Contemporary ethnographic approaches to the city

HAC107 Contemporary ethnographic approaches to the city

[not offered] | Course outline [pdf file]

The course focuses on methodological issues regarding the anthropological study of urban space. Drawing on the premise of the dynamic relationship between people and the city the course specializes on issues of conducting fieldwork in urban spaces by laying emphasis on the ways people and the city interact as active agents and products of historical, socioeconomic and material processes. The course comprises a discussion of a combination of ethnographic and other qualitative research methods ranging from classical ethnography through participant observation to the application of multi-sited, multimodal, sensorial and digital fieldwork methodologies. The course also discusses historical anthropological perspective and research strategies for the exploration of the relationship between historical developments in urban space and identity construction or contestation, as well as issues concerning urban experience in the past. The course aims to familiarize students with methodological approaches to urban space through critical review of the literature and the discussion of examples of urban research methods illustrating recent theoretical developments in the field of urban ethnography.