BAEcon Accounting and Finance

Drawing on comparative examples from the UK, USA, Papua New Guinea, Hawaii, Australia and Manchester (among others), the course will examine the complex processes through which macro-scale social forces and ideas interact with local understandings, shaping social, cultural, and political lives. A central question of the course is: How can we best use anthropology to understand how large-scale social forces and ideas (such as global capitalism and liberalism) connect people and places in ever-changing ways? Topics include localism, space science, football, climate change, tourism, and rave culture.

To gain an understanding of the forms of anthropological inquiry being conducted around the world and how they help illuminate the relationship between large-scale social processes and more localised social practices of world-making.  

This course is not about transferring knowledge about case studies to you. It is about learning to think in an anthropological way so you can approach your own case studies. 
 

On successful completion of this course, students will:

• Develop an anthropological mindset by thinking about and analysing large-scale social processes through the micro-level everyday practices of social life.  
• Gain an understanding of the forms of anthropological inquiry occurring in very different parts of the world and find commonalities in methods and differences in social life.  
• Understand how anthropologists analyse large-scale social processes via analysing the everyday local processes of social life and vice versa.  
• Present anthropological approaches to large-scale social processes, concepts, and ideas, summarise key theoretical arguments and present ethnographic studies.
• Link general theory to ethnographic description using ethnographic case studies to make theoretical arguments.
• Extend these anthropological approaches to their experiences to develop critical understandings of local-global connections.
• Challenge mainstream assumptions about democracy, citizenship, climate change, counter-culture, Indigenous peoples and other generalised terms.
• Use examples from their own experiences together with ethnographic case studies. 
• Watch films and other media and examine media with an ethnographic eye. 
   

Lectures, Tutorials, Film, Writing Tasks

• 1.5 hour examination - worth 100%
   

There are several routes towards feedback on your learning for this course unit.

The most important forum for feedback is provided in the tutorials - this is the place where you can try out ideas and get feedback on them; where you can clarify those aspects of the readings of lecture materials that are unclear; and where you can hone your skills of critical reading, note-taking and summarising arguments. The second mechanism for receiving detailed, individual feedback on your work is through short, structured formative writing exercise that ask you to summarise key texts, comment upon them and relate them to things happening in the world. The third feedback mechanism are drop-in office hours, where you can individually address any questions you have not been able to deal with in the tutorials.

• Appadurai, Arjun. 2014. “Arjun Appadurai.” globalisations 11 (4): 481–490.  A reflective essay in which Appadurai addresses the implications of globalisation for cultural and economic transformations.
• Appadurai, Arjun. 1996. Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of globalisation. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. A groundbreaking work exploring how globalisation reshapes cultural practices and the production of locality.
• Appadurai, Arjun. 1990. “Disjuncture and Difference in the Global Cultural Economy.” Theory, Culture & Society 7 (2–3): 295–310.  Introduces the concept of "scapes" to analyse the fragmented and interconnected flows of globalisation.
• Besnier, Niko. 2007. Negotiating Local Subjectivities on the Edge of the Global. Amsterdam: Vossiuspers UvA.  Examines how individuals and communities negotiate their identities in the context of globalisation's periphery.
• Bubandt, Nils Ole, Eric Hirsch, Bruce Kapferer, Emily Martin, and Anna Tsing. 2007. "Anthropologists Are Talking About Anthropology After Globalisation." Ethnos 72 (1): 102–126.  Discusses how globalisation challenges traditional anthropological methods and paradigms.
• Englund, Harri, and James Leach. 2000. “Ethnography and the Meta-Narratives of Modernity.” Current Anthropology 41 (2): 225–248.  Critiques meta-narratives in anthropology, advocating for a focus on localized and contextualized ethnographic practices.
• Eriksen, Thomas Hylland, and Finn Sivert Nielsen. 2013. A History of Anthropology. London: Pluto Press.  Chapter 9 ("Reconstructions") discusses how anthropology has responded to globalisation and other late-modern phenomena.
• Eriksen, Thomas Hylland. 2003. Globalisation: Studies in Anthropology. London: Pluto Press. The introduction provides an overview of anthropological perspectives on globalisation and its multifaceted impacts.
• Fabian, Johannes. 2020. World Anthropologies. London: Routledge. Explores the diversity of anthropological practices across different global contexts.
• Friedman, Jonathan. 2002. “Globalisation and the Making of a Global.” In Global Encounters: Media and Cultural Transformation, 13–29. Investigates the cultural transformations associated with globalisation, focusing on media and identity.
• Hart, Keith. 2003. “Epilogue: Studying World Society.” In Eriksen, Thomas Hylland. Globalisation: Studies in Anthropology. London: Pluto Press. Reflects on how anthropology can contribute to understanding global interconnectedness and world society.
• Hours, Bernard. 2007. “The Anthropology of globalisation: A Reader Edited by Inda, Jonathan Xavier, and Renato Rosaldo.” Social Anthropology/Anthropologie Sociale 15 (1): 120–121. A review essay summarising key debates on globalisation as presented in Inda and Rosaldo's edited volume.
• Juhant, Janez. 2002. "Globalisation and Anthropology." Anthropological Notebooks 8 (1): 21–35. Explores the intersections between globalisation and anthropology, emphasising ethical considerations.
• Kapferer, Bruce. 2000. “Star Wars: About Anthropology, Culture, and Globalisation.” The Australian Journal of Anthropology 11 (3): 174–198.  Uses the "Star Wars" franchise as a metaphor to critique the cultural narratives of globalisation.
• Reeves, Madeleine. 2018. “globalisation.” In Hilary Callan (Ed.), The Wiley International Encyclopaedia of Anthropology. Oxford: Wiley Publishers.  A concise encyclopedic entry that summarises key anthropological approaches to globalisation.
• Tauchmann, Kurt. 2004. "An Anthropological Perspective on Culture in the Globalisation Debate." International Area Review 7 (2): 89–108.  Examines how anthropologists conceptualise culture amidst the tensions of globalisation. 

Information
Length of course: 12 weeks

Tuition fees for home students commencing their studies in September 2027 will be £10,050 per annum. Tuition fees for international students will be £34,800 per annum.

For general information please see the undergraduate finance pages.

All students should normally be able to complete their programme of study without incurring additional study costs over and above the tuition fee for that programme. Any unavoidable additional compulsory costs totalling more than 1% of the annual home undergraduate fee per annum, regardless of whether the programme in question is undergraduate or postgraduate taught, will be made clear to you at the point of application. Further information can be found in the University's Policy on additional costs incurred by students on undergraduate and postgraduate taught programmes (PDF document, 91KB).

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As an international student you may be eligible for our Global Futures Scholarships. This is open to students starting their studies in September 2026.