K.U.Leuven - Onderwijsaanbod - Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Development and Cultures

B-KUL-S0E06A Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Development and Cultures

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General information

Academic year: 2011-2012
Study points: 4
Language: English
Difficulty: Introductory
Duration: 26.0 hours
Periodicity: Taught this academic year in the first semester
POC: POC Antropologie

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Taught by

Cassiman Ann

Aims

General Objective: This inter-faculty course seeks to address the multifarious problematic of development and cultures in view of
innovative theoretical and practical perspectives. In each session two guest
lecturers will demonstrate two divergent, if not opposing, inter-disciplinary
viewpoints on urgent problems of development. In so far as possible, the topics will be considered also from the viewpoints of other cultures, their endogenous knowledge systems and plural ethical orientations.
The debate series has a general theme that differs every academic year. The theme for the academic year 2011-2012 is "Cities in Development".
The course is not taught in the academic year 2012-2013.

Previous knowledge

Master and doctoral students of K.U.Leuven can register once for this course as part of their ISP.

Content

The general objective of the course is to raise critical and interdisciplinary reflections on essential and pressing problems concerning development (cooperation) and North-South relations.



The 2011-2012 debates series seeks
to offer an interdisciplinary reflection on the development of cities in the
Global South, and the different dynamics that shape these urban sites today.
Renowned architects, urban planners, anthropologists, geographers, activists,
artists, sociologists and engineers will share with us their alternative
readings of these specific urban spaces. The lectures will acknowledge both the
tensions and conflicts at work in such sites, as well as the opportunities that
are generated thanks to or in spite of them. Finally, the debates will also pay
a great deal of attention to the specific ways in which city dwellers’ ‘agency’ is enabled or
disabled by such urban environments.

This course is included in

Course Material

Articles and literature
Multimedia

Activities

B-KUL-S0E06a Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Development and Cultures

General information

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

Taught by

Cassiman Ann

Aims

General Objective: This inter-faculty course seeks to address the multifarious problematic of development and cultures in view of
innovative theoretical and practical perspectives. In each session two guest
lecturers will demonstrate two divergent, if not opposing, inter-disciplinary
viewpoints on urgent problems of development. In so far as possible, the topics will be considered also from the viewpoints of other cultures, their endogenous knowledge systems and plural ethical orientations.
The debate series has a general theme that differs every academic year.
The theme of the academic year 2011-2012 is "Cities in Development".
This course is not taught in academic year 2012-2013.

Content

The general objective of the course is to raise critical and interdisciplinary reflections on essential and pressing problems concerning
development (cooperation) and North-South relations.

Course Material

Course information and documents (powerpoints, outlines of lectures) on www.cades.be/debates. Calendar with agenda on Toledo
CV’s and texts by guest professors on www.cades.be/debates

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

B-KUL-S2E06a Evaluation: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Development and Cultures

Evaluation description

Examination type:
    oral with written preparation
    written
When?: evaluation outside normal examination period
Evaluation type:
    Paper
    Presentation

Explanation

Attendance and active participation are a requirement.

Students can choose between an oral presentation during one of the Research Seminars on Wednesdays (students will be selected on the basis of an abstract) or a written paper on a topic related to one of the debates.

The exam presentation will be commented on by one of the debates’ speakers who will act as a discussant. Written papers will be corrected by the Academic coordinators of the series.

On 28 September 2011 students will be invited for an information session on the examination with detailed information regarding different themes, presentation and paper.

Assessment

1. Contents of the presentation/paper
Students are expected to present a topic of his/her own choice. The
topic has to be related to the issues presented during one of the
debates (see debate texts, reading lists or background literature on the
website).
Students are expected to demonstrate that they are capable of developing
their own research topic and analyse and reflect on the issues dealt with in a personal and creative way.
Important, however, is that you present and articulate a research
question, and that you defend and argue 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/anthropology and cities in development, and link it to the discussed theories and perspectives. The student is expected to be able to select, use and present secondary (academic and possibly other) literature which relates to the texts and issues discussed during the debates.
Before you actually start writing or preparing, please consult the
academic coordinators concerning your title/ topic/ idea/ abstract.

2. Formal requirements for individual exams
A paper should be about 15 pages, or between 5000 and 6000 words (excluding references).
The topic should be closely related to the issues presented throughout the course (see syllabus). Students are expected to demonstrate that they are capable of personally and critically reflecting on one or more of the issues dealt with throughout the course in a creative way. The writing style should
be like a standard academic 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). References should include both materials used in the seminar and additional ones selected by the student.
Review papers and mere summaries of other texts are not accepted. Rather, the paper should articulate a clear research question or problem (related to and embedded within cultural anthropology and development studies) and build up a structured argument, leading to a conclusion.

This written assignment will be evaluated for content, quality of writing, and format.

Those opting (and selected) for the research seminar are not required to submit a paper.


Deadline

Students who choose to present during one of the Research Seminars must submit an abstract through e-mail to Dominique.Joos@soc.kuleuven.be two weeks prior to the seminar.

Students who choose to write a paper or are not selected for the presentation must submit the title, topic and preliminary
abstract of their paper through e-mail to Dominique.Joos@soc.kuleuven.be before 25 November 2011.

All papers have to be submitted no later than 16 January2012!!

Papers submitted after this date will be considered in the September exam period.
Papers need to be printed and have to be deposited in the mailbox at the
Anthropology secretary’s office (room SW B04.52) or the mailbox at the ASRO secretary’s office (room 00.21, Arenbergkasteel, Molen).

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B-KUL-S0E06A Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Development and Cultures

General information

Taught by

Aims

Previous knowledge

Content

This course is included in

Course Material

Activities

General information

Taught by

Aims

Content

Course Material

Course activities

Evaluation

Evaluation description

Explanation