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2020/2021

Field Studies in Social and Cultural Anthropology II

Code: 101262 ECTS Credits: 6
Degree Type Year Semester
2500256 Social and Cultural Anthropology OB 3 2
The proposed teaching and assessment methodology that appear in the guide may be subject to changes as a result of the restrictions to face-to-face class attendance imposed by the health authorities.

Contact

Name:
Silvia Graciela Álvarez Litben
Email:
Silvia.Alvarez@uab.cat

Use of Languages

Principal working language:
spanish (spa)
Some groups entirely in English:
No
Some groups entirely in Catalan:
Yes
Some groups entirely in Spanish:
Yes

Teachers

Silvia Graciela Álvarez Litben
Clara Rubio Ros
Paula Escribano Castaño
Isidoro Ruíz Haro

Prerequisites

Field practices in social and cultural anthropology II

In accordance with the 2009 Curriculum, approved by the Ministry, students must take the following subjects in the established order: Second year, first semester, Field Practices in Social and Cultural Anthropology I; second semester, Epistemology and Methods of Research in Social and Cultural Anthropology; third year, first semester, Research Techniques in Social and Cultural Anthropology; second semester, Field Practices in Social and Cultural Anthropology II.

Objectives and Contextualisation

Objectives

The subject Field Practices in Social and Cultural Anthropology II - hereinafter Field II -, is the fourth of a four-itinerary that is developed throughout two years of studies - second and third years of the Bachelor. This itinerary ends with the Final Project (TFG), in the fourth year.

The objectives of the course are:

- Acquire and complete, through the continuation of a prospective fieldwork initiated in Field I, a direct knowledge of the advantages, potentialities, limitations and risks of classical fieldwork in ethnography.

- Learn how to design tools for collecting information and the use of the various techniques that must be applied and which constitute field work.

 - To collect through these techniques the information necessary for the testing of a hypothesis developed methodologically and technically throughout the sequence. This information will be analyzed in the Final Project.

Competences

  • Producing cultural diversity materials that could have a critical impact on the common sense conceptions.
  • Students must be capable of collecting and interpreting relevant data (usually within their area of study) in order to make statements that reflect social, scientific or ethical relevant issues.
  • Students must be capable of communicating information, ideas, problems and solutions to both specialised and non-specialised audiences.
  • Students must develop the necessary learning skills to undertake further training with a high degree of autonomy.
  • Using the procedures, techniques and instrumental resources to the fulfilment of ethnographic fieldwork.

Learning Outcomes

  1. Ability to maintain an appropriate conversation.
  2. Adopting a holistic perspective to the research problem's statement and analysing human institutions within wider cultural configurations.
  3. Analysing a contemporary fact from an anthropological perspective.
  4. Analysing data critically from anthropological investigations and reports.
  5. Applying the current ethical codes to the ethnographic fieldwork.
  6. Carrying out an individual work that specifies the work plan and timing of activities.
  7. Establishing reliable ethnological relationships with subjects that encourage the production and trustworthiness of data.
  8. Explaining the work's results narratively in accordance with the critical standards of discipline and bearing in mind the different target audiences.
  9. Obtaining and recording ethnographic data by applying the different collection and analysis techniques, specially by using qualitative procedures and the practice of the participant observation.
  10. Operationalizing theoretical concepts and testing explanations of the sociocultural phenomena.
  11. Selecting the appropriate techniques for each research design.
  12. Solving problems autonomously.
  13. Using suitable terminology when drawing up an academic text.

Content

Contents

The objectives of the course will be gradually achieved with the successive elaboration of the data collection tools of each technique used, following the technical design of the research, and the application of these. In the end, you will have a clear awareness of what has been done, to a large extent, thanks to the reflection work that is required to evaluate the subject.

The following aspects will be worked:

1. Participant observation (access, ethnological relation, ethical and methodological issues)

2. Elaboration of the field diary.

3. Preparation of the instruments for collecting data from the operationalization carried out and the review of them (several versions).

4. Application of techniques and critical analysis of the application itself and the results obtained.

5. Articulation of the techniques and joint assessment of the information obtained.

 6. First systematization of the collected information.

Methodology

Methodology

This subject is evaluated continuously and with the permanent supervision of the teaching staff.

Students must have solved all the field tasks planned for the course development, to be entitled to present the final work and to be evaluated.

Activities

Title Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Type: Directed      
Type: Directed 0 0
Type: Supervised      
Type: Supervised 50 2 3, 2, 6, 7, 13, 10, 11
Type: Autonomous      
Type: Autonomous 100 4 5, 7, 8, 1, 9, 12

Assessment

 
This subject is evaluated continuously and with the permanent supervision of the teaching staff during the mandatory face-to-face tutorials (6). The lack of three of these tutorials will be considered "not evaluable". The tutorials cannot be recoverable. Mandatory supervision sessions (20%) work process will be evaluated with the delivery of all the results demanded in the 6 tutorials (50%) and the final report (30%): Total 100%.

In the event of a student committing any irregularity that may lead to a significant variation in the grade awarded to an assessment activity, the student will be given a zero for this activity, regardless of any disciplinary process that may take place. In the event of several irregularities in assessment activities of the same subject, the student will be given a zero as the final grade for this subject.

In the event that tests or exams cannot be taken onsite, they will be adapted to an online format made available through the UAB’s virtual tools (original weighting will be maintained). Homework, activities and class participation will be carried out through forums, wikis and/or discussion on Teams, etc. Lecturers will ensure that students are able to access these virtual tools, or will offer them feasible alternatives.
 

Assessment Activities

Title Weighting Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Final work: elaboration of the ethnographic report with the data, collected in the fieldwork 30% 0 0 4, 3, 5, 2, 6, 7, 8, 13, 1, 9, 10, 12, 11
Supervision and work process sessions. 50% 0 0 4, 3, 5, 2, 6, 7, 8, 13, 1, 9, 10, 12, 11
Mandatory individual or group supervision sessions of the work process. 20% 0 0 4, 5, 7, 9, 10, 11

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