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Module details for 2023/24.

30 credits

FHEQ Level 7 (Masters)

Module Outline

This course will explore debates and approaches to the study of processes of social change. It will do so by critically examining theoretical insights and concrete examples drawn from different disciplines, such as anthropology, history, sociology and social theory. Throughout the course, students will engage in current debates about modernisation and change, using their analytical skills to relate wider theories to specific, concrete ethnographic case studies. It is important to understand the nature and direction of social and economic change against the background of planned development. Development refers to planned change, in whatever form it may occur, while not all change in society is of this kind. A wide range of social, cultural, economic and political changes also occur, and often arise out of less planned and more internal transformations. It is with the latter that this course will primarily be preoccupied.

This course will introduce students to classical sociological theories informing mainstream anthropological analyses of social change. The focus here is on theorisations of wider processes of modernisation and change from structural, political and economic perspectives. Secondly, the course will consider debates concerning the effects and consequences of modernisation processes on social, political and economic realms, such as the formation of nation states, state bureaucracy and civil society; the development of markets and commoditisation of economic, social and cultural relationships. Thirdly, it will reflect on recent critical approaches to the study of modernity and change as represented by theoretical trends associated to feminist theory, postmodernism, postcolonial studies and contemporary social theory. Particular attention will be paid to issues of globalisation and transnationalism; colonial and postcolonial relationships; and discursive constitution of practices and representations of modernity.

Module learning outcomes

Systematic Understanding of Social Change.

Critical awarness of main theoretical principles behind anthropological and sociological understanding of social change.

Critical understanding of key ethnographic accounts and anthropological debates on social change and contemporary socio-cultural phenomena.

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Timing

Submission deadlines may vary for different types of assignment/groups of students.

Weighting

Coursework components (if listed) total 100% of the overall coursework weighting value.

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The numbers indicate the weeks of the term and how many events take place each week.

Mx Emilia Moscardini-Powers

Assess convenor
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Dr James McMurray

Assess convenor
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