AN336      Half Unit
The Anthropology of Development

This information is for the 2025/26 session.

Course Convenor

Dr Agathe Faure

Availability

This course is available on the BA in Anthropology and Law, BA in Social Anthropology, BSc in Social Anthropology, Erasmus Reciprocal Programme of Study, Exchange Programme for Students from University of California, Berkeley, Exchange Programme for Students in Anthropology (Cape Town), Exchange Programme for Students in Anthropology (Fudan) and Exchange Programme for Students in Anthropology (Tokyo). This course is freely available as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit. It does not require permission. This course is freely available to General Course students. It does not require permission.

Requisites

Mutually exclusive courses:

This course cannot be taken with AN237 at any time on the same degree programme.

Course content

This course explores how anthropologists have evaluated, criticised and contributed to development. Focussing on both 'Big D' development (schemes of improvement or projects) and 'little d' development (change which occurs as the result of economic growth or capitalist expansion) the course shows how anthropological insights have been used to change practices from within as well as critique development from the outside. From anthropological work which seeks pragmatic engagement to that which deconstructs development as an oppressive and power laden discourse, the course aims to give students a broad background to the field. Topics covered include the role of the state; local politics and power relations; gender and empowerment; development as discourse and 'aidnography'; neoliberalism and global capital; corporate social responsibility; markets and micro credit; and the relationship between 'tradition' and ‘modernity’. Throughout, the course will draw upon a broad range of ethnographic examples.

Teaching

10 hours of lectures and 10 hours of classes in the Autumn Term.

This course has a reading week in Week 6 of Autumn Term.

The contact hours listed above are the minimum expected.

 

Formative assessment

Essay (1500 words)

Students will have the opportunity to submit one formative essay of up to 1500 words during the course.

Students will be informed of their formative submission deadline by email by the end of Week 3 of term.

 

Indicative reading

Gardner and Lewis 2015, Anthropology and Development: Twenty First Century Challenges;

Ferguson, J. 1990 The Anti-Politics Machine: Development, Depoliticisation and Bureaucratic Power in Lesotho;

Cambridge University Press; Li, T, 2014 Land's End: Capitalist Relations on an Indigenous Frontier;

Karim, L., 2011 Micro-Finance and its Discontents: Women and Debt in Bangladesh; Elyachar, J. 2005;

Markets of Dispossession: NGOs, the Market and the State in Cairo; 

Scherz, C. 2014. Having People, Having Heart: Charity, Sustainable Development, and Problems of Dependence in Central Uganda; Scott; J. 1998, Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition have Failed.

Detailed reading lists are provided at the beginning of the course.

Assessment

Essay (100%, 3000 words) in Winter Term Week 1


Key facts

Department: Anthropology

Course Study Period: Autumn Term

Unit value: Half unit

FHEQ Level: Level 6

CEFR Level: Null

Total students 2024/25: Unavailable

Average class size 2024/25: Unavailable

Capped 2024/25: No
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