This seminar aims at increasing knowledge and awareness of students who engage in social action, helping them combine theoretical approaches and practical issues encountered on the ground during their service learning experience. Building on the field of “anthropology and development” students will be able to understand the context in which the nonprofit organizations, also known as “third sector”, operate in Brazil, and how their approach has been transformed over the last thirty to forty years. By learning first-hand about the interactions between state, market, and nonprofits and learning basic approaches to qualitative and quantitative research, they will be in a better position to interpret the work market that awaits them after graduation.
Prerequisites:
Two semesters of Portuguese, or advanced level of Spanish.
Learning outcomes:
At the end of the course, students should be able to:
Understand the main issues in Brazilian contemporary society from a social, environmental and economic perspective
Become aware of the differences between state, market and the nonprofit sectors
Articulate the history of the nonprofit sector in Brazil and its current challenges
Compare the approaches of ‘development anthropology’ and ‘anthropology of development’ in the Brazilian context
Apply the idea of sustainable development to understand paradigms of social and development policy
Apply basic qualitative and quantitative research techniques
Method of presentation:
Class discussions, guest lectures, film viewings, and Moodle.
Required work and form of assessment:
Class participation and presentation (20%); journal (15%); analysis (15%); final report (25%); on-site evaluation by work supervisor (25%).
Journal: Students will submit a one to two-page journal entry per week about their experience in Rio, including notes on their work and observations about life in the city, emphasizing cultural aspects related to what is being discussed in class.
Analysis: Students will compare statistics about poverty, race, gender, economy and health in Rio de Janeiro using the following sources: Datasus, SIDRA/IBGE and Atlas do Desenvolvimento Humano. The analysis (5-7 pages long) should be submitted by Session 6.
Presentation: For Session 8, students will prepare a 5-slide powerpoint presentation on their service learning experience, including background information about the organization, main tasks that were carried out, challenges and lessons.
Final report: Students will choose two related topics discussed in class to develop an individual report (8-10 pages in length), which may include interviews and/or the use of statistics, and should refer to all required readings and at least one recommended reading, to be submitted by Session 12.
content:
Session 1: Anthropology and development: the history of a relationship.
Discussion about motivations: why work as a volunteer?
Presentation about Service Learning placements and the seminar structure
Why have the relationships between anthropology and development been so problematic?
What do the concepts of “brokers” and “translators” mean?
Lamont, Michèle and Virág Molnár. “The Study of Boundaries in the Social Sciences.” In: Annual Review of Sociology, Vol. 28 (2002).
Landim, Leilah. "Defining the Nonprofit Sector: Brazil”. In: Salamon, Lester and Helmut Anheier (eds.). Working Papers of the Johns Hopkins Comparative Nonprofit Sector Project, no. 9. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Institute for Policy Studies, 1993.
____________. “Thirty years and recent dilemmas: NGOs and Third Sector in Brazil (and Latin America)”. Paper presented at the 8th International Conference of the International Society for Third Sector Research (ISTR). Barcelona, July 2008.
Mosse, David. Development Brokers and Translators: The Ethnography of Aid and Agencies. Bloomfield, Kamarian Press, 2006.
Roulston, Kathryn, deMarrais, and Lewis. “Learning to interview in the social sciences”. In: Qualitative Inquiry, vol. 9, no. 4, 2003. http://qix.sagepub.com/content/9/4/643.
Lahsen, Myanna and Gunilla Öberg. “The role of unstated mistrust and disparities in scientific capacity: examples from Brazil”. Centre for Climate Science and Policy Research. Linköping University, Sweden: 2006, pp. 1-35.
Naves, Santuza Cambraia. “A entrevista como recurso etnográfico”. Text presented at the Xth Congress of ABRALIC (Brazilian Association of Comparative Literature). UERJ, Rio de Janeiro, 4 de agosto de 2006: pp. 1-9 (IN PORTUGUESE).
Rosenthal, Gabriele. “Biographical Research”. In: Seale, C. et al. Qualitative research practice. Sage, 2004: pp. 48-64.
Maria Rita Villela graduated in Social Sciences from PUC-Rio in 2005 and earned a Masters Degree in Anthropology and Development from the London School of Economics in 2007. She has been working as a researcher at ISER (Institute of Religious Studies), a prestigious non-profit institution in Rio de Janeiro, monitoring and evaluating social projects throughout the country. Rita is currently a Ph.D candidate in Social Sciences at PUC-Rio, and her main field of interest are the social-environmental issues and discourses on sustainable development.
This seminar aims at increasing knowledge and awareness of students who engage in social action, helping them combine theoretical approaches and practical issues encountered on the ground during their service learning experience. Building on the field of “anthropology and development” students will be able to understand the context in which the nonprofit organizations, also known as “third sector”, operate in Brazil, and how their approach has been transformed over the last thirty to forty years. By learning first-hand about the interactions between state, market, and nonprofits and learning basic approaches to qualitative and quantitative research, they will be in a better position to interpret the work market that awaits them after graduation.
Two semesters of Portuguese, or advanced level of Spanish.
At the end of the course, students should be able to:
Class discussions, guest lectures, film viewings, and Moodle.
Class participation and presentation (20%); journal (15%); analysis (15%); final report (25%); on-site evaluation by work supervisor (25%).
Journal: Students will submit a one to two-page journal entry per week about their experience in Rio, including notes on their work and observations about life in the city, emphasizing cultural aspects related to what is being discussed in class.
Analysis: Students will compare statistics about poverty, race, gender, economy and health in Rio de Janeiro using the following sources: Datasus, SIDRA/IBGE and Atlas do Desenvolvimento Humano. The analysis (5-7 pages long) should be submitted by Session 6.
Presentation: For Session 8, students will prepare a 5-slide powerpoint presentation on their service learning experience, including background information about the organization, main tasks that were carried out, challenges and lessons.
Final report: Students will choose two related topics discussed in class to develop an individual report (8-10 pages in length), which may include interviews and/or the use of statistics, and should refer to all required readings and at least one recommended reading, to be submitted by Session 12.
Session 1: Anthropology and development: the history of a relationship.
Required readings: Bennett, William: 23-53; Mosse, David: 1-26.
Session 2: “Do you know who you are talking to?!”: individual and person in Brazil.
Required reading: DaMatta, Roberto: 137-159.
Session 3: Unintended consequences of social projects and policies.
Required readings: Ferguson, James: 251-277; Sorrentino, Marcello: 206-223.
Session 4: Non-governamental and not for profit: the questions of policy and of funding.
Required readings: Landim, Leilah (1993): 1-20; Landim, Leilah (2008): 1-14.
Session 5: Quantitative fieldwork method: gathering and making use of some recent statistics in Brazil.
Required readings: IBGE: 2010 Census; Saith, Ashwani: 1167–1199.
Session 6: Qualitative fieldwork method: interviews.
Required readings: Malinowski, Bronislaw: 1-26; Roulston, Kathryn: 643-668.
Session 7: Development encounter: ethics in social projects and policy.
Required reading: Lamont, Michèle: 167-195.
Film viewing: Cao Hamburger, Xingu (2012).
Session 8: Student presentations
Session 9: Gender, violence and development: considerations about Brazil
Required reading: Gregori, Maria Filomena: 216-235.
Session 10: Environment and development: Brazilian perspectives.
Required readings: Adams, William: 139-174; Zhouri, Andrea: 183-208.
Session 11: Rio de Janeiro: sexuality and the city.
Required reading: Zaluar, Alba: 7-27.
Session 12: Conclusions. Final report due.
Maria Rita Villela graduated in Social Sciences from PUC-Rio in 2005 and earned a Masters Degree in Anthropology and Development from the London School of Economics in 2007. She has been working as a researcher at ISER (Institute of Religious Studies), a prestigious non-profit institution in Rio de Janeiro, monitoring and evaluating social projects throughout the country. Rita is currently a Ph.D candidate in Social Sciences at PUC-Rio, and her main field of interest are the social-environmental issues and discourses on sustainable development.