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2022/2023

Field Studies in Social and Cultural Anthropology I

Code: 101263 ECTS Credits: 12
Degree Type Year Semester
2500256 Social and Cultural Anthropology OB 2 1

Contact

Name:
Virginia Fons Renaudon
Email:
virginia.fons@uab.cat

Use of Languages

Principal working language:
catalan (cat)
Some groups entirely in English:
No
Some groups entirely in Catalan:
Yes
Some groups entirely in Spanish:
No

Teachers

Anna Maria Piella Vila
Irina Casado Aijon

Prerequisites

In accordance with the 2009 Plan of Studies, approved by the Ministry, you must take the following subjects in this established order:

Second year, first semester: Field Practices in Social and Cultural Anthropology I; second semester: Epistemology and Research Methodology 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

The Field Practices in Social and Cultural Anthropology I (hereafter, Field Practices I), is the first step of a five courses itinerary that is developed throughout two years of studies (BA second and third years), and that concludes in the first semester of fourth year with the Bachelor’s Degree Final Project.

The objectives of Field Practices I are:

  • To achieve a direct knowledge of the advantages, potentialities, limitations and risks posed by classical fieldwork in ethnography through the supervision of a supervised fieldwork.
  • To learn basic fieldwork techniques as the participant observation or the elaboration of a fieldwork diary.
  • To formulate adequate research problems and hypotheses about a specific human group.

 

Competences

  • Act with ethical responsibility and respect for fundamental rights and duties, diversity and democratic values.
  • Apprehending cultural diversity through ethnography and critically assessing ethnographic materials as knowledge of local contexts and as a proposal of theoretical models.
  • Carry out effective written work or oral presentations adapted to the appropriate register in different languages.
  • Demonstrate skills for working autonomously or in teams to achieve the planned objectives including in multicultural and interdisciplinary contexts.
  • Producing cultural diversity materials that could have a critical impact on the common sense conceptions.
  • Students must be capable of applying their knowledge to their work or vocation in a professional way and they should have building arguments and problem resolution skills within their area of study.
  • 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.
  • Take sex- or gender-based inequalities into consideration when operating within one's own area of knowledge.
  • Use digital tools and critically interpret specific documentary sources.
  • 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. Applying the knowledge of cultural variability and its genesis to avoid ethnocentric projections.
  7. Assess the reliability of sources, select important data and cross-check information.
  8. Assessing critically the explicit and implicit theoretical models in the ethnographic materials.
  9. Carry out ethical use of the information especially when it is of a personal nature.
  10. Carrying out an individual work that specifies the work plan and timing of activities.
  11. Communicate using language that is not sexist or discriminatory.
  12. Consider how gender stereotypes and roles impinge on the exercise of the profession.
  13. Critically analyse the principles, values and procedures that govern the exercise of the profession.
  14. Critically assessing ethnographic materials as a proposal for theoretical models.
  15. Establishing reliable ethnological relationships with subjects that encourage the production and trustworthiness of data.
  16. Explain the explicit or implicit code of practice of one's own area of knowledge.
  17. Explaining the work's results narratively in accordance with the critical standards of discipline and bearing in mind the different target audiences.
  18. Express ideas with a specific vocabulary appropriate to the discipline.
  19. Identify main and secondary ideas and express them with linguistic correctness.
  20. Identify the principal forms of sex- or gender-based inequality and discrimination present in society.
  21. 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.
  22. Operationalizing theoretical concepts and testing explanations of the sociocultural phenomena.
  23. Plan work effectively, individually or in groups, in order to fulfil the planned objectives.
  24. Relating elements and factors involved in the development of scientific processes.
  25. Selecting the appropriate techniques for each research design.
  26. Solving problems autonomously.
  27. Using suitable terminology when drawing up an academic text.
  28. Weigh up the impact of any long- or short-term difficulty, harm or discrimination that could be caused to certain persons or groups by the actions or projects.

Content

The objectives of the course will be achieved gradually and until the end there will be no clear awareness of what has been done, to a large extent, thanks to the reflexive work that is required to evaluate the subject. This lack of awareness over what is being done may entail certain insecurity at some point during the course (which is inherent to the participant observation technique, and at the same time necessary in the initiation to the technique that concerns us).

Content (except lectures and initial readings) will not be advanced but will be introduced as the different moments of the process of entering the field will be achieved.

The following aspects will be considered:

  1. Participant observation (fieldwork access, ethnological relationships, ethical and methodological issues, perspective of gender, class and race, etc.).
  2. Elaboration of the fieldwork diary.
  3. Organization of the information and further data systematization.
  4. Identification of relevant topics of theoretical interest.
  5. How to approach and deal with research questions.
  6. Enunciation of hypothetical statements.

 

Methodology

In the time frame assigned to this subject, there’ll be about seven group sessions throughout the semester, addressed to the whole group, of approximately one hour and a half-length, in accordance with a calendar which is established at the beginning of the course. In these plenary sessions, apart from contents, common work guidelines will be given, depending on the moment of the process of the practice in which we are. The first collective session is held the first week of class.

The rest of the workload will be individually supervised according to a schedule agreed between the student and the lecturer (specific day and hour). This individual monitoring will dive into those issues which have been reported collectively in the plenary sessions, in order to adequate them to the specific context of the practice of each student. These tutorials will help the students to know the required abilities and specific difficulties in the ethnological relationship, as well as the characteristics of his/her perception. Also they will be of great importance to raise awareness of concrete and specific issues related to the type of situations and population which the student is working with and will provide the context where all those doubts, insecurities, problems and other questions related to the course of the practice can be clarified.

 

 

Annotation: Within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.

Activities

Title Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Type: Directed      
Plenary sessions 10 0.4 13, 4, 6, 5, 2, 14, 8, 15, 16, 21, 22, 24, 25
Type: Supervised      
Individual tutorial sessions 10 0.4 13, 4, 3, 6, 5, 2, 14, 8, 15, 16, 9, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 12, 28, 7
Type: Autonomous      
Drafting of the final paper 20 0.8 13, 4, 3, 6, 5, 2, 11, 10, 17, 18, 27, 9, 19, 20, 22, 24, 12, 28
Participant observation during fieldwork 35 1.4 6, 5, 2, 11, 15, 16, 1, 21, 23, 24, 26, 25
Reading and reviews of required articles 15 0.6 13, 14, 8, 18, 27
Registry, systematization and analysis of the fieldwork diary 60 2.4 6, 2, 21

Assessment

This subject is evaluated throughout the semester with the permanent supervision of the course lecturers. It consists of three parts:

  1. Reading and reviews (10%). Attendance and participation in the plenary sessions (10%).
  2. Monitoring of the student’s work and tutorial attendance (40%).
  3. The process of analysis and elaboration of the final report (40%).

The enrolled students must complete all the field tasks planned for the development of the subject in order to be entitled to present the final work and to be evaluated. Therefore, the students who do not properly attend the schedules tutorials and satisfactorily complete the tutorial process will be considered as NOT EVALUABLE.

In order, to be evaluable in this course it is necessary to have passed 2/3 of the subject through the tutoring of the follow-up of the work and the process of analysis.

Please, notice that the process of evaluation does not contemplate a re-evaluation system, given the eminently practical character of the course (as specified in article 112.1 Doc. Adaptation of the evaluation regulations, UAB).

Throughout the course, the lecturing staff will inform the students of the date and procedure of the grade reviewing.

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.

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.

 

Assessment Activities

Title Weighting Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
1a. Reading and corresponding reviews 10% 10 0.4 13, 14, 8, 18, 27
1b. Assistance and participation in collective sessions 10% 10 0.4 13, 4, 3, 6, 5, 2, 14, 8, 15, 16, 21, 22, 24, 25
2. The process of work and follow-up of tutorials 40% 90 3.6 13, 4, 3, 6, 5, 2, 15, 16, 1, 21, 22, 23, 24, 26, 25
3. The analysis process and the final work 40% 40 1.6 13, 4, 3, 6, 5, 2, 11, 10, 17, 18, 27, 9, 19, 20, 22, 24, 12, 28, 7

Bibliography

Required reading dossier

San Román, Teresa (2000). “El mundo que compartimos. Una alternativa”. Revista Antropología, 9.

Taylor, S.J. & R. Bogdan (1986). "La observación participante en el campo" a Introducción a los métodos cualitativos de investigación. Barcelona: Paidos, pp. 50-91.

Cardoso de Oliveira, Roberto (2004). “El trabajo del antropólogo: mirar, escuchar, escribir”, AVÁ, 5, pp. 55-68.

Malinowski, Bronislaw (1975 [1939]). “Confesiones de ignorancia y fracaso” a J.R. Llobera (ed) La antropología como ciencia. Barcelona: Anagrama, pp.129-139.

Pérez, C., E. Ardèvol, M. Bertrán & B. Callén (2003). "Etnografía virtualizada: la observación participante y la entrevista semiestructurada en línea". Athenea Digital: Revista de pensamiento e Investigación Social, 3, 72-92. http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0168-ssoar-64775

 

Recommended bibliography

Ardévol E. & E. Gómez-Cruz (2020). “Digital ethnography and media practices”. A: F. Darling-Wolf (Editor). The International Encyclopedia of Media Studies: Research Methods in Media Studies, Volume 7.

Guasch, O. (1997). Observación Participante. Madrid: CIS (Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas), Cuadernos Metodológicos, 20.

Hammersley, M. & P. Atkinson (1994). Etnografía. Métodos de Investigación. Barcelona: Paidós.

Lawrence Neuman, W. (1997). Social Research Methods. Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches. Boston, London: Allyn and Bacon.

San Román, T. (1996).  “De la intuición a la contrastación: el trabajo de campo en antropología en la formación de los nuevos antropólogos”, a Aurora González Echevarría (coord.), Simposio VIII Epistemología y método, Actas del VII Congreso de Antropología Social. Zaragoza, pp.167-178. 

 

For more information on digital ethnography, see: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1clGjGABB2h2qbduTgfqribHmog9B6P0NvMgVuiHZCl8/preview

 

 

Software

Word processor (Word type).