units

ATS2378

Faculty of Arts

18 September 2017 30 April 2024
Monash University

Undergraduate - Unit

This unit entry is for students who completed this unit in 2015 only. For students planning to study the unit, please refer to the unit indexes in the the current edition of the Handbook. If you have any queries contact the managing faculty for your course or area of study.

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6 points, SCA Band 1, 0.125 EFTSL

Refer to the specific census and withdrawal dates for the semester(s) in which this unit is offered.

LevelUndergraduate
FacultyFaculty of Arts
Organisational UnitAnthropology
OfferedClayton Second semester 2015 (Day)
Coordinator(s)Dr Sara Niner

Synopsis

This unit takes an anthropological approach to critiquing international development and understanding the notion of the 'third world'. It explores how ethnography can improve our understanding of the development process, relationships between the 'north' and 'south' and the place of the 'third world' in contemporary globalisation. The unit examines the ways anthropologists theorise social and economic patterns of change; how development policy is imagined, produced, and received (or resisted) across multiple cultural contexts; and how development (and therefore the third world) is imagined and defined through specific case studies of approaches, institutions and practitioners in the field.

Outcomes

Students can expect to develop:

  1. An understanding of global inequalities and how these impact on different groups of people;
  2. A thorough grounding in theories and models explaining the historical context of global inequalities;
  3. A comprehension of dominant discourses and trends in development;
  4. An awareness of the culture of organisations, institutions and practitioners of development;
  5. An understanding of how development has affected particular cultures and places;
  6. The analytical skills to evaluate approaches to development from an anthropological perspective;
  7. An awareness of problems and issues in utilising development strategies and theories;
  8. An appreciation of the history, philosophy and practice of qualitative social research;
  9. An understanding of a range of methods used in qualitative social research;
  10. An awareness of some of the key issues, debates and controversies associated with conducting qualitative research, and an appreciation of the complexity of conducting such research;
  11. An appreciation of the meaning and role of both ethics and reflexivity in qualitative social research; and
  12. The ability to practically undertake some kinds of qualitative social research.

Assessment

Within semester assessment: 100%

Workload requirements

Minimum total expected workload to achieve the learning outcomes for this unit is 144 hours per semester typically comprising a mixture of scheduled learning activities and independent study. A unit requires on average three/four hours of scheduled activities per week. Scheduled activities may include a combination of teacher directed learning, peer directed learning and online engagement.

See also Unit timetable information

Chief examiner(s)

Dr Sara Niner

This unit applies to the following area(s) of study

International relations
International relations - Specialisation
International studies
International studies - Specialisation

Prerequisites

Twelve credit points of first-year Arts units. It is highly recommended that students only take this unit after they have completed two gateway units in Anthropology.

Prohibitions

ATS3378, AZA2378, AZA3378