This is an archived handbook for a previous year. The current undergraduate and postgraduate handbooks can be viewed using the links above.
Undergraduate Handbook 2025-2026 (archived)
Module ANTH2317: Power and Inequality
Department: Anthropology
ANTH2317: Power and Inequality
| Type | Level | Credits | Availability | Module Cap | Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Open | 2 | 10 | Available in 2025/2026 | None. | Durham |
Pre-requisites
- People and Cultures (ANTH1061) OR Being Human (ANTH1111)
Corequisites
- None.
Excluded Combinations
- 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
| Activity | Number | Frequency | Duration | Total Hours | Attendance Monitored |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lectures | 10 | Weekly | 1 hour | 10 | |
| Tutorials | 3 | Distributed across one term | 1 hour | 3 | Yes |
| Preparation and Reading | 87 | ||||
| Total | 100 | ||||
Summative Assessment
| Component | Component Weighting | Element | Length/Duration | Element Weighting | Resit Opportunity |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coursework | 100% | Written assignment | 2000 words | 100% |
Formative Assessment
500-word written assignment
Students who do not attend monitored activities shown under Teaching Methods
and Learning Hours, or who fail to complete the summative or formative
assessment(s) specified above, may be subject to the Academic Progress
procedures defined in the University's General Regulation V, and may be
required to leave the University.