ANTHROPOLOGY OF DEVELOPMENT AND ENVIRONMENTAL CONFLICTS

The course is aimed at students pursuing a Master's degree in Cultural Anthropology, Ethnology and Ethnolinguistics or students from other disciplines, interested in the critical tools offered by the discipline and its application in relation to the study of the relationship between between "humans" and "nature", focussing on gender and race invention and as well on frictions between civil society, development projects and state. The general aim of the course is to provide students with the analytical tools necessary to approach the ethnographic analysis of contexts marked by environmental frictions and conflicts. The course involves didactic excursions in the lagoon aimed at learning how to do field work research.
The course proposes a reasoned bibliographical structure: it includes a general and monographic part centred on works by female scholars. The in-depth part, on the other hand, proposes heterogeneous readings aimed at tackling the contradictory theme of ‘development’ from perspectives that are not only European and Anglo-Saxon, with the aim of delocalising the sources of knowledge and learning.

1. Knowledge and understanding
Through the analysis of specific case studies, students will acquire the ability to analyse cases of environmental conflict from an ethnographic perspective.
2. Ability to apply knowledge and understanding
Acquisition of the basic tools for applying the ethnographic method to the observation of environmental development processes.
3. Ability to apply judgement
Critical analysis of various texts will sharpen the capacity for judgement in applied and environmental anthropology texts.
4. Communication skills
Through the seminar exercises carried out during the course, the student will deepen his or her expository skills.
5. Learning skills
Through the individual and group exposition exercises carried out during the course, the student will deepen his or her critical and research skills.

It is suggested that students attend the course after having passed and attended at least two of the core examinations of the ACEL degree course.

During the course, various case studies will be considered that will enable students to acquire the theoretical and methodological tools to analyse situations marked by environmental conflicts. After an introductory part, the course will focus on the alteration of the balance and of the coexistence between local communities and nature. The second monographic part will focus on the changing ecologies of the landscape of Venice and of the lagoon.

Parte generale
-Valentina Bonifacio, « Of Feral and Obedient Cows: Colonization as Domestication in the Paraguayan Chaco » , Cultural Anthropology, 2023.
- Rita Segato, La guerra contro le donne, Napoli, Tamu, 2016
-Marilyn Strathern, Before and After Gender. Sexual Mythologies of Everyday Life, Hau Books, 2016. chap. 1, 2, 3, 5 insieme a introduzione e postfazione.
-1 articolo a scelta tra questi tre A e B e C (disponibili in pdf):
A) Kyra Grieco, « Le « genre » du développement minier : maternalisme et extractivisme, entre complémentarité et contestation », Cahiers des Amériques latines [En ligne], 82, 2016.
B) Deborah Fahy Bryceson, Jesper Bosse Jønsson and Hannelore Verbrugge, « For Richer, for Poorer: Marriage and Casualized Sex in East African Artisanal Mining Settlements», Development and Change 45(1), 2014 pp. 79–104.
C) Marco Simonelli, Elena Zapponi, «Politiche vaccinali cubane e scommesse sulla sovranità. Risposte al virus, politicizzazione della salute globale e mutamenti accelerati», in AM. Rivista della Società Italiana di Antropologia Medica, n. 55, pp. 187-213.

Parte monografica
-Cristina Baldacci, Shaul Bassi, Lucio de Capitani, Pietro Omodeo, Venezia e l’antropocene, Wetlands, 2022, Sezione sull'acqua
-Rita Vianello, La macchina-MOSE. Un approccio antropologico allo studio del progetto per la salvaguardia dalle inondazioni nella laguna di Venezia , Arcipelago delle maree. Esplorare gli incerti confini della Venezia anfibia, Venezia, Editrice Cafoscarina, 2023, vol. 1, pp. 132-165.
- Elena Zapponi, «Eravamo contadine noi, ma tanto! Però davamo da mangiare a “loro”». Donne, lavoro e immagini di Venezia vista dalla Laguna, in L'Uomo, in press.
-Gilda Zazzara, Il «secondo tempo» di Porto Marghera: deindustrializzazione e memoria operaia, in Luca Zan, Franco Mancuso, Luca Menichelli (a cura di), Venezia tra storia, sviluppo e sostenibilità, il Mulino, Bologna, 2024, pp. 251-260.


1 testo di approfondimento a scelta tra i seguenti:
-Bruce Albert, Davi Kopenawa, Lo spirito della foresta, Nottetempo, Milano, 2023. Cap. 1, 2, 3, 11, 16.
-Miguel Barnet, Cimarrón. Biografia di uno schiavo fuggiasco, a cura di Elena Zapponi. Presentazione di Italo Calvino, Quodlibet Storie, 2024.

-Eduard Glissant, Poetica della Relazione, Poetica III Macerata, Quodlibet, 2007.
-Donna Haraway, Chthulucene. Sopravvivere su un pianeta infetto, Roma, Nero, 2023. Cap. 2 Il pensiero tentacolare; cap. 3 Simpoiesi.
- bell hooks, Sguardi neri. Nerezza e rappresentazione, Milano, Meltemi, 2024.
-Achille Mbembe, Necropolitica, Verona, Ombre Corte, 2011.
-Annabella Rossi, Lettera da una tarantata, Bari, De Donato, 1970.
-Tim Ingold, The Perception of the Environment. Essays in livelihood, dwelling and skill, London New York, Routledge, 2000 o in italiano, Tim Ingold, Ecologia della cultura, Milano, Meltemi, 2016, Capitolo 2, pp. 49-79; Capitolo 4 pp. 111-139; cap. 6 pp. 189-218.

The final examination consists of an oral test, during which the exercises carried out in class will be taken into account for the students* attending the course and during fieldwork experience. For non-attending students, the programme is the same.

The examination grade will be established during an oral examination.
The exam grade will be determined through an oral examination.
Assessment will be based on the level of knowledge and understanding of the exam material, as well as analytical skills and the ability to personally elaborate on the content.

More specifically:
A sufficient performance (18–22/30) demonstrates the student’s ability to reflect on the entire exam syllabus.
A good performance (22–26/30) demonstrates the student’s ability to analytically elaborate on the course content.
An excellent performance (27–30/30) demonstrates critical thinking on environmental conflicts and the ability to connect different topics from the syllabus.
A distinction (30/30 cum laude) is awarded to students who demonstrate in-depth understanding, critical analysis, and autonomous, cross-cutting connections between the required readings.

The course will consist of lectures, vision and commentary of audio-visual materials and group exercises on selected articles and topics. If possible, educational trips to museum spaces and field research workshops in the Lagoon will be organised. During the course in-depth texts will be uploaded in MOODLE