Elena Iarskaia-Smirnova
C.E.P.-Bosh fellow
Syllabi
Reflecting Modern Societies.
Issues in Contemporary Social Anthropology
Introductory Session
This will be arranged for the acquainting course leader with the audience, and for the
preliminary discussion with the students their knowledge, experience, our mutual
aspirations and goals of the course. The course leader will discuss why the right was
earned to deliver this course, what it is so exciting about the subject and why there
exist eagerness to share with the audience.
Section 1. Theoretical Origins of Contemporary Anthropology
The aim of this section is to recall the main theoretical origins of anthropological
research, to discuss development of anthropology in 20th century, and to familiarise
students with the central concepts of anthropological inquiry. The section will further
introduce them to the specific sub-fields of contemporary social/cultural anthropology
to provide students with better understanding of the scope and ideas of the research
and connecting each to specific research problems.
The section will be structured as a research seminar, which will include a combination
of lectures, presentations by the students, and discussion groups. An important
component of the section is the student's reading of the selected chapters and articles,
various fragments of which will dovetail with lectures and class discussions.
Interpretive paradigm in social research
“Formal” school in sociology of F.Toennis and “formal” sociology of G.Simmel.
W.Dilthey and concept of «verstehen». Development of interpretative sociology by
M.Weber. Symbolic interactionism:
G.H.Mead and E.Goffman. The Social
Construction of Reality: A.Schuetz, P.Berger and T.Luckman.
Studying culture: the development of methodology
The concept of “Other” in sociology and social anthropology: J.-P.Sartre, M.Foucault,
J.Derrida, and E.Levinas. The development of ethnographic research: R.A.RadcliffBrown, M.Mead, M.Mauss, K.Levi-Strauss, M.Douglas. Evolution of interpretative
methodology empirical sociology of Chicago school and the discovery of Grounded
Theory: E.Burgess, R.Park, W.Thomas, A.Strauss, B.Glaser. Further development of
ethnographic approach. Blurred genres and a crisis of interpretation: C.Geertz,
M.Hammersley, D.Van Maanen. The politics of academic work: anthropological
constructions of Other. Soviet ethnography and ethno-sociology.
Contemporary Anthropological Sub-fields
Urban anthropology and ethnography of urban life, social groups, subcultures and
movements. Feminist anthropology. Anthropological perspectives on race and
ethnicity. Social anthropology of organizations, professions, labor and work. The
social construction of health and illness: medical anthropology. Contemporary
folklorists. Language and cultural knowledge: cognitive anthropology. Representing
the social: visual anthropology. Practicing skills to solve modern human problems:
applied anthropology.
Section 2. Selected Cases of Anthropological Research
The aim of this section is to familiarize students with the cases of anthropological
analysis, and to provide an opportunity to plan individual research. Students will be
required to develop critical thinking skills which will enable them to assess the value
of anthropological research - both their own and that of others. The section will
further introduce students to specific cases of anthropological research into
organisations, gender, media, disability, ethnicity, provincial identity, and provide
them with the means by which to choose the specific research perspective.
The section will be structured as a research seminar, which will include a combination
of lectures, discussion groups and practical applications. An important component of
the section is the student's designing and reporting of their own research project,
various stages of which will dovetail with lectures and class discussions.
The Social Anthropology of Organisations and Professions
This seminar is focused on a study of changing organisational culture, politics of
management and gender relations at the industrial enterprise in Russia. The questions
to be addressed are related to cultural practices of paternalism, gendered discourse of
power relations in the shop flow. The paper shows how the development of capitalism
in industrial enterprise in Russia destroys cultural and social identities of womenworkers and contributes to gender inequality in modern days' Russia. We will look
specifically at issues faced by men and women on the job, including issues of
adequate pay, workplace discrimination and harassment, hostile work environment
and entry into the workforce.
The seminar will also show the possibilities of anthropological inquiry into the study
of occupations and professional identities. Caring professions address the growing
number of various social problems, and they emerged in Russia along with structural
changes of the society, culture, and state social policy. Social work as a new
profession and innovative social practice signifies the destruction of past forms of life,
values, and professional identities, combined with the production of ever new ones.
This seminar addresses the context and main issues within social work practice and
education. The politics of professional identity of social worker will be considered in
the concrete interconnections created by a professionalisation of social work, in the
relationships between state, culture, and the activities of social work agencies.
Gender, Culture and Society
This research seminar focuses on the understanding of the way gender is defined in
Russian culture and the impact of these definitions on the lives of men and women
within Russian society. The seminar explores various areas in which gender plays a
role in structuring the way men and women interact, constrains or expands the
opportunities available to people, comes to define the individual to him- or herself and
is transferred to the next generation via language, childhood socialization and
education.
The seminar will encourage students to be critical consumers of media and of the
presentations of gender in society. Issues such as gender discrimination, privilege and
politics are viewed from the perspective of gender definitions and the impact of
feminism on the study of gender and lives of men and women. These kinds of
questions are raised by changing gender definitions, the value of cultural diversity and
the acceptance of variation are also explored.
The Social Construction of Health, Illness and Disability
This seminar will address sociocultural factors related to health and illness. Focus will
be on patterns of health seeking activity, systems of health care, causal and symbolic
factors involved in physical and mental illness, disability, the medicalisation of life in
contemporary society, and the issues of discrimination on a base of health impairment
and disability. We will consider the social factors that put people at risk, the social
responses to the epidemic, and the contribution of the social sciences to health
research, policy formulation, and intervention. The participants will discuss the
cultural meanings attached to mental retardation, disability, substance abuse, AIDS,
and social nature of the related problems. Throughout, we will ask what the social
sciences can contribute to the practical tasks of disability policy, prevention and
intervention.
Anthropological Perspectives on Race and Ethnicity
How people have been accepted and treated within the context of a given society or
culture has a direct impact on how they perform in that society. The “racial”
worldview was invented to assign some groups to perpetual low status, while others
were permitted access to privilege, power, and wealth. The present-day inequalities
between so-called “racial” groups are not consequences of their biological inheritance
but products of historical and contemporary social, economic, educational, and
political circumstances. We will consider how the concepts of “race” and “ethnicity”
are treated in contemporary anthropology.
The re-configuration of macro political structures since the collapse of Communist
regime, changes in social structures and human relations, give rise to the new
ideologies and everyday life theories about boundaries of identity, otherness and
belonging, achievements and grievances. Under the conditions of dramatic changes in
Russia during 1990s, ethnicity is one of the most important factors, which may or may
not contribute to social stability. Ethnic identity will be considered as a continually
evolving social process, sometimes being diminished during centuries, sometimes
shaped within a single generation; as the outcome of a set of particular historical and
socioeconomic circumstances. This seminar also aims to discuss the specific
institutions and structures that are causing rise of ethnic identities for various groups,
and the consequences that are linked to the expression of ethnicity.
The Sociocultural Formation of Modern Identities
This research seminar will address the capacities of oral history approach that links
great political events with the experiences of ordinary people. Our main task will be
to analyze a spectrum of representations that contain evidences of various life styles
and strategies of survival. When reading texts of the interviews, we are looking upon
these memories from the perspective of cultural analysis. It is important, that in their
cognitive mappings of social spaces respondents restructure global social relations
according to the individual’s place and position within them. How did social history
affect personal biographies? This seminar aims to address this difficult question that
helps outline the sociocultural formation of identity.
This seminar will also explore cinematic representation as a signifying practice in
social context of today’s Russia. We will discuss how racial, ethnic, gender and other
social identities are constructed, how group borders are marked, how different groups
are compared and characterised among themselves. The symbolic codes of ethnicity
and gender will be analysed in Russian movies of 1990’s.
The seminar will also consider the politics of academic writing by focusing on social
construction of Russia by contemporary Russian studies in the West. Selected texts of
recent anthropological and inter-disciplinary inquiry will be addressed including
Rancour-Laferriere’ The Slave Soul of Russia and Ries’ Russian Talk.
We will ask, how anthropologists can enhance local empowerment, self-reliance and
general well-being, how they can assist citizens in tolerating Otherness or celebrating
diversity, what are the adaptive strategies of local communities, how education in a
diverse class-room is possible, and other issues such these.
Section 3. Examination of Field Methods
The aim of this section is to familiarise students with the principles of the major
research methodology of fieldwork, and to provide an opportunity to undertake some
individual research. Students will be required to develop critical thinking skills which
will enable them to assess the value of qualitative research endeavours - both their
own and that of others. The section will further introduce them to specific
methodologies and provide them with the means by which to assess the
appropriateness of each to specific research problems.
The section will be structured as a research seminar, which will include a combination
of lectures, discussion groups and practical applications. An important component of
the section is the student's designing, conducting and reporting of their own research
project, various stages of which will dovetail with lectures and class discussions.
Development and use of qualitative methods in anthropology and sociology.
Distinction of qualitative from quantitative methods. The accountability of applied
qualitative research (the politics and ethics of research). Sources of bias in qualitative
research. The relationship between theory and methodological approach. Qualitative
research design. Ethnography and participant observation. In-depth interviewing. Life
history method. Phenomenological research. Group interview techniques.
Ethnohistory and the use of documents, material culture, and visual images. Data
management and analysis methods (with some reference to computer software for
qualitative analysis). Evaluation using qualitative data. Participatory research.
Applications of anthropology: intervention anthropology and policy research. Ethics
of anthropological research and practice.
Graduation Conference
This will be arranged as a presentation of students’ research reports followed by the
discussions and graduation ceremony.
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