Unit ETHNOGRAPHY
- Course
- Cultural heritage
- Study-unit Code
- GP005273
- Curriculum
- Antropologia
- Teacher
- Massimiliano Minelli
- Teachers
-
- Massimiliano Minelli
- Hours
- 36 ore - Massimiliano Minelli
- CFU
- 6
- Course Regulation
- Coorte 2021
- Offered
- 2022/23
- Learning activities
- Caratterizzante
- Area
- Discipline relative ai beni storico-archeologici e artistici, archivistici e librari, demoetnoantropologici e ambientali
- Academic discipline
- M-DEA/01
- Type of study-unit
- Obbligatorio (Required)
- Type of learning activities
- Attività formativa monodisciplinare
- Language of instruction
- Italian
- Contents
- The course will outline a framework of qualitative research methods, giving attention to the fieldwork research. The methodological process will be outlined, considering the main steps of ethnographic investigation: choosing a problem, writing a project, entering the fieldwork, participating/observing, interviewing, making qualitative data analysis, writing an ethnographic text. Students will be asked to participate in seminars and exercises concerning an ethnographic research on objects and everyday life.
- Reference texts
- - Fabietti U., Matera V.(curatori). Etnografia. Scritture e rappresentazioni dell'antropologia, Carocci, Roma, 1997, pp. 1-154 (Introduzione; Parte, prima; Parte seconda; Parte terza).
- Semi G. L’osservazione partecipante. Una guida pratica, Il Mulino, Bologna, 2010.
- Miller D. Cose che parlano di noi. Un antropologo a casa nostra, Il Mulino, Bologna, 2014.
Texts in English as suggested alternatives:
Hammersley M. - Atkinson P., Etnography. Principles in practices, Routledge, London - New York, 1995.
Appadurai A., The social life of things. Commodities in cultural perspectives, Cambridge University press, Cambridge, 1986. - Educational objectives
- The course provides the basic knowledge on qualitative research, and promotes the acquisition of epistemological and methodological skills in the area of ethnography. The students will acquire the following main skills:
- knowledge of the qualitative methods;
- knowledge of the relationship between anthropology, sociology and ethnographic research;
- knowledge of the tools and techniques for the interpretation of the socio-cultural processes.
The main skills that allow to apply the acquired knowledge are:
- ability to define the research problem and to adopt effective and innovative methodological choices;
- ability in data analysis and reporting research results. - Prerequisites
- In order to be able to understand and to tackle the course, which has a critical and reflexive orientation toward the field research, the student must have basic knowledge concerning the theories of social sciences and the history of cultural anthropology. This precondition is valid both for attending or not attending students.
- Teaching methods
- The course is organized as follows:
- lecturers on all subjects of the course;
- laboratory activities and discussion groups concerning an ethnographic research on objects and everyday life. - Other information
- During the course will be provided more bibliographic information.
Not attending students are warmly recommended to contact the teacher in office hours, in order to agree the exam program. - Learning verification modality
- The exam consists of an individual oral test and begins, usually, with a question concerning the fieldwork-experiences acquired by the student during the course. The discussion-interview focus on the topics covered during the lectures and the issues present in recommended texts. Attending students will integrate the oral examination with a discussion of a written paper, in which the candidates will present and interpret the ethnographic data produced during the course. The acquired skill in ethnographic writing, essential for training in qualitative research methodology, is evaluated as exemption from part of the overall teaching load.
The oral exam consists of an interview, of about 30 minutes, and aimed at assess:
- the level of knowledge of the theoretical contents of the course (Dublin descriptor 1);
- the level of competence in presenting their knowledge (Dublin descriptor 2);
- autonomy of judgment (Dublin descriptor 3).
- the student's language skills in answering the Commission’s questions, to sustain a dialectical relationship during the interview and to demonstrate logical-deductive and summary abilities in the exhibition of one's thought (Dublin 4 descriptor).
The grade will be express by the Commission in thirtieths.
Note: In case a student intends to anticipate his/her exam in a year preceding the one it is scheduled in his/her curriculum, it is recommended to anticipate as well the attendance of the lessons and to schedule the exam in the first useful session after the lessons have been concluded. - Extended program
- The course will outline a framework of qualitative research methods in social sciences, giving attention to the fieldwork research; particualrly its interactive, processual and reflexive features. The process of ethnography will be outlined in methodological terms, considering the definition of the field and the main steps of investigation: choosing a problem, writing a project, entering the fieldwork, participating/observing, interviewing, making qualitative data analysis, writing an ethnographic text.
Students will be asked to participate in seminars and exercises. These activities aim at creating an ethnography of everyday life, by exploring (with participant observation and biographical interviews) some daily objects, commodities, and domestic spaces. In this way, the research-team will describe and experience a concrete biographical approach to the world of things, considering respectively: recent approaches to material culture, the “social life of things”, the processes of objectification and subjectification through uses of objects, the performance of commodities.