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ANTH2317: Power and Inequality

Please ensure you check the module availability box for each module outline, as not all modules will run in each academic year. Each module description relates to the year indicated in the module availability box, and this may change from year to year, due to, for example: changing staff expertise, disciplinary developments, the requirements of external bodies and partners, and student feedback. Current modules are subject to change in light of the ongoing disruption caused by Covid-19.

Type Open
Level 2
Credits 10
Availability Available in 2024/2025
Module Cap None.
Location Durham
Department Anthropology

Prerequisites

  • People and Cultures (ANTH1061) OR Being Human (ANTH1111)

Corequisites

  • None.

Excluded Combinations of Modules

  • None.

Aims

  • To develop students knowledge and ability to think critically about themes in the anthropology of politics, power, and inequality
  • To explore the role of anthropology in theorising the diverse forms of political organisation, power, and inequality across cultures and societies
  • To equip students with competencies to apply and extend their knowledge of political anthropology to other fields of anthropological inquiry

Content

  • Topics may vary but will include, inter alia: state and quasi-state formations in the contemporary world; varieties of nationalism; sovereignty and governance; human rights, torture, and violence; counterinsurgency and surveillance; resistance and indigenous politics

Learning Outcomes

Subject-specific Knowledge:

  • Understand the nature and role of power and inequality in human social and cultural life
  • Understand the diverse forms of political organisation, structure, and agency and how they manifest in social and cultural practice
  • Understand the interconnections between political anthropology and other fields of social anthropological inquiry

Subject-specific Skills:

  • Familiarity with the concepts and methods of socio-cultural anthropological analysis as applied to politics, power, and inequality
  • Familiarity with, and ability to access, sources of anthropological knowledge on politics, power, and inequality
  • Ability to analyse critically and evaluate literature and arguments in political anthropology
  • Discern and establish connections between ethnographic data and theoretical arguments in economic anthropology

Key Skills:

  • Library research
  • Debating skills
  • Note taking
  • Essay writing
  • Critical reading and analysis

Modes of Teaching, Learning and Assessment and how these contribute to the learning outcomes of the module

  • Lectures and seminars introduce students to the material and enable discussion of it, informed by wider reading
  • Seminars allow students to explore and discuss material from the lectures and readings in depth with their tutors and peers
  • Formative assessment is by one 500 word written assignment
  • Summative assessment is by one 2000 word essay

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

ActivityNumberFrequencyDurationTotalMonitored
Lectures10Weekly1 hour10 
Tutorials3Distributed across one term1 hour3Yes
Preparation and Reading87 
Total100 

Summative Assessment

Component: CourseworkComponent Weighting: 100%
ElementLength / DurationElement WeightingResit Opportunity
Written assignment2000 words100yes

Formative Assessment

500-word written assignment

More information

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