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DRPS : Course Catalogue : School of Social and Political Science : Social Anthropology

Undergraduate Course: Anthropology of East Asia (SCAN10087)

Course Outline
SchoolSchool of Social and Political Science CollegeCollege of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
Credit level (Normal year taken)SCQF Level 10 (Year 3 Undergraduate) AvailabilityAvailable to all students
SCQF Credits20 ECTS Credits10
SummaryEast Asia, particularly China has undergone some of the most dramatic social cultural transformations over the past decades. This course explores how anthropological studies on East Asia may enhance our understanding of these transformations and their global implications.
Course description This course offers an overview of anthropological studies on East Asia, with a particular focus on China and its ever-growing significance in global politics. To this end, the course explores a wide range of thematic topics to critically assess the social and cultural transformations of East Asia.

The main objective of the course is to help students develop critical evaluation skills for analysing East Asia transformation in a global and transnational context. While this course is grounded in anthropology, it will also incorporate perspectives from sociology, history, geography, and political science. Students will engage with a range of textual and visual media in order to develop a deeper understanding of East Asia, through which they will be encouraged to reflect critically on their own impressions of, and/or encounters with the region.

Each week students will attend one lecture and one small group tutorial. Through lectures, students will be introduced the core topics through a combination of lecture, discussion, and class debate. Core topics will be further explored in relation to set readings via the small-group tutorials.
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
Pre-requisites Co-requisites
Prohibited Combinations Other requirements None
Information for Visiting Students
Pre-requisitesNone
High Demand Course? Yes
Course Delivery Information
Not being delivered
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
  1. Show broad understanding of the key debates, issues, and theories in anthropology of East Asia.
  2. Critically evaluate, from an anthropologically-informed perspective, East Asia's social-cultural transformations in a global and transnational context.
  3. Assess the merits and drawbacks of different analytical approaches to study East Asia.
  4. Develop skills in interpreting and critiquing textual and visual materials on East Asia covering a diverse range of styles and lengths.
Reading List
Fei, Xiaotong. 1992. From the Soil: The Foundations of Chinese Society. A translation of Fei Xiaotong's Xiangtu Zhongguo with an introduction and epilogue by Gary G. Hamilton and Wang Zheng. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Chu, Julie Y. 2010. Cosmologies of Credit: Transnational Mobility and the Politics of Destination in China. Durham: Duke University Press.
Anne, Allison. 2013. Precarious Japan. Durham: Duke University Press.

Stafford, Charles (ed). 2010. Ordinary Ethics in China. London: Bloomsbury.

Song, Jesook. 2009. South Koreans in the Debt Crisis: The Creation of a Neoliberal Welfare Society. Durham: Duke University Press.

Additional Information
Graduate Attributes and Skills Communication skills, independent research skills, evaluation and critical analysis.
KeywordsNot entered
Contacts
Course organiserDr Jiazhi Fengjiang
Tel:
Email: Jiazhi.Fengjiang@ed.ac.uk
Course secretaryMr Ewen Miller
Tel: (0131 6)50 3925
Email: Ewen.Miller@ed.ac.uk
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