Local Knowledge and Management of Natural Resources
Code: 101273 ECTS Credits: 6| Degree | Type | Year | Semester |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2500256 Social and Cultural Anthropology | OT | 3 | 2 |
| 2500256 Social and Cultural Anthropology | OT | 4 | 2 |
Contact
- Name:
- Silvia Gomez Mestres
- Email:
- silvia.gomez@uab.cat
Teaching groups languages
You can check it through this link. To consult the language you will need to enter the CODE of the subject. Please note that this information is provisional until 30 November 2023.
Teachers
- Lucía Muñoz Sueiro
Prerequisites
It is recommended to have taken the course Culture Nature and Development and Anthropology and Sociocultural Intervention
Objectives and Contextualisation
Fourth year course, it is part of the specialized field in Culture and Environment that will allow the student to acquire competences in this professional field. The starting point is ethnographic and ontological criticism in the dichotomy nature -culture.
The course maintains links with other subjects such as Culture, Nature and Development, Ethnographic Approach to Cultural Diversity, Ethnographic Texts and Audio-visuals, Anthropology and Sociocultural Intervention, Sociocultural Anthropology, and links with Development and Sustainability issues, and Human Ecology.
The Descriptor contemplates: addressing the study of practices, beliefs and traditional knowledge related to the management of natural resources, the historically used technological systems and their effects on the territory, evaluating the possibility of incorporating or preserving certain cultural models in 'Proper use and enjoyment of natural spaces.
The training objectives will lead to the students being able to:
Ask yourself questions about the relationship between nature and society over time and in different cultures. Express comparative views between Western society and the so-called "ethnographic societies" Analyse texts, documents, exhibitions and audio-visuals considered in the program.
Competences
- Social and Cultural Anthropology
- 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.
- Demonstrate skills for working autonomously or in teams to achieve the planned objectives including in multicultural and interdisciplinary contexts.
- 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 demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the history of anthropological theory and the genesis of its basic concepts.
- Take account of social, economic and environmental impacts when operating within one's own area of knowledge.
Learning Outcomes
- Analysing a contemporary fact from an anthropological perspective.
- Applying the knowledge of cultural variability and its genesis to avoid ethnocentric projections.
- Effectively working in teams and respecting different opinions.
- Explaining the disciplinary developments and current interdisciplinary tendencies from the critique to the nature/culture Cartesian dichotomy.
- Identifying the contemporary interdisciplinary tendencies shared by the Anthropology and social disciplines related to the corresponding field.
- Identifying the various relationship processes between human populations and their environment.
- Interpreting the cultural diversity through ethnography.
- Knowing and understanding the culture's influence in the various institutional systems of environmental intervention.
- Propose viable projects and actions to boost social, economic and environmental benefits.
- Propose ways to evaluate projects and actions for improving sustainability.
- Recognising the cultural nature of nature and society conceptualizations.
- Summarizing the acquired knowledge about the relationship between nature, culture and society.
- 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
Relationship between society and nature; theoretical approaches, social movements, and governmental spheres as critical antecedents to the hegemonic model of modernity. Models of nature-based on spaces, their rationalities, beliefs, meanings, and cultural, ecological, and economic practices. Beliefs, symbolic representations, and practices in the management of natural resources.
Theories and contributions from anthropology. The ethnographic vision of local knowledge or ancestral knowledge and the interpretation of the world from the specific cultural framework and from a gender perspective. Characteristics of local or native knowledge. The emergence of the concept of environment, and its construction in the framework of the "environmental crisis". Conceptual bases for complex thinking and integral intervention.
Local knowledge as a practice that is placed and constituted in the dynamics of the historical framework. The case of terrestrial and maritime-coastal peoples and communities in different times and spaces. Transformations, adaptations, and cultural exchange in history.
New political models and nature, governance systems, socio-ecological relations, and well-being at the center of alternative social and economic systems, ecosystem services, and the rights of nature in the face of neo-extractivist models and social inequalities. Inclusion of different knowledge systems in environmental intervention projects. Transdisciplinary perspectives at the interface of the relationship between social sciences and natural sciences, and new theoretical, epistemological, and methodological approaches.
Methodology
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 | |||
| Directed Practical theoretical classes with ICT support and debate. | 50 | 2 | 1, 2, 8, 4, 6, 11, 12 |
| Type: Supervised | |||
| Oriented readings or viewings, case analysis, class discussions. | 30 | 1.2 | 1, 8, 4, 6, 11, 12, 13 |
| Type: Autonomous | |||
| Autonomous Reading, analysis, criticism of texts and documentaries in the classroom, preparation of debate, writing of works. | 65 | 2.6 | 2, 8, 4, 6, 10, 11 |
Assessment
The evaluation of the course will be carried out in a procedural way, through various written tests of readings, lectures, and videos. The individual written tests will have a value of 40%. Group work will have a value of 40% and a 10% oral presentation, total 50%. Attendance and participation in the classroom will be worth 10%.
At the time of each evaluation activity, students will be informed of the procedure and date of revision of grades.
In order to pass the course, it is necessary to have presented all the programmed activities. The final mark for the course will be calculated with the percentages indicated. In order to pass the course, the final mark must be equal to or higher than 5.
Those who have failed the subject may re-evaluate and make up the failed tests.
"In order to participate in the recovery process, the student must have been previously assessed in a set of activities, the weight of which is equivalent to a minimum of 2/3 of the total grade".
Students will obtain a Not assessed/Not submitted course grade unless they have submitted more than 1/3 of the assessment items.
Those activities that the teacher considers not to be recoverable may be excluded from the recovery process, for example, oral presentations, group work, and tasks related to the daily teaching activity.
In case of any irregularity by the student that may lead to a significant variation in the grade of an evaluation act, this evaluation act will be graded with 0, regardless of the disciplinary process that may be initiated. In the event of several irregularities occurring in the assessment acts of the same subject, the final mark for this subject will be 0.
The instructions for carrying out the assignments will be established from the first day of class.
Single assessment:
- Individual work 40%.
- Ethnographic work on a case of local knowledge and management of natural resources 40%.
-Presentation of the individual ethnographic work in one of the proposed formats (audiovisual, photographic collection, etc.) 20%.
Students will obtain a Not assessed/Not submitted course grade unless they have submitted more than 1/3 of the assessment items.
Assessment Activities
| Title | Weighting | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Individual works | 40 | 2 | 0.08 | 2, 8, 4, 6, 5, 10, 9, 11, 12, 13 |
| Oral participation and discussion of texts | 10 | 1 | 0.04 | 1, 2, 8, 4, 6, 5, 7, 9, 11, 12 |
| The elaboration group work. | 50 | 2 | 0.08 | 1, 2, 8, 4, 6, 5, 7, 9, 12, 3 |