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Regional ethnography: Central Europe
Study Course Description
Course Description Statuss:Approved
Course Description Version:4.00
Study Course Accepted:02.02.2024 12:25:38
| Study Course Information | |||||||||
| Course Code: | KSK_285 | LQF level: | Level 7 | ||||||
| Credit Points: | 4.00 | ECTS: | 6.00 | ||||||
| Branch of Science: | Sociology; Social Anthropology | Target Audience: | Social Anthropology | ||||||
| Study Course Supervisor | |||||||||
| Course Supervisor: | Ieva Puzo | ||||||||
| Study Course Implementer | |||||||||
| Structural Unit: | Faculty of Social Sciences | ||||||||
| The Head of Structural Unit: | |||||||||
| Contacts: | Dzirciema street 16, Rīga, szf rsu[pnkts]lv | ||||||||
| Study Course Planning | |||||||||
| Full-Time - Semester No.1 | |||||||||
| Lectures (count) | 6 | Lecture Length (academic hours) | 2 | Total Contact Hours of Lectures | 12 | ||||
| Classes (count) | 18 | Class Length (academic hours) | 2 | Total Contact Hours of Classes | 36 | ||||
| Total Contact Hours | 48 | ||||||||
| Study course description | |||||||||
| Preliminary Knowledge: | N/A | ||||||||
| Objective: | 1) Familiarizing students to current debates in the anthropology of Central-Eastern Europe; discussing the specificity of the region and also deconstructing homogenising approaches. 2) Enabling students to draw on insights from the anthropology of post-socialism, economic anthropology and political economy in order to explain encounters with global capitalism in the region and gaining a critical view on the transformations and continuities in its social relations. 3) The course will put an emphasis on new ethnographies of food and agriculture, as this is an arena where competing value and practices of transforming CEE societies are most visible. | ||||||||
| Topic Layout (Full-Time) | |||||||||
| No. | Topic | Type of Implementation | Number | Venue | |||||
| 1 | Doing anthropology in Central-Eastern Europe | Lectures | 1.00 | auditorium | |||||
| Classes | 2.00 | E-Studies platform | |||||||
| 2 | Critical engagements with ‘Postsocialism’ | Lectures | 1.00 | auditorium | |||||
| Classes | 2.00 | E-Studies platform | |||||||
| 3 | Land and property relations after socialism | Classes | 2.00 | auditorium | |||||
| 4 | Markets and commodification | Lectures | 1.00 | auditorium | |||||
| Classes | 1.00 | E-Studies platform | |||||||
| 5 | Inequality and subsistence strategies | Classes | 2.00 | auditorium | |||||
| 6 | Politics of gender | Lectures | 1.00 | auditorium | |||||
| Classes | 1.00 | E-Studies platform | |||||||
| 7 | Flexible personhood | Classes | 2.00 | E-Studies platform | |||||
| 8 | Place and authenticity | Classes | 1.00 | auditorium | |||||
| 9 | Politics of heritage and biodiversity conservation | Lectures | 1.00 | auditorium | |||||
| Classes | 1.00 | E-Studies platform | |||||||
| 10 | Certification and regulation in agriculture | Classes | 1.00 | auditorium | |||||
| 11 | ‘Europeanization’ in the food and wine field | Lectures | 1.00 | auditorium | |||||
| Classes | 1.00 | E-Studies platform | |||||||
| 12 | Conclusion | Classes | 2.00 | auditorium | |||||
| Assessment | |||||||||
| Unaided Work: | Reading of the assigned texts, preparation of written assignments and oral presentations. More details on the e-studies platform. | ||||||||
| Assessment Criteria: | Active class participation (40%). Final paper (60%). | ||||||||
| Final Examination (Full-Time): | Exam (Written) | ||||||||
| Final Examination (Part-Time): | |||||||||
| Learning Outcomes | |||||||||
| Knowledge: | Ability to critically assess popular discourses on Central and Eastern Europe; to explain the theoretical concepts introduced during the course; to use the studied theoretical and ethnographic concepts in one's own research. | ||||||||
| Skills: | Acquisition and honing of theoretical analysis skills, written and oral presentation skills, based on the newly acquired theoretical knowledge and empirical observations. | ||||||||
| Competencies: | Critical assessment of the theoretical and empirical material introduced during the course; use of these materials in the interpretation and analysis of other theoretical and empirical materials; reliance on the covered material in research and solving practical problems. | ||||||||
| Bibliography | |||||||||
| No. | Reference | ||||||||
| Required Reading | |||||||||
| 1 | Creed, G.W., 2011. Masquerade and postsocialism: ritual and cultural dispossession in Bulgaria. Indiana University Press. | ||||||||
| 2 | Chelcea, L. and Druţǎ, O., 2016. Zombie socialism and the rise of neoliberalism in post-socialist Central and Eastern Europe. Eurasian Geography and Economics, 57(4-5), pp.521-544. | ||||||||
| 3 | Makovicky, N., 2016. Introduction: Me, Inc.? Untangling Neoliberalism, Personhood, and Postsocialism. In Neoliberalism, Personhood, and Postsocialism (pp. 15-30). Routledge. | ||||||||
| 4 | Kalb, D., 2009. Conversations with a Polish populist: Tracing hidden histories of globalization, class, and dispossession in postsocialism (and beyond). American Ethnologist, 36(2), pp.207-223. | ||||||||
| 5 | Gille, Z., 2016. Paprika, foie gras, and red mud: The politics of materiality in the European Union. Indiana University Press. | ||||||||
| 6 | Pine, F., 2003. Retreat to the household?: Gendered domains in postsocialist Poland. In Postsocialism (pp. 107-125). Routledge. | ||||||||
| 7 | Berdahl, D., 1999. ‘(N) Ostalgie’for the present: memory, longing, and East German things.Ethnos, 64(2), pp.192-211. | ||||||||
| 8 | Aistara, G.A., 2014. Authentic Anachronisms. Gastronomica: The Journal of Critical Food Studies, 14(4), pp.7-16. | ||||||||
