Il corso è diviso in due parti: la prima tratta alcuni concetti antropologici di base necessari per la comprensione della diversità culturale, nonché delle dinamiche dell’economia e della politica nelle società non-occidentali. La seconda parte presenta un insieme di strumenti tecnici atti a favorire la partecipazione e l’empowerment e discute alcuni aspetti chiave dell'intero sistema degli interventi di sviluppo alla luce della valutazione critica degli studi antropologici.
1) Wilk, Richard R. & Lisa C. Cligget, Economies and Cultures: Foundations of Economic Anthropology. Second Edition. Boulder: Westview Press, 2007, 236 pp.
2) Hann, Chris & Keith Hart, Economic Anthropology. History, Ethnography, Critique. Cambridge, UK, Polity Press, 2011, 206 pp.
3) Olivier de Sardan, Jean-Pierre, Anthropology and Development: Understanding Contemporary Social Change. London: Zed Books, 2005, 243 pp.
4) Crewe, Emma & Richard Axelby, Anthropology and Development. Culture, Morality and Politics in a Globalized World, Cambridge U. P., Cambridge, UK, 2013, 256 pp.
5) Chambers Robert, Whose Reality Counts? Putting the first last. Bourton on Dunsmore: Practical Action Publishing, 2009 [Intermediate Technology Publications, 1997], 297 pp.
Obiettivi Formativi
CONOSCENZE: The central purpose of this course is to provide students with an informed awareness of the anthropological dimensions involved in any kind of development action, at the macro or micro level.
COMPETENZE: Understanding the nature and causes of cultural differences is a central element in the professional competencies required to work at any level in the field of development and, more generally, of international economic relations as well as, more specifically, to conceive and implement a successful development intervention.
Capacità acquisite al termine del corso: At the end of the course, the student will be better equipped to act in the field of development and international economic relations as well as to work at specific development initiatives with the aim of creating and enhancing substantive capabilities through processes of participation and empowerment.
Prerequisiti
Requirements as those for the admission to the Master. In addition, a basic knowledge of anthropology, law and political science is useful, but by no means mandatory.
Metodi Didattici
Total 48 hours lecture, in 24 two-hour classes.
Modalità di verifica apprendimento
Students who have regularly attended classes will be tested on the contents of the course and on one of the five textbooks, chosen in agreement with the teacher. Regular attendance requires a minimum of 20 two-hour lectures out of 24. Non-attending students will be tested orally on one out of textbooks no. 1) and 2), plus one out of the other three. In either case, the choice must be made in agreement with the teacher. The final exam will be oral. Exceptionally, the student may opt for a written test, in agreement with the teacher.
Programma del corso
The course will be divided in two parts. The first one will deal with some key anthropological concepts involved in the understanding of cultural diversity and of the traits and dynamics of the economy and politics of non-Western societies, with special regard to local, small-scale societies and groups, drawing on the experience of ethnographic research. Starting with the concepts of culture and collective identity, it will then discuss the main issues raised in the study of economic and political anthropology, such as forms of production and circulation, reciprocity, redistribution, concepts of wealth and poverty, trade and markets, sources of political power, traditional political systems and their relations with contemporary administrative and political arrangements and processes.
The second part will present a set of different research methodologies and technical tools useful to enforce the participation, the empowerment and the capabilities of local communities. It will deal with some principles of participatory learning and analysis, with the problems involved in the transfer of technologies and capabilities, with the contrast between top-down and bottom-up approaches in development. It will further discuss the key aspects of the whole system of development action in the light of the critical appraisal of that branch of anthropology which is known as anthropology of development.