Module ANTH2317: Power and Inequality

Department: Anthropology

ANTH2317: Power and Inequality

Prerequisites

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

Corequisites

• None.

Excluded Combination 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

Summative Assessment

Formative Assessment:

500-word written assignment

■ Attendance at all activities marked with this symbol will be monitored. Students who fail to attend these activities, or to complete the summative or formative assessment specified above, will be subject to the procedures defined in the University's General Regulation V, and may be required to leave the University