Il corso è diviso in due parti: la prima tratterà alcuni concetti antropologici di base necessari per la comprensione della diversità culturale, nonché delle dinamiche e dei caratteri dell’economia e della politica nelle società non-occidentali. La seconda parte presenterà un insieme di metodologie di ricerca e di strumenti tecnici atti a favorire la partecipazione, l’empowerment e l’affermazione di quelle forme di libertà sostanziale che sono state chiamate “capabilities”.
1) Wilk, Richard R. & Cligget, Lisa C., Economies and Cultures: Foundations of Economic Anthropology. Second Edition. Boulder: Westview Press, 2007, 236 pp.
2) Olivier de Sardan, Jean-Pierre, Anthropology and Development: Understanding Contemporary Social Change. London: Zed Books, 2005, 243 pp.
3) 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
Lezione frontale, per un totale di 48 ore
Modalità di verifica apprendimento
Students who have regularly attended classes will be tested on the contents of the course and on one of the three textbooks, chosen in agreement with the teacher. Non-attending students will be tested orally on textbook no. 1), plus one of their choice out of the other two. 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, and 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.