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Unit outline_

ANTH6916: Culture and Development: Key Concepts

Semester 2, 2024 [Normal day] - Camperdown/Darlington, Sydney

The unit introduces key social science concepts relevant to Development Studies. Students will learn to identify and critically assess fundamental ideas in social theory, including society as social facts, social action and change, the moral dimensions of human life, intercultural relations, and the idea of the global and universal in human societies.

Unit details and rules

Academic unit Anthropology
Credit points 6
Prerequisites
? 
None
Corequisites
? 
None
Prohibitions
? 
None
Assumed knowledge
? 

None

Available to study abroad and exchange students

No

Teaching staff

Coordinator Ryan Schram, ryan.schram@sydney.edu.au
Lecturer(s) Ryan Schram, ryan.schram@sydney.edu.au
The census date for this unit availability is 2 September 2024
Type Description Weight Due Length
Assignment Take-home writing assignment
A choice of several essay-response questions.
35% Week 06
Due date: 06 Sep 2024 at 23:59

Closing date: 20 Sep 2024
2000 words
Outcomes assessed: LO1 LO2 LO3 LO4 LO5
Assignment Essay
An argument applying a theoretical perspective to a case study.
40% Week 13
Due date: 01 Nov 2024 at 23:59

Closing date: 15 Nov 2024
3000 words
Outcomes assessed: LO1 LO2 LO3 LO4 LO5
Online task Weekly journal
Reflections on how your thinking is changing week to week.
15% Weekly 10 x 50 words
Outcomes assessed: LO1 LO5 LO4 LO3 LO2
Online task Various contributions to shared online knowledge base
Collaborative writing and editing of shared notes and agendas for class.
10% Weekly 500 words equiv.
Outcomes assessed: LO1 LO5 LO4 LO3 LO2

Assessment summary

See the class Canvas site for full details and instructions for each assignment.

Assessment criteria

The University awards common result grades, set out in the Coursework Policy 2014 (Schedule 1).

As a general guide, a High distinction indicates work of an exceptional standard, a Distinction a very high standard, a credit a good standard, and a pass an acceptable standard.

Result name

Mark range

Description

High distinction

85 - 100

 

Distinction

75 - 84

 

Credit

65 - 74

 

Pass

50 - 64

 

Fail

0 - 49

When you don’t meet the learning outcomes of the unit to a satisfactory standard.

For more information see sydney.edu.au/students/guide-to-grades

For more information see guide to grades.

Late submission

In accordance with University policy, these penalties apply when written work is submitted after 11:59pm on the due date:

  • Deduction of 5% of the maximum mark for each calendar day after the due date.
  • After ten calendar days late, a mark of zero will be awarded.

This unit has an exception to the standard University policy or supplementary information has been provided by the unit coordinator. This information is displayed below:

Stay in touch with the unit instructor throughout the semester, especially if you get behind. You can always catch up and we want give students an opportunity to do their best work. Late penalties are per FASS policy, and discretion can be applied.

Academic integrity

The Current Student website provides information on academic integrity and the resources available to all students. The University expects students and staff to act ethically and honestly and will treat all allegations of academic integrity breaches seriously.

We use similarity detection software to detect potential instances of plagiarism or other forms of academic integrity breach. If such matches indicate evidence of plagiarism or other forms of academic integrity breaches, your teacher is required to report your work for further investigation.

Use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) and automated writing tools

You may only use generative AI and automated writing tools in assessment tasks if you are permitted to by your unit coordinator. If you do use these tools, you must acknowledge this in your work, either in a footnote or an acknowledgement section. The assessment instructions or unit outline will give guidance of the types of tools that are permitted and how the tools should be used.

Your final submitted work must be your own, original work. You must acknowledge any use of generative AI tools that have been used in the assessment, and any material that forms part of your submission must be appropriately referenced. For guidance on how to acknowledge the use of AI, please refer to the AI in Education Canvas site.

The unapproved use of these tools or unacknowledged use will be considered a breach of the Academic Integrity Policy and penalties may apply.

Studiosity is permitted unless otherwise indicated by the unit coordinator. The use of this service must be acknowledged in your submission as detailed on the Learning Hub’s Canvas page.

Outside assessment tasks, generative AI tools may be used to support your learning. The AI in Education Canvas site contains a number of productive ways that students are using AI to improve their learning.

Simple extensions

If you encounter a problem submitting your work on time, you may be able to apply for an extension of five calendar days through a simple extension.  The application process will be different depending on the type of assessment and extensions cannot be granted for some assessment types like exams.

Special consideration

If exceptional circumstances mean you can’t complete an assessment, you need consideration for a longer period of time, or if you have essential commitments which impact your performance in an assessment, you may be eligible for special consideration or special arrangements.

Special consideration applications will not be affected by a simple extension application.

Using AI responsibly

Co-created with students, AI in Education includes lots of helpful examples of how students use generative AI tools to support their learning. It explains how generative AI works, the different tools available and how to use them responsibly and productively.

Support for students

The Support for Students Policy 2023 reflects the University’s commitment to supporting students in their academic journey and making the University safe for students. It is important that you read and understand this policy so that you are familiar with the range of support services available to you and understand how to engage with them.

The University uses email as its primary source of communication with students who need support under the Support for Students Policy 2023. Make sure you check your University email regularly and respond to any communications received from the University.

Learning resources and detailed information about weekly assessment and learning activities can be accessed via Canvas. It is essential that you visit your unit of study Canvas site to ensure you are up to date with all of your tasks.

If you are having difficulties completing your studies, or are feeling unsure about your progress, we are here to help. You can access the support services offered by the University at any time:

Support and Services (including health and wellbeing services, financial support and learning support)
Course planning and administration
Meet with an Academic Adviser

WK Topic Learning activity Learning outcomes
Week 01 Show us the Devil Baby! / Main reading: Addams (1916) Seminar (2 hr) LO1 LO2 LO3 LO4 LO5
Week 02 Social work as ethical knowledge / Main reading: Addams (1902), intro and chap. 2, pp. 1-70 / Other reading: Lengermann and Niebrugge (2014) Seminar (2 hr) LO1 LO2 LO3 LO4 LO5
Week 03 Doing being poor / Main reading: Desmond (2012); Desmond (2014) Seminar (2 hr) LO1 LO2 LO3 LO4 LO5
Week 04 How does it feel to be a problem? / Main reading: Du Bois (1903); Du Bois (1921) / Other reading: Battle-Baptiste and Rusert (2018) Seminar (2 hr) LO1 LO2 LO3 LO4 LO5
Week 05 Double-consciousness, second sight / Main reading: Fanon ([1952b] 1991); Fanon ([1952a] 1991) Seminar (2 hr) LO1 LO2 LO3 LO4 LO5
Week 06 There is no such thing as society: Capitalism, bourgeois civil society, and (neo)liberalism / Main reading: Marx ([1867] 1972), pp. 319-329, 431-438 Seminar (2 hr) LO1 LO2 LO3 LO4 LO5
Week 07 Capitalism as original and ongoing dispossession / Main reading: Fraser (2014); Dawson (2016) / Other reading: Fraser (2016) Seminar (2 hr) LO1 LO2 LO3 LO4 LO5
Week 08 We’re here to help: Expertise as power / Main reading: Weber (1991); Foucault (1991); Foucault (1982) Seminar (2 hr) LO1 LO2 LO3 LO4 LO5
Week 09 Pay no attention to the state behind the curtain / Main reading: Gupta (2012), chaps. 1-2 Seminar (2 hr) LO1 LO2 LO3 LO4 LO5
Week 10 Everything’s relative: Society as collective consciousness and total system / Main reading: Durkheim ([1895] 1966); Mauss ([1925] 1990) / Other reading: Lukes (1973) Seminar (2 hr) LO1 LO2 LO3 LO4 LO5
Week 11 In other words: Cosmology and the translatability of cultural difference / Main reading: Evans-Pritchard (1951); Kohn (2007) / Other reading: Kohn (2015) Seminar (2 hr) LO1 LO2 LO3 LO4 LO5
Week 12 Life on other worlds, or other ways of knowing? / Main reading: Blaser and Cadena (2018); Strathern (2018) Seminar (2 hr) LO1 LO2 LO3 LO4 LO5
Week 13 Who has a right to theorize? / Main reading: Guru (2002); Sarukkai (2007) / Other reading: Visvanathan (2001); Gurukkal (2013) Seminar (2 hr) LO1 LO2 LO3 LO4 LO5

Attendance and class requirements

  • Attendance: According to Faculty Board Resolutions, students in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences are expected to attend 90% of their classes. If you attend less than 50% of classes, regardless of the reasons, you may be referred to the Examiner’s Board. The Examiner’s Board will decide whether you should pass or fail the unit of study if your attendance falls below this threshold.

  • Lecture recording: Most lectures (in recording-equipped venues) will be recorded and may be made available to students on the LMS. However, you should not rely on lecture recording to substitute your classroom learning experience.

  • Preparation: Students should commit to spend approximately three hours’ preparation time (reading, studying, homework, essays, etc.) for every hour of scheduled instruction.

Study commitment

Typically, there is a minimum expectation of 1.5-2 hours of student effort per week per credit point for units of study offered over a full semester. For a 6 credit point unit, this equates to roughly 120-150 hours of student effort in total.

Required readings

Recommended and required readings as well as other supplementary resources are available through the Library. They can be found in the Library catalogue and through the Leganto interface (“Reading List”) to the catalogue on the class Canvas site. See each week’s notes page for details on the topics and readings we cover in class.

References and further reading

Addams, Jane. 1902. Democracy and social ethics. New York: The Macmillan Company. http://archive.org/details/democracysociale00addauoft.

 

———. 1916. “The Devil Baby at Hull House.” The Atlantic, October 1, 1916. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1916/10/the-devil-baby-at-hull-house/305428/.

 

Battle-Baptiste, Whitney, and Britt Rusert. 2018. W. E. B. Du Bois’s Data Portraits: Visualizing Black America. New York: Princeton Architectural Press. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/usyd/detail.action?docID=5515147.

 

Blaser, Mario, and Marisol de la Cadena. 2018. “Pluriverse: Proposals for a World of Many Worlds.” In A World of Many Worlds, edited by Marisol de la Cadena and Mario Blaser, 1–22. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press.

 

Dawson, Michael C. 2016. “Hidden in Plain Sight: A Note on Legitimation Crises and the Racial Order.” Critical Historical Studies 3 (1): 143–61. https://doi.org/10.1086/685540.

 

Desmond, Matthew. 2012. “Disposable Ties and the Urban Poor.” American Journal of Sociology 117 (5): 1295–335. https://doi.org/10.1086/663574.

 

———. 2014. “Relational Ethnography.” Theory and Society 43 (5): 547–79. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11186-014-9232-5.

 

Du Bois, W. E. B. 1903. “Of Our Spiritual Strivings.” In The Souls of Black Folk: Essays and Sketches, 1–12. Chicago: A. C. McClurg. https://archive.org/details/cu31924024920492/mode/2up.

 

———. 1921. “The souls of white folk.” In Darkwater: Voices from within the veil, 29–52. New York: Harcourt, Brace. http://archive.org/details/darkwatervoicesf00duborich.

 

Durkheim, Emile. (1895) 1966. ‘What Is a Social Fact’ and ‘Rules for the Observation of Social Facts’.” In The Rules of the Sociological Method, edited by George E. G. Catlin, translated by Sarah A. Solovay and John H. Mueller, 1–13, 14–46. New York: The Free Press.

 

Evans-Pritchard, E. E. 1951. “Some Features of Nuer Religion.” The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland 81 (1/2): 1–13. https://doi.org/10.2307/2844013.

 

Fanon, Frantz. (1952a) 1991. “The fact of blackness.” In Black skin, white masks, 109–40. New York: Grove Weidenfeld. http://archive.org/details/blackskinwhitema0000fano.

 

———. (1952b) 1991. “The Negro and language.” In Black skin, white masks, 17–40. New York: Grove Weidenfeld. http://archive.org/details/blackskinwhitema0000fano.

 

Foucault, Michel. 1982. “The Subject and Power.” Critical Inquiry 8 (4): 777–95. https://doi.org/10.1086/448181.

 

———. 1991. “Governmentality.” In The Foucault Effect: Studies in Governmentality, edited by Graham Burchell, Colin Gordon, and Peter Miller, 87–104. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

 

Fraser, Nancy. 2014. “Behind Marx’s Hidden Abode: For an Expanded Conception of Capitalism.” New Left Review, no. 86 (April): 55–72.

 

———. 2016. “Expropriation and Exploitation in Racialized Capitalism: A Reply to Michael Dawson.” Critical Historical Studies 3 (1): 163–78. https://doi.org/10.1086/685814.

 

Gupta, Akhil. 2012. Red Tape: Bureaucracy, Structural Violence, and Poverty in India. A John Hope Franklin Center book. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press. https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822394709.

 

Guru, Gopal. 2002. “How Egalitarian Are the Social Sciences in India?” Economic and Political Weekly 37 (50): 5003–9. https://www.jstor.org/stable/4412959.

 

Gurukkal, Rajan. 2013. “On Mirroring the Social: Can Felt-Ontology Alone Inform the Theory?” Economic and Political Weekly 48 (14): 27–31. https://www.jstor.org/stable/23527281.

 

Kohn, Eduardo. 2007. “How dogs dream: Amazonian natures and the politics of transspecies engagement.” American Ethnologist 34 (1): 3–24. https://doi.org/10.1525/ae.2007.34.1.3.

 

———. 2015. “Anthropology of Ontologies.” Annual Review of Anthropology 44 (1): 311–27. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-anthro-102214-014127.

 

Lengermann, Patricia, and Gillian Niebrugge. 2014. “The Explanatory Power of Ethics: The Sociology of Jane Addams.” In The Palgrave Handbook of Altruism, Morality, and Social Solidarity: Formulating a Field of Study, edited by Vincent Jeffries, 99–122. New York: Palgrave Macmillan US. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137391865_5.

 

Lukes, Steven. 1973. “Introduction.” In Emile Durkheim, His Life and Work: A Historical and Critical Study, 1–36. London: Penguin Books.

 

Marx, Karl. (1867) 1972. “Capital, Vol. 1.” In The Marx-Engels Reader, edited by Robert C. Tucker, 294–438. New York: W. W. Norton & Company.

 

Mauss, Marcel. (1925) 1990. “Selections from introduction, chapters 1-2, and conclusion.” In The Gift: The Form and Reason for Exchange in Archaic Societies, translated by W. D. Halls, 1–14, 39–46, 78–83. New York: W. W. Norton & Company.

 

Sarukkai, Sundar. 2007. “Dalit Experience and Theory.” Economic and Political Weekly 42 (40): 4043–48. https://www.jstor.org/stable/40276647.

 

Strathern, Marilyn. 2018. “Opening up Relations.” In A World of Many Worlds, edited by Marisol de la Cadena and Mario Blaser, 23–52. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press.

 

Visvanathan, Shiv. 2001. “Durban and Dalit Discourse.” Economic and Political Weekly 36 (33): 3123–27. https://www.jstor.org/stable/4410991.

 

Weber, Max. 1991. “Bureaucracy.” In From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology, edited by H. H. Gerth and C. Wright Mills, 196–244. Oxford: Taylor & Francis Group.

Learning outcomes are what students know, understand and are able to do on completion of a unit of study. They are aligned with the University's graduate qualities and are assessed as part of the curriculum.

At the completion of this unit, you should be able to:

  • LO1. identify and distinguish central paradigms and key concepts of the social sciences and their roots in social theory
  • LO2. critically assess how different theoretical frameworks in the social sciences shape different methodological, analytical and ethical approaches to social and cultural realities
  • LO3. identify and critically assess scholarly arguments and analysis in the traditions of social theory
  • LO4. apply theorisations and key concepts of social theory to an understanding of historical, current and new development paradigms and their social and cultural impact
  • LO5. develop critical thinking, research, writing and oral presentation skills to engage with and contribute to advance development and anthropological knowledge

Graduate qualities

The graduate qualities are the qualities and skills that all University of Sydney graduates must demonstrate on successful completion of an award course. As a future Sydney graduate, the set of qualities have been designed to equip you for the contemporary world.

GQ1 Depth of disciplinary expertise

Deep disciplinary expertise is the ability to integrate and rigorously apply knowledge, understanding and skills of a recognised discipline defined by scholarly activity, as well as familiarity with evolving practice of the discipline.

GQ2 Critical thinking and problem solving

Critical thinking and problem solving are the questioning of ideas, evidence and assumptions in order to propose and evaluate hypotheses or alternative arguments before formulating a conclusion or a solution to an identified problem.

GQ3 Oral and written communication

Effective communication, in both oral and written form, is the clear exchange of meaning in a manner that is appropriate to audience and context.

GQ4 Information and digital literacy

Information and digital literacy is the ability to locate, interpret, evaluate, manage, adapt, integrate, create and convey information using appropriate resources, tools and strategies.

GQ5 Inventiveness

Generating novel ideas and solutions.

GQ6 Cultural competence

Cultural Competence is the ability to actively, ethically, respectfully, and successfully engage across and between cultures. In the Australian context, this includes and celebrates Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures, knowledge systems, and a mature understanding of contemporary issues.

GQ7 Interdisciplinary effectiveness

Interdisciplinary effectiveness is the integration and synthesis of multiple viewpoints and practices, working effectively across disciplinary boundaries.

GQ8 Integrated professional, ethical, and personal identity

An integrated professional, ethical and personal identity is understanding the interaction between one’s personal and professional selves in an ethical context.

GQ9 Influence

Engaging others in a process, idea or vision.

Outcome map

Learning outcomes Graduate qualities
GQ1 GQ2 GQ3 GQ4 GQ5 GQ6 GQ7 GQ8 GQ9

This section outlines changes made to this unit following staff and student reviews.

This unit has been completely revised from previous versions. It now employs a thematic approach, new topics, and a wider conception of the sociological imagination to make it more relevant to the Master's of Social Justice program.

Disclaimer

The University reserves the right to amend units of study or no longer offer certain units, including where there are low enrolment numbers.

To help you understand common terms that we use at the University, we offer an online glossary.