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| Semester | fall semester 2020 |
| Course frequency | Once only |
| Lecturers | Rita Kesselring (rita.kesselring@unibas.ch, Assessor) |
| Content | The production of commodities is global, but extraction necessarily happens locally as minerals and other raw materials are place-bound deposits. This dual dimension of global production chains (including consumption, finance, trade, ownership) versus local extraction is the starting point for the “Anthropology of Mining”, an area of ethnographic research which has gained much traction since the most recent mining boom. Raw materials and minerals not simply products. They are based on cultural and specific histories, and become a socialized product as soon as human lay hands on it. In this Proseminar, we look at the growing ethnographic literature that engages with mining in relation to, among others, labour migration, large-scale on-shore and off-shore operations, the economies of artisanal mining, liberalisation, urbanisation, miners and unions, corporations and corporate social responsibility, environment and human rights, resistance, stateness, mines’ afterlives, and trade and logistics. We read literature from and on the global South and the global North. |
| Learning objectives | - You have an understanding of the extractive practices and their impact on environments and communities around the world - You have a good grasp of the variety of perspectives anthropology employs to describe and explain practices around mining |
| Bibliography | Ballard, Chris, und Glenn Banks. 2003. „Resource Wars: The Anthropology of Mining“. Annual Review of Anthropology 32 (1): 287–313. |
| Comments | Depending on the participants, their skills and preferences, the language of instruction can be either English or German. |
| Admission requirements | The number of participants is limited to 30 people. The places are assigned according to date of enrollment and subject of study. Priority will be given to the subjects listed under "modules". |
| Language of instruction | English |
| Use of digital media | No specific media used |
| Course auditors welcome |
| Interval | Weekday | Time | Room |
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No dates available. Please contact the lecturer.
| Modules |
Modul: Erweiterung Gesellschaftswissenschaften B.A. (Bachelor's degree subject: Political Science) Modul: Sachthemen der Ethnologie (Bachelor's degree subject: Anthropology) Module: Projects and Processes of Urbanization (Master's degree program: Critical Urbanisms (Start of studies before 01.08.2020)) Module: The Urban across Disciplines (Master's degree program: Critical Urbanisms) |
| Assessment format | continuous assessment |
| Assessment registration/deregistration | Reg.: course registration; dereg.: not required |
| Repeat examination | no repeat examination |
| Scale | Pass / Fail |
| Repeated registration | no repetition |
| Responsible faculty | Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, studadmin-philhist@unibas.ch |
| Offered by | Fachbereich Ethnologie |