he had friends who have dealt with a lot of different illnesses - ranging from a bum knee to brain tumors. He said that even though he was happy, he liked being able to help out people that needed it. I asked him what he thought of the idea that high taxes hinders people's ambition for achievement. He said that he did not think this was true at all, that the average income for the Danish people has collectively increased - not just for those at the top but for everyone in general. He also said that he doesn't believe that the tax system hinders productivity or innovation, and gave different examples of things that are coming from Denmark - he referenced the quote from Bill Gates: “I choose a lazy person to do a hard job. Because a lazy person will find an easy way to do it.” He said that the Danes can be innovative because they don't need to be excessive in what they make.

For the last part of class, the Danes rotates groups and we got a chance to ask questions. We were able to talk to a medical student named Anna. We also asked her about her thoughts on the tax system, and she also said that she totally agrees with it, saying that she really likes the security that the tax system gives. She also talked about her schooling as a medical student, which was interesting to me as I'm pre-medical student now. She told us of how after high school she applies to a medical school and there she did three years of the equivalent of undergraduate and then she has three more years of actual medical school. After that she said she has more years of specialty before she can start practicing. We also talked about the political system and the political candidates.

I really enjoyed having the opportunity to interact with more Danes and find out more about their take on the Danish culture. I wouldn't doubt that it was a little intimidating for them to come in and have to answer so many questions, but I feel that I got a lot out of it.

Lesson 8 - Situated Learning

Situated Learning

Etienne Wegner proposed the idea of Situated Learning and communities of practice. The idea is based around the definition of learning as "learning how to act" in a specific group - a community of practice. The theory involves three topics: the idea that knowledge is socially constructed, that learning happens in communities of practice, and the roles of competent and peripheral legitimate participants in communities. The idea that knowledge is socially constructed reflects that the truth is whatever we decide to be true. The concept of communities of practice is based on the idea that learning takes place all of the time and encompasses all aspects of experience. Learning in communities of practice four different ideas: meaning, practice, community, and identity. The meaning is necessary for the members of a community to stay engaged, while the practice allows for community to share what they are doing and why. The community itself allows the group to feel bonded together, and also allows for the individuals of the community to get an identity from it. A community of practice exists when a group has a common goal, has a shared repertoire of stories, traditions, etc., and has mutual engagement - a demand for collaboration.

The third idea was that of the competent and the legitimate participants of communities. The metaphor given in class was that the competent participant of a community is like batman, while the legitimate peripheral participant of the community is like robin. The legitimate peripheral participant is legitimate because he or she is accepted by the group, and is peripheral because he or she hasn't quite found his or her place. That is, this person is still learning the rules of engagement for the community and has not become competent. A third kind of person - the joker in the analogy - may be excluded from the group and may start a new group where he or she is the competent participant.

 For a class activity, we discussed the three topics of Situated Learning Theory in the context of being a DIS student. For instance, we described the definition of wellbeing for a DIS student to be meeting new people and learning a new culture. We gave examples of shared repertoire as knowing Jonatan, and traveling together, while for examples of mutual engagement, we put down partying, taking trips together, and sharing meals. We described a competent participant of the DIS community to be someone who can dress for the weather, and who wants to try new things. This exercise was helpful in illustrated the concepts of Situated Learning Theory in a context that we could all understand.

Lesson 7 - Cultural Differences in Well-being

The Happy Movie

Before we left to see what was going on for Constitution Day, we watched a portion of the Happy movie. This was a documentary about what makes people happy, but shows the differences between culture. For instance, it was described how in Japan, work is emphasized to the point where there have been deaths due to overworking. Another story was about a woman who was very beautiful when she was younger, but then endured an accident with a truck that left her physically disfigured. She described how her feelings about life changed from wanting to end it, to embracing it and feeling more fulfilled in life than she had before the accident.

One family that was depicted was a family in Louisiana, who did not have a lot of material wealth, but still described themselves as being very happy. They described how they would get together at least once a week with the extended family and eat together - sometimes with food that they caught themselves. Two theories can be used to help understand these cross-cultural aspects of well-being: one from Hofstede, who focused on the values behind well-being, and one from Geertz, who focused on the meaning behind well-being. Hofstede proposed several aspects on which a culture could be graded on in terms of their values in reference to well-being. For instance, one value is short vs. long term orientation. This family could be viewed as having more short term orientation, because they were not looking months in advance on what they wanted to do, but rather they focused on getting together on a weekly basis to eat together. Geertz looked at the difference between thin and thick descriptions, and described how thick descriptions can be used to understand the meaning behind cultural differences. In the case of the family from Louisiana, their eating together points towards a deeper idea of the importance they place on time they spend together, which means that they are spending less time working. It can be seen that this family doesn't need a lot of material wealth, and thus is not distracted by trying to obtain the most things, but rather focuses on enjoying time with one another.

Constitution Day

Constitution Day

 We got to go to the celebration of Denmark's Constitution Day, June 5th. The most striking thing was the ease in which we were able to get into the area in which the event was held. Having gone to see the President in the US a few years ago where people were getting in line over 8 hours in advance and had to pass through very thorough security, it was a very conspicuous difference to be able to get in line and be through it in under five minutes with very light security. From this, it can be seen that trust in people's intentions while seeing the most important people in Denmark is a lot higher than in the US - that there is less of a threat from the people in the crowd towards these people. It was also very interesting to be able to see the Queen speak. It was the 100 year anniversary of women's suffrage in Denmark, and the Queen spoke about that. Although we weren't able to understand what was being said, it could be seen that the people enjoyed the Queen's speech and what she was saying. Being able to see these important people was a very memorable experience.

Lesson 6 - New Groups and Cultural Differences

New Groups

The first thing we did for the day was to get into new groups. While it was great working with our old group, it will be great to get a chance to work with new people. Additionally, we took some time to look at how our new group wanted to work, and wrote down a contract for that.

 

The things we wanted to do were to start working earlier in order to give us time to review and edit our work, as well as divide the work evenly to make it efficient. We decided that the Studenterhuset would be our place to work and that working in person would be the most efficient. We also acknowledged that we need to make sure to have fair debating and that we will need to compromise.

Nudging

The main concept we covered for the day was nudging, which is the idea that you can use positive reinforcement and indirect suggestions in order to influence people's behavior, without overtly telling them what to do. Nudging happens all of the time in business and advertising, as these companies want us to use their products and services.

Well-being In Products

In order to analyze cultural differences in products and companies, we went out into the city in our study groups and analyzed a difference US business that is also in Copenhagen. We went to KFC and looked at the differences there. We found that it was a lot cleaner and looked a bit more upscale. We tried some of the food there and found that the quality of the food was better. Additionally, we found the menu had some small changes, such as the addition of salads and shakes, and the exclusion of biscuits. These changes must have some significant or consequences in the well-being of people in Copenhagen who would come to the store. For instance, they might value the quality of the food and the atmosphere of the area more than in the US - for them, these things might increase their well-being.

When talking with the class afterwards, we each got into different groups to discuss the differences we saw throughout the different stores and shops. Some of the recurrent themes were of better quality products and healthier choices. From these observations, one could infer that quality and health may have more meaning to the well-being of Danes than to Americans.