Postgraduate Course: Anthropology, Design and the Unsustainable Future (DESI11192)
Course Outline
| School | Edinburgh College of Art |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | This postgraduate course brings students from across ECA and Social Anthropology together to examine unsustainable futures and engage in productive exercises to address cultures and practices, which will lead us to more sustainable futures that are repairable, circular, equitable and planet-centred. |
| Course description |
This course will introduce students to established and cutting edge conversations that link Anthropology to Design. What does it mean to think about sustainable design as an anthropologist or as a designer? Anthropologists and designers share a deep interest in cultures of making as well as a deep concern with the relationships between people and things in their respective environments.
This new course brings these common interests into fresh perspective by inviting students to explore the application of knowledge to the challenge presented by unsustainable modes of living on an overheating planet. How do anthropology and design make our unsustainable futures visible? And what kinds of responses to the unsustainable future does the coming together of anthropology and design allow us to imagine? When is the unsustainable future the unintended consequence or outcome of accidents?
This course will invite students to reflect on the unsustainable future in a comparative, global perspective, drawing on empirical and theoretical traditions in anthropology. At the same time, drawing on traditions of studio based design practice, the course will invite students to develop a practical response to unsustainable modes of contemporary living.
Lectures and practical/experiential activities take place in ECA studio and maker spaces, and are complemented/supported by visits to field sites within walking distance of the main campus across the City of Edinburgh. Students will be engaged in lectures, workshops and seminars in weekly, three hour segments, with a detailed weekly syllabus found on the LEARN page for the course.
The course will invite students to participate in a semester-long series of collaborative exercises framed around the theme of repair, maintenance and circularity which will culminate in a pop-up exhibition hosted in ECA, allowing students to showcase their work, and learning, to a wider university audience.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2023/24, Available to all students (SV1)
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Quota: 40 |
| Course Start |
Semester 2 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Lecture Hours 14,
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 4,
Supervised Practical/Workshop/Studio Hours 9,
External Visit Hours 3,
Feedback/Feedforward Hours 3,
Summative Assessment Hours 5,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
158 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
The course has two components of assessment (assignments), equally weighted, each assessed against all three learning outcomes.
Assignment 1 - 2000 words (50%)
A reflective account of engagement with our unsustainable future, with appropriate supporting visual and material evidence, highlighting an aspect of a system of production involving objects, people, actions and environments that may require adaptation, re-configuration, and/or re-organisation in some way, based on ethnographic work. Individual contribution, assessed through TURNITIN, submitted in Week 6
Assignment 2 - Portfolio of practical groupwork, including a 500 word reflexive 'group manifesto' (50%)
Students will work in small groups (up to 4, cohort size dependent) to construct a plan of action and deliver a materials intervention, disseminated through a collective 'pop-up' exhibition of work which addresses a particular aspect of how they have started to address 'our unsustainable future'. Individual student grades for this component of assessment are calculated using WebPA, a tool that consolidates students' self & peer assessment within the group with an overall staff baseline grade for the group overall. More details about WebPA and our approach to group marking is outlined in the Assessment Section of the course VLE. Submitted in Week 12.
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| Feedback |
Formative feedback is regularly communicated through the course. This takes a number of forms, including verbally through group and individual meetings where work and ideas are discussed with both peers and tutor.
A formative feedback event will take place during class time in Week 9 of the course, providing verbal feedback to students through a studio critique with student groups collectively showcasing works in progress. Full details of this session will be articulated through course handbook and VLE.
Written feedback is included as part of summative assessment, and this will be returned as per University Regulations, with any deviation from this timeline communicated to students in advance.
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| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Evidence their strong ability to analyse current unsustainable circumstances, derived from documentation generated through secondary insights in theory and literature as well as primary experience through methods of ethnographic observation and engagement.
- Demonstate critical application of a range of approaches and practices that serve to address current unsustainable situations and circumstances, derived from strategic engagement and experience with the field.
- Communicate, clearly and coherently, opportunities for changing and challenging unsustainable futures through a variety of media and materials, including (but not limited to) images (still or moving), objects and services, highlighting plans for action to the appropriately identified audience.
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Reading List
(indicative)
Ingram, J., Shove, E., & Watson, M. (2007). Products and Practices: Selected Concepts from Science and Technology Studies and from Social Theories of Consumption and Practice. Design Issues, 23(2), 3-16.
Manzini, E. (2015). Design, when everybody designs : an introduction to design for social innovation. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press.
McDonough, W., & Braungart, M. (2002). Cradle to cradle : remaking the way we make things (1st ed.). New York: North Point Press.
McLaren, D., Niskanen, J., & Anshelm, J. (2020). Reconfiguring repair: Contested politics and values of repair challenge instrumental discourses found in circular economies literature. Resources, Conservation & Recycling: X, 8. doi:10.1016/j.rcrx.2020.100046
Papanek, V. (1985). Design for the real world : human ecology and social change (Second , completely revised ed.): Thames & Hudson.
van der Velden, M. (2021). "Fixing the World One Thing at a Time": Community repair and a sustainable circular economy. Journal of Cleaner Production, 304. doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2021.127151
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Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
You will develop skills in research, intellectual autonomy, and effective communication, with a view to lifelong learning, personal development and ethical engagement in line with the University's 'Mindset' and 'Skill Group' criteria. Graduates will develop competencies allowing them to:
- apply knowledge, skills and understanding from Social Anthropology to questions, techniques, practices and/or materials associated with Design.
- work and contribute effectively in researching and addressing complex systems-oriented challenges relevant to sustainability, in partnership with specialists from across discipilinary perspectives
- identify and analyse problems, and create processes and frameworks to address them through observation, situated practice, and co-design with others
- exercise initiative and autonomy in the development of written and practical projects, both individually and in groupwork
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| Keywords | Anthropology,Design,Sustainability,Repair,Circular Economy |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Arno Verhoeven
Tel: (0131 6)51 5808
Email: |
Course secretary | Miss Emili Astrom
Tel:
Email: |
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