2025/6 - DEV-4002B People and Cultures

Spring Semester, Level 4 module Credits: UCU 20

Organiser: Professor Emma Gilberthorpe

Assessment Type: Examination with Coursework or Project

By taking the module People & Cultures, you will improve your knowledge of the ways in which people and culture inform social change. Human agency is often overlooked in development policy and practice, yet it is human action and the knowledge (or culture) that action is born out of, that actually informs the ways in which ‘development’ is understood, interpreted and integrated. In this module we introduce you to a range social concerns and consider them in relation to cultural practice: how, for example, does ritual and ceremonial activity ensure social solidarity and communal and individual wellbeing? What happens when ‘alien’ customs are enforced? What happens when cultural groups lose (through colonisation, development, modernisation etc.) their ritual traditions? How can ‘alternative’ forms of knowledge [such as Indigenous knowledge] help us better tackle global issues such as climate change, global inequality and poverty? How can an understanding of ‘alternative’ forms of exchange [non-market] help us understand human interactions and sociality? Why do development policies and practices fail when they ignore these ‘alternative’ types of sociality? We combine these social issues with a critical overview of ‘social development’ to provide you with the skills needed to ethically engage on a multi- and inter-cultural level, both within the university context and in your graduate career. The module is designed for students concerned with human agency and how that agency is informed by deep-seated cultural nuance.