Global Economy and Culture

Specialisation of: Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology
Degree: Master of Arts in Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology
Mode of Study: Full-time
Duration: 1 year
Start date: September, February
Language of instruction: English
Location: Leiden
Croho/isat code: 60156
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This specialisation emphasizes the multi-scalar connections between the economic and the political and between institutional and non-institutional policy-making. It also addresses the responses to such policies by social movements, or ordinary citizens, and the creation of alternative markets in which factors other than sole profitability are important.

This MA specialisation examines transformations of states, markets and political participation in the context of global connections. This implies looking at how international institutions and corporate bodies (whether through the World Bank, IMF or private financial institutions and multinational companies) influence the way states deal with or respond to issues of:

• poverty and development,
• political and economic security, and
• domestic and international markets.

It also examines how different groups of people (within and between nation-states) respond to such policies. This specialisation emphasizes the multi-scalar connections between the economic and the political, between institutional and non-institutional policy-making and the responses by social movements, by the everyday politics of ordinary citizens or with the creation of alternative markets.

Students will develop a firm foundation in the anthropology and ethnography of global politics which is combined with the more performative and pragmatic directions nowadays taken in economic anthropology and sociology with the analysis of currencies and commodities. It combines issues that are politically relevant and urgent in the current world situation with local day-to-day events.

Prof. Peter Pels

“Students carry out individual research for three months into the subject that fascinates them. This is carried out under the supervision of researchers of our institute.”

“Our master’s programme in Cultural Anthropology and Develop¬ment Sociology is first and foremost a disciplinary programme. After an introduction at the MA-level of the theory and practice of ethnography (or how to do research about large and important issues in small places), students can choose between three specializations: Environmental Anthropology and Development Sociology, Global Economy and Culture, and Media, Visual and Material Culture. ‘Global Economy and Culture’ is the most general of the three, and deals predominantly with the small-scale manifestations of large-scale institutions such as global markets, nation-states and international organizations, and global processes of trade and production. ‘Media, Visual and Material Culture’ combines visual anthropology and material culture studies, and allows students a choice between visual anthropology more generally, and a museum-track in collaboration with the Museum of Ethnology and the Museum of Antiquities in Leiden. ‘Environmental Anthropology and Development Sociology’, finally, concentrates on environmental anthropology and the sociology and anthropology of development.

All three specializations can be combined with ethnographic film, on condition of proper BA-level preparation and starting with the programme in September.

Studying culture in the street requires thorough and intimate knowledge of specific world areas. Leiden has long specialized in Southeast Asia en Africa, although staff members (often with the help of area studies colleagues in other parts of Leiden University) also supervise research in other parts of the world. It is this intimate involvement with specific cultural regions that gives our programme its excellent international reputation. Practical field research is one of the pillars of both our bachelor and our master programmes. In the latter, we pride ourselves on the fact that we have been able to perfect our curricular activities and individual supervision to make sure that students finish the programme within a year with an academic product of high quality.”