Undergraduate Course: Consumption, Exchange, Technology (SCAN10031)
Course Outline
| School | School of Social and Political Science |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 3 Undergraduate) |
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 |
Indicative themes:
- Mine, Yours and Ours
- Work
- Things
- Platforms
- Class
- Value
- Marketing
- Brands
- Enterprise
Indicative readings:
Mauss, Marcel (1925) The Gift: The Form and Reason for Exchange in Archaic Societies. London: Routledge.
Miller, Daniel (1998) "Making Love in the Supermarket." In A Theory of Shopping. Cambridge: Polity.
Wilson, Samuel M. and Leighton C. Peterson (2002) "The Anthropology of Online Communities." Annual Review of Anthropology 31: 449-67.
Mellstrom, Ulf (2004) "Machines and masculine subjectivity: technology as an integral part of men's life experience", Men & Masculinities 6: 362-82.
Romain, Tiffany (2010) "Extreme Life Extension: Investing in Cryonics for the Long, Long Term." Medical Anthropology 29, 2: 194-215.
Copeman, Jacob (2005) "Veinglory: Exploring processes of blood transfer between persons." Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 11: 465-485.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
|
Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | Visiting students should have at least 3 Anthropology courses at grade B or above (or be predicted to obtain this). We will only consider University/College level courses. |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
|
| Academic year 2025/26, Available to all students (SV1)
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Quota: 80 |
| Course Start |
Semester 2 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Lecture Hours 20,
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 10,
Summative Assessment Hours 2,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
164 )
|
| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
|
| Additional Information (Assessment) |
Short Essay - 30% - 1500 words max
Long Essay - 70% - 3500 words max |
| Feedback |
Feedback on all assessed work shall normally be returned within three weeks of submission. Where this is not possible, students shall be given clear expectations regarding the timing and methods of feedback. |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Be able to demonstrate an understanding of classical and contemporary anthropological approaches to economic processes in a variety of economic contexts.
- Apply these approaches to different ethnographic case studies through written analysis
- Understand the political background, and in some cases, the political motivations or implications, of different analytical models and approaches in economic anthropology.
- Use the ethnographic and analytical tools of economic anthropology to critically engage contemporary economic strategies, policies, and processes.
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Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Not entered |
| Additional Class Delivery Information |
50 minutes per week for 9 week(s). |
| Keywords | Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Richard Baxstrom
Tel:
Email: Richard.Baxstrom@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Mrs Dani Langdridge
Tel:
Email: dani.langdridge@ed.ac.uk |
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