Learning objectives
Developing the ability to observe the construction of social and cultural phenomena; acquiring a critical perspective; comparative skills regarding societies and cultures; ability to apply critical knowledge and anthropological language in everyday and professional contexts; ability to deal with environmental dynamics through an anthropological sensitivity; ability to communicate information, ideas, anthropological and ethnographic issues in written and oral form to specialist and non-specialist interlocutors.
Course unit content
Fundamental themes and concepts of cultural anthropology will be addressed, connecting them with current debates that are particularly significant for the students' educational path: climate change, environmental sustainability, ecological “frictions”, environmental conflicts. We will focus on the interdependence between environmental and cultural dynamics in an anthropological perspective and on the narratives and languages of events connected to these dynamics.
The in-depth studies will give students the opportunity to learn to "use" anthropology to understand the contexts in which they live, act and work.
Full programme
Introduction of the fundamental concepts of cultural anthropology: the specificities of the “intercultural discipline par excellence” will be highlighted, as it is founded on in-depth communication and interaction between people performing different cultures and different interests. Specific attention will be given to the methodological and epistemological aspects underpinning Anthropology and to the critical perspective.
From an anthropological point of view, journalistic communication is characterized by a social agency with the responsibility and skills to show - in the arena of public communication - the interests, objectives and grasvisions of the various actors who contribute to social management: from political actors to grassroots and / or indigenous movements, from entrepreneurs to inhabitants.
The case study will help students to analyze the production of narrative and counter-narrative about environmental issues/conflicts and the languages connected to them: which perspectives are privileged over others and why? How do the cases of land exploitation receive attention in the mass media? And again, what specific ideas, practices, economic development strategies are generated in a specific territory and how are they investigated and debated at the level of public communication?
Furthermore, to take in the environmental dimension, themes and texts from the so-called "ontological turn" will be addressed, through which it is possible to conceive differently the relationship between human and not-human. The reflection on "Western" and "non-Western" knowledge, practices, cosmologies and ontologies will be both an element of knowledge and comparison, and an instrument for the deconstruction of ethnocentrisms, marginalizations, exclusions, also urging the need to re-establish and re-signify the relationship with the nature and the environment in which we are immersed.
Bibliography
1. Dispensa del corso a cura delle docenti
2. Descola P., Un'ecologia delle relazioni. L'uomo e il suo ambiente, Marietti, 2021 and - Descola P., Diversità di natura, diversità di cultura, Book Time, 2011.
3. Un testo a scelta tra i seguenti:
- Aime. M., Fuori dal tunnel: Viaggio antropologico nella val di Susa, Meltemi, Milano, 2016.
- Aime M., Favole A., Remotti F., Il mondo che avrete. Virus, Antropocene, rivoluzione, UTET, Torino, 2020.
- Borgnino E., Ecologie Native, Eleuthera, Milano, 2022.
- Breda N., Palù. Inquieti paesaggi tra natura e cultura, CISU, Roma, 2008
- Descola P., L'ecologia degli altri. L’Antropologia e la questione della natura, Linaria, Roma, 2016.
- E. Fabiano, G. Mangiameli (a cura di), Dialoghi con i non umani. Milano, Mimesis, 2019.
- T. Ingold, Corrispondenze, Cortina Raffaello, 2021.
- T. Ingold, Ecologia della cultura, Meltemi, 2016.
- Kohn E., Come pensano le foreste, Nottetempo, Milano, 2021.
- Latour B., La sfida di Gaia, Meltemi, 2020
- Moore Jason W., Antropocene o capitalocene, Ombrecorte, Verona , 2017.
- Rossi A., D’Angelo L., Antropologia, risorse naturali e conflitti ambientali, Mimesis, 2012.
- Van Aken M., Campati per aria, Elèuthera, Milano, 2020.
Teaching methods
Lessons and seminars; Lectures and discussions, Q&A, some writing exercitations in classes, Online lectures Educational material, videos on Elly Platform.
Assessment methods and criteria
Oral examination with the possibility of producing a written paper to be discussed during the oral exam. The paper will focus on the critical analysis of some articles on environmental issues . The exam will focus on the entire exam program indicated, including both the theoretical and monographic components. Students are invited to engage with the materials in a way that connects the chosen monograph with the theoretical component of the lecture .
The oral part will follow the following evaluation: the student will answer the questions correctly using an appropriate language, communication skills, and showing an excellent ability to apply, make connections, autonomy of judgment and critical re-elaboration of concepts (from 28 to 30 e Lode); the student will answer correctly the questions using an appropriate language, communication skills, and showing a good ability to apply, sufficient autonomy of judgment and critical re-elaboration of the concepts (from 25 to 27); the student will answer the questions correctly using a sufficiently appropriate language (from 21 to 24); the student will answer correctly at least a part of the essential questions using a sufficiently appropriate language (from 18 to 20).
Other information
Possibility of examination for non-Italian speakers in English
