APPLIED ANTHROPOLOGY

The course is aimed at students who are pursuing a specialist degree in Cultural Anthropology, Ethnology and Ethnolinguistics, or who, despite coming from other disciplines, are interested in the critical tools offered by the discipline and their application in relation to the study of the relationship between civil society, development projects and state, and between man and nature. The general objective of teaching is to provide students with the analytical tools necessary to be able to deal with the ethnographic analysis of development processes, with particular attention to environmental conflicts.

1. Knowledge and understanding
Acquire the ability to critically analyze a development project and the underlying power dynamics.
Have a general idea of ​​the possible fields of extra-academic application of ethnographic knowledge
2. Ability to apply knowledge and understanding
Acquisition of the basic tools to apply the ethnographic method to the observation of development processes
3. Judgment capacity
Critical judgment capacity towards applied anthropology texts
4. Communication skills
Through the group exercises carried out during the course, the student will deepen his own exhibition skills.
5. Ability to learn
Through the group exercises carried out during the course, and the preparation of the final thesis, the student will deepen his critical and independent research ability.

Although there are no pre-requisites to access the course, a certain familiarity with the ethnographic method would be desirable.

In order to be able to intervene in an "applied" sphere, the anthropologist needs to ask himself first of all "how institutions think". We will answer this question through the analysis of the texts mention in the bibliography section. In parallel, concepts such as "development", "environment", "participation", "friction", "plantation" and "right to land" will be addressed and discussed.
The second part of the course will instead be dedicated to the treatment of specific cases of environmental conflict, using the text mentioned in the bibliography as a reference point.

First part:

Scott, James. “Seeing like a state (ch. 1)”
Orlove, J. “Lines in the water” (articolo).
De Leon, J. “Land of open graves (ch. 1-3)”
Ferguson, J. “The anti-politic machine (ch.4-5)”
Mosse, D. “Cultivating development (ch. 4)
Tsing, A. “Friction (ch. 3-4)”
Rita Ramos, A. “The hyper-real indian” (articolo).

Second Part:

Bonifacio, V. & Vianello, R. (a cura di). Il ritmo dell'esperienza. Dieci casi etnografici per pensare i conflitti ambientali". CLEUP. Stampa prevista per il settembre 2020.

For the final exam, students will have to take both a written and an oral test.
Il giorno dell'appello gli studenti dovranno presentare una tesina scritta in risposta alle domande presenti nella piattaforma moodle, e presentarsi nell'orario indicato per l'appello.

The course will consist of lectures, viewing and commentary of audio-visual materials and group presentations of selected articles.

English

written

This subject deals with topics related to the macro-area "Poverty and inequalities" and contributes to the achievement of one or more goals of U. N. Agenda for Sustainable Development