Field Studies in Social and Cultural Anthropology II
Code: 101262 ECTS Credits: 6| Degree | Type | Year |
|---|---|---|
| Social and Cultural Anthropology | OB | 3 |
Contact
- Name:
- Beatriz Ballestin Gonzalez
- Email:
- beatriz.ballestin@uab.cat
Teachers
- Virginia Fons Renaudon
- Jorge Grau Rebollo
- Maria Julieta Olaso Ruiz
- (External) Per determinar
Teaching groups languages
You can view this information at the end of this document.
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 necessary information to address the questions and objectives set out in the Research Techniques course, as well as to test the hypothesis developed methodologically and technically throughout the sequence. This information will be analyzed in the Final Degree Project.
Competences
- Act with ethical responsibility and respect for fundamental rights and duties, diversity and democratic values.
- 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.
- 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
- Ability to maintain an appropriate conversation.
- Adopting a holistic perspective to the research problem's statement and analysing human institutions within wider cultural configurations.
- Analysing a contemporary fact from an anthropological perspective.
- Analysing data critically from anthropological investigations and reports.
- Applying the current ethical codes to the ethnographic fieldwork.
- Carry out ethical use of the information especially when it is of a personal nature.
- Carrying out an individual work that specifies the work plan and timing of activities.
- Consider how gender stereotypes and roles impinge on the exercise of the profession.
- Critically analyse the principles, values and procedures that govern the exercise of the profession.
- Establishing reliable ethnological relationships with subjects that encourage the production and trustworthiness of data.
- Explain the explicit or implicit code of practice of one's own area of knowledge.
- Explaining the work's results narratively in accordance with the critical standards of discipline and bearing in mind the different target audiences.
- 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.
- Operationalizing theoretical concepts and testing explanations of the sociocultural phenomena.
- Propose projects and actions that incorporate the gender perspective.
- Selecting the appropriate techniques for each research design.
- Solving problems autonomously.
- 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:
- Participant observation (access, ethnological relation, ethical and methodological issues) and Elaboration of the field diary.
- Design and application of Qualitative interviews. Preparation of the instruments for collecting data from the operationalization carried out and the review of them (several versions).
- Application of other techniques (such as focus groups) if its necessary, and critical analysis of the application of all techniques and the results obtained.
- Articulation of the techniques and joint assessment of the information obtained and first systematization of the collected information.
- Elaboration of a research report following a guide provided
The course will be taught bilingually in Catalan and Spanish.
Activities and Methodology
| Title | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Type: Directed | |||
| Type: Directed | 0 | 0 | |
| Type: Supervised | |||
| Type: Supervised | 34 | 1.36 | 3, 2, 7, 10, 18, 14, 16 |
| Type: Autonomous | |||
| Type: Autonomous | 66 | 2.64 | 5, 10, 12, 1, 13, 17 |
This subject is assessed continuously and under the ongoing supervision of the teaching staff. Students must have completed all the fieldwork tasks required for the course, with partial submissions throughout the academic term, in order to be eligible to submit the final project and be evaluated. The teaching methodology and assessment described in the syllabus may be subject to modification depending on any restrictions on in-person attendance imposed by health authorities, if necessary.
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.
Assessment
Continous Assessment Activities
| Title | Weighting | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Final work: elaboration of the ethnographic report with the data, collected in the fieldwork | 30% | 15 | 0.6 | 9, 4, 3, 5, 2, 7, 10, 12, 18, 6, 1, 13, 14, 17, 16, 8 |
| Supervision and work process sessions. | 50% | 25 | 1 | 4, 3, 5, 2, 7, 10, 12, 18, 1, 13, 14, 17, 16, 8 |
| Mandatory supervision sessions and the individual work process. | 20% | 10 | 0.4 | 9, 4, 5, 10, 11, 6, 13, 14, 15, 16, 8 |
This course is assessed continuously and under the ongoing supervision of the teaching staff during six mandatory in-person tutorials. Failure to attend three of these tutorials will result in a "not assessable" status. These tutorials cannot be rescheduled or made up.
Assessment will be based on attendance at the mandatory supervision sessions (10%), the individual work process (10%), submission of all written assignments required during the six tutorials (50%), and the final report (30%), adding up to a total of 100%. If the student engages in any irregularity that could significantly alter the grade of an assessment activity, that activity will be graded with a 0, regardless of any disciplinary process that may be initiated. If multiple irregularities occur in the assessment activities of the same course, the final grade for the course will be 0.
If the assessments cannot be carried out in person, their format will be adapted (while maintaining their weighting) to the possibilities offered by the UAB's virtual tools. Assignments, activities, and class participation will take place through forums, wikis, and/or discussion of exercises via Teams, etc. The instructor will ensure that the student has access to these tools or will offer alternative means within their reach.
Students will obtain a Not assessed/Not submitted course grade unless they have submitted more than 30% of the assessment items.
Plagiarism:
If the student engages in any irregularity that could significantly alter the grade of an assessment activity, that activity will be graded with a 0, regardless of any disciplinary process that may be initiated. If multiple irregularities occur in the assessment activities of the same course, the final grade for the course will be0.
This course/module does not include the option ofsingle assessment.
This subject allows the use of AI technologies exclusively for support tasks such as bibliographic or content-based searches, text correction or translations, where applicable.
Other specific situations may be contemplated, as deemed appropriate by the teacher. The student must clearly (i) identify which parts have been generated using AI technology; (ii) specify the tools used; and (iii) include a critical reflection on how these have influenced the process and final outcome of the activity.
Lack of transparency regarding the use of AI in the assessed activity will be considered academic dishonesty; the corresponding grade may be lowered, or the work may even be awarded a zero.
In cases of greater infringement, more serious action may be taken.
Bibliography
GENERAL BIBLIOGRAPHY (the bibliography worked on in the course Techniques of Research in Social and Cultural Anthropology must also be reviewed):
Angrosino, Michael (2012). Etnografía y observación participante en investigación cualitativa. Ediciones Morata.
Atkinson, Paul; Coffey, Amanda; Delamont, Sara; Lofland, John y Lofland, Lyn (2011). Handbook of ethnography. SAGE Publications.
Ballestín, Beatriz y Fàbregues, Sergi (2018). La práctica de la investigación cualitativa en ciencias sociales y de la educación. Editorial UOC.
Bertaux, Daniel (1993 [1980]). “La perspectiva biográfica: validez metodológica y potencialidades”. En Marinas, J. M. y Santamarina, C. (eds.), La historia oral: métodos y experiencias (pp. 149–171). Debate.
Cea D’Ancona, María Ángeles (1996). Metodología cuantitativa. Estrategias y técnicas de investigación social (pp. 239–291). Síntesis.
Denzin, Norman K. (1970). “Participant Observation: Varieties and Strategies of the Field Method”. En The research act (pp. 185–218). Aldine.
Domínguez Mon, Alba (coord.) (2017). Trabajo de campo etnográfico: Prácticas y saberes. Metodología y técnicas de la investigación de campo. Editorial de la Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, Universidad de Buenos Aires.
Emerson, Robert M.; Fretz, Rachel I. y Shaw, Linda L. (2011). Writing ethnographic fieldnotes (2.ª ed.). University of Chicago Press.
Flick, Uwe (ed.) (2022). The SAGE handbook of qualitative data collection (2.ª ed.). SAGE Publications.
Guber, Rosana (2011). La etnografía: método, campo y reflexividad. Ediciones de la Flor.
Guest, Kenneth J. (2023). Essentials of cultural anthropology: A toolkit for a global age (4.ª ed.). W.W. Norton.
Hammersley, Martyn y Atkinson, Paul (1994a [1983]). “Etnografía. Métodos de investigación” (pp. 121–142). Paidós.
Krueger, Richard A. (1991 [1988]). El grupo de discusión. Guía práctica para la investigación aplicada. Pirámide.
Kvale, Steinar (2011). Las entrevistas en investigación cualitativa. Ediciones Morata.
Lareau, Annette (2021). Listening to people: A practical guide to interviewing, participant observation, data analysis, and writing it all up. University of Chicago Press.
Lofland, John; Anderson, Leon; Snow, David A. y Lofland, Lynn (2008). Analyzing social settings: A guide to qualitative observation and analysis (4.ª ed.). Wadsworth Cengage Learning.
Oehmichen Bazán, Christina (ed.) (2022). La etnografía y el trabajo de campo en las ciencias sociales. Instituto de Investigaciones Antropológicas, UNAM.
Okely, Judith (2012). Anthropological practice: Fieldwork and the ethnographic method. Berg Publishers.
O’Reilly, Karen (2024). Ethnographic methods (2.ª ed.). Routledge.
Bryman, Alan (ed.) Ethnography. Vol. II: Ethnographic Fieldwork Practice (pp. 106–121). Sage.
Peterson, Kristin y Olson, Victoria (2024). The ethnographer’s way: A handbook for multidimensional research design. University of California Press.
Roigé, Xavier, Estrada; Ferran y Bertrán, Oriol (1999a). Tècniques d’investigació en antropologia social. Publicacions de la Universitat de Barcelona.
Sampieri, Roberto Hernández; Collado, Carlos y Lucio, Pilar Baptista (2010). Metodología de la investigación (4.ª ed.). McGraw-Hill.
Delgado, Juan Manuel y Gutiérrez, José (coords.) Métodos y técnicas cualitativas de investigación en ciencias sociales (pp. 259–285). Síntesis.
Schensul, Jean J. y LeCompte, Margaret D. (2012). Specialized ethnographic methods: A mixed methods approach (2.ª ed.). AltaMira Press.
Spradley, James P. (1980). “Doing Participant Observation”. En Participant Observation (pp. 53–62). Holt, Rinehart & Winston.
Spradley, James P. (2016 [1979]). The ethnographic interview. Waveland Press.
Valles, Miguel S. (1997). En Técnicas cualitativas de investigación social. Reflexión metodológica y práctica profesional (pp. 109–139). Síntesis.
Velasco Maillo, Honorio y Díaz de Rada, Ángel (1997). La lógica de la investigación etnográfica. Trotta.
GENDER PERSPECTIVE:
Ambujam, Meena N. (2021). “Navigating the field: Exploring gendered dimensions of fieldwork”. Tsantsa, 26, pp. 186–194.
Cermeno, Juliette; Loizeau, Julie y Dorion, Laurence (2023). “Doing feminist ethnography collectively”. En Handbook of feminist research methodologies in management and organization studies (pp. 328–342). Edward Elgar Publishing. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781800377035.00031
Craven, Christa y Davis, Dána-Ain (2022). Feminist ethnography: Thinking through methodologies, challenges, and possibilities (2.ª ed.). Rowman & Littlefield.
DeVault, Marjorie L. (2018). “Feminist qualitative research: Emerging lines of inquiry”. En The SAGE handbook of qualitative research (5.ª ed.).
Hall, Kira y Davis, Jenny L. (2021). “Ethnography and the shifting semiotics of gender and sexuality”. En Angouri, J. y Baxter, J. (eds.), The Routledge handbook of language, gender and sexuality (n.º 6, pp. 93–107). Routledge.
Pérez Sanz, Pilar; Quiñimil Vásquez, Daniela; Espinosa-Spínola, María y Gonzálvez Torralbo, Helena (2022). Etnografía y feminismos. Peter Lang Verlag.
Stacey, Judith (1988). “Can there be a feminist ethnography?” Women's Studies International Forum, 11(1), pp. 21–27. https://doi.org/10.1016/0277-5395(88)90004-0
Su, Pei-Ning y Su, Pei-Hsuan (2023). “Discomforting surplus: Gender, sexualization, and omissions in ethnographic fieldwork”. Frontiers in Sociology, 8, 1154435.
Software
Word processor (Word type).
Groups and Languages
Please note that this information is provisional until 30 November 2025. You can check it through this link. To consult the language you will need to enter the CODE of the subject.