This module is not currently running in 2022 to 2023.
Starting in the 1930s, Urban Anthropology has been one of the main sub-fields of Social Anthropology, but it is also an area where our discipline has engaged very intensely in interdisciplinary relations. After the 1950s the world changed globally, with an ever-increasing percentage of the world's population living in urban contexts. As a result, the relevance of urban and modern modes of living became central for anthropological research. Ethnographic methodology too had to be adapted as a consequence with an increased attention to matters of bureaucracy and technology. Today, in a world where global mobility is intense and consumerism dominates, it can be argued that even rural populations live in a periurban condition. Traditionally, urban anthropology dealt centrally with problems of marginality and deviance, but now increasingly the focus is on the interaction between urban planning and the politics of everyday living. Most of our students are likely to go on to do academic research in areas of applied research in urban settings. Therefore, it is especially important that they should be introduced to the problems that urban anthropology raises.
The module will be taught by lectures, seminars and private study (including fieldwork).
Total Contact Hours: 22
Private Study Hours: 128
BA Social Anthropology and cognate courses.
Also available as an elective module
The module is examined by 100% Coursework, consisting of
• Fieldwork Project Abstract (10%) – Student's will be required to present, either a 500 word written submission or a 10 minute presentation on their initial fieldwork plan identifying their chosen area, points of observation as well as dialogue with the methodological readings that they will have been given.
• Critical Book Review 1000 words (20%) on theoretical text
• 3000 word Fieldwork Project Report based on fieldwork activities (70%)
Reassessment instrument: 100% coursework
Hannerz, Ulf. 1980. Exploring the City: Inquiries towards an urban anthropology. NY: Columbia U.P.
Nas, Peter. 2015. "Urban Anthropology" in International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences (2nd ed.). NY: Elsevier, pp. 774-782.
Katz, Jack. 2010. “Time for new urban ethnographies”. Ethnography 11 (19): 25-44.
Whyte, William F. 1993 [1943]. Street Corner Society: the social structure of an Italian slum. Chicago. University of Chicago Press.
Mitchell, J. Clyde. 1956. The Kalela Dance. Manchester: University Press.
On successfully completing the module students will be able to:
1. Demonstrate critical understanding of the history of urban studies in anthropology and the principal interdisciplinary relations it has involved.
2. Demonstrate critical understanding of the methodologies and techniques used to explore the ethical, empirical and analytical challenges involved in fieldwork.
3. Critically evaluate the central concerns raised by urban living in anthropology in terms of marginality and deviance.
4. Demonstrate critical understanding of the central analytical responses that anthropology has provided to the constitution of urban space and its political and social relevance
5. Critically engage with contemporary environmental debates concerning urban ecology (namely in terms of human-animal and human-plant interaction)
6. Critically evaluate conceptual insights and academic theories that explain urban living
7. Critically evaluate the central challenges that are placed globally by the rapid spreading of forms of very dense urban conurbation
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