At the University of Bergen and at the Christian Michelsen Institute there is a strong and enduring tradition for anthropological studies of - and involvement in - development issues, including the critical study of aid projects, and the fruitful interaction between academic and applied anthropology. This course draws on this accumulated expertise in "Bergen anthropology" to address a number of issues of high relevance in the world today, such as the roles of different actors (states, the World Bank, transnational corporations, NGOs, local authorities, rural communities) in the development process. These and other topics are explained, studied and discussed through selected detailed case studies that focus on particular development issues, specific aid projects, and particular regions of the world.

The course highlights the need in the development process for taking into account peoples' own understanding of reality, and anthropology´s capacity for grasping the complexities of local points of view and for analysing their contexts. Language and meaning, cultural relativism, fieldwork strategies and methodology, the diversity of local conditions and the details of everyday life, and a range of other dimensions are examined in the context of particular urgent issues such as poverty, food security, peace and conflict, climate change, environmental issues, gender, human rights, migration, and so forth. A comprehensive introduction is given to the key theoretical perspectives developed over the years in Bergen anthropology, with an emphasis on social process, generative analysis, models of scale and "micro-macro" relations. The roles of anthropologists in relation to aid projects, intervention and "development processes" more generally are exemplified.

On completion of the course, students should be able to:

• Provide an overview of key theoretical debates relating to development as they appear in the field of anthropology of development studies.
• Discuss the ways in which specific development problems relate to local, regional, national and global issues, and how these relationships are helping shape the understanding of development issues and how they are handled by different actors.
• Reflect on the positioning of various players in the development field, from global donor organizations to local groups, and how the distribution of political, social, cultural and economic resources shape their actions.
• Apply key concepts and perspectives in the anthropological study of the development in an independent written work.

Lectures, half day seminar and weekly literature seminars throughout the semester.

3 hours each week

6 weeks in total

Approx. 18 hours (lectures) in total

Department of Social Anthropology

Fosswinckelsgate 6

5007 Bergen

Norway

Homepage: http://www.uib.no/antro

E-mail: advice@sosantr.uib.no

Phone: +47 55 58 92 50

Fax: +47 55 58 92 60