| ANTH 4768, Sections 415, 421 & 474, Spring 2003 | Instructor: David Beriss |
| T, TH 1:30-2:45PM, LA 234, Jeff Center 362 and Slidell | Office Hours: T,Th 3-4pm or by appointment. |
| Office: LA 281, phone: (504) 280-6306 |
From colonial governments to the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs and from the struggle against "scientific" racism to the survival strategies of poor families, anthropologists have long focused on issues central to policy formation. Yet policy makers have often dismissed ethnographic data as "merely anecdotal," choosing instead to rely on statistical analyses and polling data. It often seems that for government, "if you can't count it, it doesn't count." In this class, we will show how ethnographic research can improve social policy design by answering questions polls and other statistical measurements cannot.
How can international development programs lead to an increase in witchcraft and magic practices? What do welfare workers really do in their attempts to move welfare recipients into jobs? Do gender ideologies play a role in the failure of poor Latino men to succeed in unskilled office work? How do religion, gender, class and ethnicity combine in choices women make about abortions or in the effectiveness of programs to prevent the spread of HIV? Knowing the answers to this sort of question - knowing the right questions to ask - can prove essential in policy decisions, especially when combined with research from other, more statistically oriented, disciplines.
This course will examine some of the ways in which anthropological theory and methods can be useful in policy formation. At the same time, we will examine policy as an ethnographic object itself. What are the tools, measures and practices that make society “legible” to those who govern? What are the cultural assumptions and processes behind welfare reform or public housing policies? How do debate around abortion, assisted conception and public health reflect cultural ideas about kinship, gender and the role of government in private life? How are international development programs designed and evaluated?
| Course Requirements | Required Texts |
| The Program | Policy Links & Provocations |
| Discussion Forum | Readings On-Line |
| Note: Discussion Forum and Readings require password. | You may
need the Adobe Acrobat Reader to read these files,click here to get it. |
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UNO Anthropology |
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http://fs.uno.edu/dberiss/policy/
Revised: January 14, 2003