Selected Anthropological Methods

This module is designed to introduce methods to non-anthropologists. Those with anthropological training should attend more advanced sessions. The module reviews the history of ethnographic research in anthropology and other social sciences. We’ll look at ongoing debates about the nature of ethnographic practice (including writing and reading). What are the practical implications of these for research in different disciplines? How do we pick and/or mix different ethnographic strategies and styles? Participant observation and visual and material methods are the two main sections of this module..

This module is designed for MPhil and PhD students as part of the Social Science Research Methods Centre (SSRMC) training programme - a shared platform for providing research students with a broad range of quantitative and qualitative research methods skills that are relevant across the social sciences.

Number of sessions: 2

• Session 1: Visual Anthropological Methods

How are film, photography and other visual media used in anthropology? How can we approach such media as both images and practices from an anthropological perspective?

• Session 2: Participant Observation and the Ethnographic Method

What is ethnography, and how does it define the discipline of Social Anthropology? Can ethnographic research and writing be objective? Is the classic model of ethnography still relevant for contemporary researchers within and beyond Social Anthropology?

• To introduce students to qualitative visual methods and visual analysis debates To engage examine the importance of “casual” visual practices across different disciplines
• To involve students in the study of ongoing debates on ethnographic practice
• To look at the practical implications of research in different disciplines
• To consider how to pick and/or mix the different ethnographic strategies and styles

• To introduce methods to non-anthropologists
• To review the history of ethnographic research in anthropology and other social sciences

Presentations only

• Contreras, R. 2013 ‘Introduction’ in The Stickup Kids: Race, Drugs, Violence and the American Dream. (Berkeley; Los Angeles; London: University of California Press). pp 1-32
• Gay y Blasco, P. & Wardle, H. 2006. ‘Introduction: the concerns and distinctiveness of ethnography‘ in How to Read Ethnography (London; New York: Routledge) pp. 1-13
• Geertz, C. 1984. ‘Anti Anti-Relativism’ American Anthropologist 86 (2): 263-278
• Kuper, A. 1996. ‘Malinowski’ in Anthropology and Anthropologists: The Modern British School 3rd edition (London; New York: Routledge) pp. 1-35
• Parry, JP. 2012. ‘Comparative Reflections on Fieldwork in Urban India: A Personal Account’ in Pardo, I. & Prato, GB. Anthropology in the City: Methodology and Theory. (Farnham: Ashgate). pp. 29-53.
• Rosaldo, R. 1993 [1989] ‘Grief and a Headhunter’s Rage’ in R. Rosaldo Culture and Truth: The Remaking of Social Analysis (Boston: Beacon Press; London: Taylor & Francis). pp. 167-178
• West, P. 2012 ‘International Coffee’ in From Modern Production to Imagined Primitive: The Social World of Coffee from Papua New Guinea (Durham; London: Duke) pp. 201-236

• Marcus Banks, David Zeitlyn. 2015. Visual Methods in Social Research (London: Sage)
• Marcus Banks, Jay Ruby (eds). 2012 Made to Be Seen: Perspectives on the History of Visual Anthropology (Oxford: Clarendon Press) [Introduction]
• Sarah Pink. 2013. Doing Visual Ethnography (London: Sage)

All students are expected to give feedback for each module they take...

At the end of each module, students will be sent a link to a very short evaluation form. They will also be able to find this link on the Moodle page for their course. The survey takes a few minutes to fill in, and can even be done on a mobile phone. Students that do not respond to the survey the first time, will receive regular automated reminders until the survey is completed.

Students will not be given certification or proof of attendance for any module for which they have not provided feedback.

• To gain maximum benefits from the course it is important that students do not see this course in isolation from the other MPhil courses or research training they are taking.
• Responsibility lies with each student to consider the potential for their own research using methods common in fields of the social sciences that may seem remote. Ideally this task will be facilitated by integration of the SSRMC with discipline-specific courses in their departments and through reading and discussion.

2 sessions of one and a half hours each

Once a week for 2 weeks