Postgraduate Course: Consumption, Exchange, Technology: The Anthropology of Economic Processes (PGSP11176)
Course Outline
| School | School of Social and Political Science |
College | College of Humanities and Social Science |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | The course discusses how goods are produced, circulated and consumed, and how these three fundamental processes of social life and reproduction are mediated by technology. Classically, economic anthropologists focused on how such activities were organised in small-scale societies or in colonial territories; often production and exchange, with their associated technologies, were highlighted while consumption received less attention. Today the impact of globalisation, the rise of the digital society, and the overflowing material abundance that characterises life in the advanced economies and aspirations elsewhere, have led many social theorists to focus on consumption and communication as the key factors determining how people experience power, identity, connections and conflicts. We study a range of case studies and theoretical essays, evaluating the strengths, weaknesses and applicability of different approaches. |
| Course description |
Outline content:
1. Introduction
A brief history of economic anthropology and its evolving concerns up to the present.
2: Money/Value
In this class we discuss money and other currencies; who or what is considered valuable in different contexts; how have anthropologists dealt with different uses and varieties of money in different parts of the world?
3: Gifts
We consider the anthropological fascination with gift-giving and changing approaches to it. What is the relation of gift-giving to commodity exchange, and is gift-giving really socially integrating?
4: Consumption
In which we consider the social consequences of consuming and the social contexts in which things get consumed, and in particular the effects of consumption on identity - whether of groups or persons. Are modern consumption practices based on crass materialism, or is something more complex going on?
5: The Corporation & Finance
The issue of the corporation has assumed particular importance since the global financial crisis that began in 2008, with bankers' bonuses perennially in the news, and accusations of corruption levelled at corporate bosses. But what is a corporation - legally, socially and ideologically? How have anthropologists tackled the nature of modern business, greed and the legal implications of 'corporate personhood'? This lecture also explores the burgeoning field of the anthropology of finance.
6: Kinship Economies
In which we consider: the problem of domaining; kinship as exchange; kinship in the economy; ambivalent kinship: theft, ingratitude, and commoditised intimacy
7: Global Capitalism
In which we discuss globalisation (is it something new?), supposed 'deterritorialisation' (the weakening of ties between culture and place), and the norms and forms of the contemporary global economy.
8: Technology
Technology has served as both a catalyst and a measure of progress in the modern world. This week we look at some anthropological perspectives on the compulsion of technology and its social or cultural impacts, considering ways in which technology has been bracketed off from society, and also subjective experiences of technology, and how to understand these socially.
9: Digital Technology
How have anthropologists studied the Internet? In particular we look at the methodological challenge of studying online communities given that for anthropologists face-to-face interactions have traditionally assumed such importance, and consider case-studies of online nationalism, religion and exchange.
10: Body Economies
This week we consider how anthropological theories of commodity and gift exchange can illuminate the ethical challenges raised by organ transplants, the commodification of death, etc.
Student Learning Experience:
The course involves one two-hour lecture a week for the whole class, together with small group support teaching in a separate one-hour tutorial session.
The 'small group' support teaching (tutorials) will normally be concerned with one or more readings that illustrate, underpin or extend issues raised in the main sessions. Students should note that participation in the small group support teaching sessions is compulsory.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2017/18, Available to all students (SV1)
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Quota: 15 |
| Course Start |
Semester 2 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 20,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
176 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
This course will be assessed by a long essay (word-limit: 4,000) |
| Feedback |
Essay questions are set by the course organiser, or you can design one yourself in consultation with the course organiser.
Formative assessment: the course organiser will give feedback on tutorial presentations so you can learn what is expected. You may also submit an essay plan for comment. |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- show a general understanding of classical and contemporary anthropological approaches to economic processes in non-industrialised, industrialised and post-industrial contexts
- Utilise critical analysis and discussion of case studies and theoretical essays to build anthropological skills in evaluating the strengths, weaknesses and applicability of different approaches.
- show an enriched understanding of the evolution of the study of economic categories through appreciating the ways in which they have been subjected to scholarly analysis for the past 25-30 years.
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Reading List
Check course handbook for current reading lists.
- Mauss, Marcel (1925/1990) The Gift: The Form and Reason for Exchange in Archaic Societies. London: Routledge.
- Carrier, James G. (ed) (2005) A Handbook of Economic Anthropology. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing.
- Zelizer, Viviana (2010) Economic Lives: How Culture Shapes the Economy. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
- Miller, Daniel (1987) Material Culture and Mass Consumption. Oxford: Blackwell.
- Graeber, David (2001) Toward an Anthropological Theory of Value: The False Coin of Our Own Dreams. New York: Palgrave.
- Graeber, David (2010) Debt: The First 5,000 Years. Melville House.
- Parry, Jonathan and Maurice Bloch (eds.) (1989) Money and the Morality of Exchange. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Appadurai, Arjun (ed) (1986) The social life of things: commodities in cultural perspective, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
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Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Not entered |
| Keywords | Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Stefan Ecks
Tel: (0131 6)50 6969
Email: Stefan.Ecks@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Miss Morag Wilson
Tel: (0131 6)51 5122
Email: morag.wilson@ed.ac.uk |
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