Key facts
Details for course being taught in current academic year
Level 3 - 36 credits - spring and summer terms
Resources
course handbook 2008-09
dissertation guidelines
Course description
Course outline
The course addresses a range of debates in the ‘anthropology of development’. It takes as its starting point the history of anthropology’s interaction with colonial and post colonial development organisations. It then considers analyses that claim anthropologists’ involvement with development is ethically problematic, and moves on to compare these with accounts which critique the development process itself. Theoretical debates concerning power, representation and knowledge are explored through examination of anthropological insights on a variety of areas of development intervention. These include poverty alleviation, environmental management, medicine and healthcare, crisis and conflict situations, gender relations, and the relationship between aid and good governance.
Learning outcomes
At the end of the course, students will have:
1. Acquired an understanding of both the historical relationship between anthropology and development and the critical perspectives on this relationship;
2. Situated specific instances of development intervention within broader debates, reviewing theoretical, methodological, ethical and political problems;
3. Undertaken supervised research on one particular aspect of the course
4. Developed skills of textual analysis and critique
5. Developed skills of group work and presentation
Assessments
| Type | Timing | Weighting |
|---|---|---|
| Dissertation (8000 words) | Summer Term Week 5 Mon 16:00 | 100.00% |
Timing
Submission deadlines may vary for different types of assignment/groups of students.
Weighting
Coursework components (if listed) total 100% of the overall coursework weighting value.
Teaching methods
| Term | Method | Duration | Week pattern |
|---|---|---|---|
| Spring Term | SEMINAR | 3 hours | 1111111111 |
How to read the week pattern
The numbers indicate the weeks of the term and how many events take place each week.
Contact details
Dr Filippo Osella
Assess convenor
http://www.sussex.ac.uk/migration/profile102434.html
Dr Elizabeth Harrison
Convenor
http://www.sussex.ac.uk/development/profile1158.html