General information

• Study points: 4.00
• Language: English
• Category: Lectures
• Duration: 26.0 hours 
• Periodicity: Taught in the first semester
• POC: POC Antropologie

Taught by

Cassiman Ann
De Boeck Filip

Aims

• Students familiarize themselves with recent developments in anthropological studies on ecology and development
  
• Students acquire knowledge of anthropological theories on food &
  hunger, culture & technology, habitat & environment, the
  anthropology of natural resource management and conservation policies,
  and anthropological studies on tourism and ecotourism.
  
• Students are capable of critically reading texts and understanding
  cases -and distilling a variety of arguments- concerning different
  cultural interpretations of food, habitat, tourism, natural resource
  management.
  
• Students are capable of situating the anthropological insights on ecology and development in a wider context of development theories and pressing ecological problems.

Content

This course explores theoretical and methodological issues in the study of culture and social activity in relation to ecological systems and the environment. Readings include both classic studies as well as
contemporary research, with particular emphasis placed on the various
dimensions and scales of social organisation and activity, and on the role of
cultural, religious and political institutions in shaping ecological
relationships as well as economic behaviour.
 

Course Material

Course Reader: to be purchased from Alpha Copy, Tiensestraat 89, Leuven
Course information and documents (powerpoints, outlines of lectures) on Toledo
Calendar with agenda on Toledo
CV’s and texts by guest professors on Toledo
 
 

Course activities

• Students follow the lectures and actively participate in discussions, question rounds and debates during classes
  
  
• Students prepare assignments: the critical reading of texts in preparation of lectures, distilling arguments from the texts to use during discussions in class.
  
  
• Students critically reflect on a cutting-edge issue in the field where anthropology, ecology and development overlap.

Evaluation description

Examination type:
    written
When?: continuous evaluation
Evaluation type:
    Paper

Explanation

Attendance of the lectures and participation are a requirement.
The exam consists of the writing of a paper 

1. Contents of the paper
The student is expected to present a topic of his/her own choice. The topic has to be related to the issues presented throughout the course (see lectures, lecture notes, reading lists or reader). Students are expected to demonstrate that they are capable of developing and reflecting on the issues dealt with throughout the course in a personal and creative way.
Important, however, is that you present and articulate a research question, and that you defend and argument your findings, in clear
wording. This implies that you clearly describe the theme and a research
question, discuss the relevance of the research question for the field of
culture, ecology and development, and link it to the discussed theories and
perspectives. The student is expected to be able to select, use and present texts from the reader and secondary literature which relates to the texts discussed in class.
 
2. Formal requirements for papers
A paper should be about 15 (max. 20) pages, or between
5000 and 6000 words. It should be written as if it concerns a journal article.
It therefore consists of a title, abstract and keywords; an introduction,
middle part and conclusions; footnotes; reference list and
is structured around one’s own selection of reading material (articles,
chapters from books, monographs, the texts from the course reader). The paper should consist of a personal and creative reflection upon one or more of the themes discussed in class. It is an essay rather than the summary of texts.