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The postsocialist
world is of particular interest for anthropology, because it has
undergone rapid, paradigmatic changes, and will still be living
with the consequences of these changes for many years. The study
of this unstable and uncertain world, where "all is possible, nothing
is certain", poses many challenges for anthropologists, who have
not yet, in their innermost selves, outlived their Durkheimian origins.
But the anthropology of postsocialism is more than the study of
change. It has, e.g., forced us to focus with fresh eyes on several
classical research themes, most prominently economic anthropology,
which has virtually been revitalized by researchers of postsocialism.
This course
will give an introduction to the anthropology of postsocialism,
by posing the following questions: (a) what was the nature of the
socialist systems? (b) how were these systems transformed into their
present-day forms? (c) what analytical approaches have proven particularly
useful in the anthropological study of postsocialism? (d) what research
themes has it stimulated? (e) what methodological and ethical challenges
does it pose?
The course
will be held while the lecturer is preparing an online introductory
module on the anthropology of postsocialism, which will soon be
offered free of charge to Scandinavian, Baltic, Polish and North-West
Russian students. The course held in Copenhagen will in part preview
the future online course in offline (and, in part, online) form,
in part offer students the opportunity to influence the structure
and content of the online course.
The course
will consist of alternating lectures and seminars. At lectures,
the course leader will discuss texts from a core curriculum, which
all students read. At seminars, the class will be divided into groups,
which read different texts and give short presentations of their
readings for the whole class - after which the class discusses the
texts and their relevance for the future online course.
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