| Summary: | This thesis emerges from the growing relevance of degree programs in the global society and from the interest in the field of study in Global Studies (GS). This field is relatively new and has set high goals for itself. Global Studies scholars often define the field as innovative and barrier-breaker, saying that GS should go beyond existing disciplines in explaining global and local issues and networks from a global and critical perspective. In this context, the purpose of this thesis is to examine master’s degree programs and find more about the existing similarities and differences between these programs. Making use of World Society Theory, I search for similarities in the reading list of the introductory courses in master’s degree programs in four universities in Northern Europe - Humboldt University, in Germany, University of Iceland, Roskilde University, in Denmark, and University of Gothenburg, in Sweden. Within the reading lists, I search for patterns in authors and texts featured in them, in addition to the area of study appearing in the lists and the topics brought up by the texts. The study is conducted using a mix of content analysis and frequency analysis. To complement the analysis, I examine geographically specific texts (GSTs) and the vocabulary of the texts included in the reading lists using a word count software. The research finds that similarities appear less than expected. Universities tend to rely on similar areas of study to build up their reading list, but other aspects do not present the same level of affinity. Authors and texts hardly repeat between universities and themes overlap occasionally. The local context seems to have a determinant influence over the programs. Moreover, the GSTs reveal that centralized regions of the world receive more space in the list while marginalized areas receive little to no space. The word count mainly shows that the texts’ rely on state-centric vocabulary. The findings indicate that GS programs are not fully structured yet, with some mismatches between ...
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