RDS-32306 Anthropology and Rural Development

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Studiepunten 6.00

Language of instruction:

English

Assumed knowledge on:

Bsc Rural Development, Sociology, Anthropology or any other international student with BSc or Appplied Social Science background, BSc-C Rural Development Sociology, applied Social Sciences or equivalent courses

Continuation courses:

Mayor Thesis, MID, minor

Contents:

This course will examine the relationship between anthropology and rural development. Texts by British and Dutch anthropologists (Leach, Gluckman, and Wertheim) will enable us to focus on the importance of culture, politics, and social factors in processes of rural change. How these authors' have addressed the complex dimensions of rural-social change has contributed significantly to our present understandings of rural conflict and value contestations. These seminal anthropological contributions will orient students towards an understanding of the empirical dimensions of reality, including analysis of how different anthropologists have engaged with larger theorizing traditions, such as political economy, systems analysis, and structuralism.
The intellectual crossroads for much innovative work on rural society - from studies of the peasantry to agro-food studies - has been the question of how to encompass the 'beguiling faces of modernity', especially when ideas of modernity, gifts and commodities are internalised by local actors, and re-appear in the assumptions that guide local practices, expectations, and even conversation with researchers, as well as in the character of local livelihoods. This implies that anthropological studies need to draw on an understanding of peoples' local knowledge and livelihood practices e.g. about the environment, economic and political justice, markets, community and state, household assets and family life, agricultural and consumption practices, and violence and customary law.
The course will use a diverse pool of anthropological studies but, because any enquiry into rural life needs to be situated within contemporary anthropological thinking, the Actor Oriented Approach developed at Wageningen University will be prioritised. Generated on the fringes of development studies, applied anthropology, and policy debates, this approach still constitutes one of the best anthropological contributions for understanding local organisation and the ordering of local livelihoods.

Aims:

- to explore the relationship between anthropological theories and rural development studies;
- to consider how the Actor Oriented Approach engages with broader cultural and social understandings of rural development;
- to enable students to analyse contemporary rural development processes from an anthropological perspective.

Activities:

The course duration is six weeks. Lectures are 3 x 1 hour per week followed by 2 x 2-hour tutorial sessions. The students will present and discuss the course literature and be encouraged to actively participate in the debates. Before the tutorial sessions students will provide a short summary with questions and 'new' propositions based on the literature they have reviewed. Where possible guest speakers and video materials will be used to stimulate student learning and analytical capacities.
In addition students will be required to organise themselves into working groups and participate in a problem-oriented workshop activity. Their assignment will be to select, discuss and analyse a case on rural transformation. Students will be encouraged to use anthropological concepts to investigate issues in rural development. For the purposes of organising the activities of the workshops, students will be provided with problem-oriented file-topics. To assess this activity, students will have to present a group report (20/25 pages) and organise a presentation during the last week of the course. Members of the RDS group will support this activity.

Examination:

Three-hour examination and group report.

Literature:

A reader with the compulsory bibliography will be prepared and provided to the students before the start of the course. A file with topics and relevant bibliography will be made available to guide and facilitate students' work. An optional reading list on the main theoretical and practical issues will be compiled for students' future reference.