AANK13501U Political Anthropology, Advanced Course:Civil-military Relations in War and Peace: Anthropological Perspectives

Volume 2013/2014
Content

This course is only for master students. Please note that there are special admission criteria’s for this course for students not enrolled at the master in anthropology.

Civil-military relations concern the interaction of civil and military institutions, or, in broader terms, of the armed forces and the wider society. Among sociologists and political scientists, civil-military relations make up a longstanding field of study, scrutinising in particular mechanisms of civilian control over the military within the context of the state. In contrast, the anthropology of civil-military relations is an emerging field of research, examining diverse aspects of interaction between civil and military worlds, be that at home or abroad, at war or in peace, or when disasters strike. This course offers an introduction to civil-military relations as seen through an anthropological looking-glass. The course is organised around civil-military relations on homefronts, in war-zones, and with a brief detour into catastrophe areas. The course presents how a palette of anthropological theories approach and conceptualise different spectres of civil-military relations. The course makes use of empirical cases drawn mainly from Afghanistan, Denmark, Iraq, Israel, the Palestinian Territories, the UK, and the US. The course explores central debates and themes such as enemy images and soldier identities, culture of war, social and urban militarisation, social recognition, war memory, distant suffering, civil action against military presence, civil-military disaster cooperation, securitisation of development, meanings and passions of war, combat and collateral damage, frontline ethnography, and anthropology of human terrains. The course combines teaching based on the ongoing collaborative research project Soldier and Society: Anthropological Perspectives (see Research at http://anthropology.ku.dk/) with teaching-based research in terms of student input in the form of shared reflections and collected data. 

Learning Outcome
At the end of the course, students should be able to:
1) identify and formulate anthropological questions within the subject of civil-military relations;
2) summarise and critically discuss how anthropological theories approach and conceptualise diverse aspects of civil-military relations;
3) reflect critically on central debates and themes within the subject;
4) analyse empirical data collected through 1-3 field exercises;
5) work analytically with a subject on the course plan.
Literature

Course literature is made available in Absalon on the course website.

The course combines lectures, discussions, group work, student presentations, film screenings, and field excursions/exercises.
2 x 2 hours x 7 weeks (week 36-41 and week 43)
  • Category
  • Hours
  • Exam
  • 35
  • Excursions
  • 4
  • Exercises
  • 21
  • Lectures
  • 12
  • Preparation
  • 112
  • Seminar
  • 12
  • Study Groups
  • 14
  • Total
  • 210
Credit
10 ECTS
Type of assessment
Portfolio
Obligatory portfolio assignments: The course lecturer determines the number and length of portfolio assignments. A minimum of 75% thereof will be assessed as the exam. At the end of the course, the lecturer will announce upon which portfolio assignments the assessment will be based.
Exam registration requirements
To be eligible to take the course exam, the student must: 1) undertake at least one of the three assigned field exercises during the course; 2) make all data collected through the assigned field exercises accessible on the course website; and 3) participate actively in class through, for instance, student presentation (the course lecturers stipulate the specific requirements for active class participation).
Aid
All aids allowed
Marking scale
7-point grading scale
Censorship form
No external censorship
There is appointed a second internal assessor to assist with the assessment
when the first assessor finds this necessary.
Criteria for exam assesment
See description of learning outcome. Formalities for Written Works must be fulfilled, read more: MSc Students
Credit
7,5 ECTS
Type of assessment
Portfolio
Obligatory portfolio assignments: The course lecturer determines the number and length of portfolio assignments. A minimum of 75% thereof will be assessed as the exam. At the end of the course, the lecturer will announce upon which portfolio assignments the assessment will be based.
Exam registration requirements
To be eligible to take the course exam, the student must: 1) undertake at least one of the three assigned field exercises during the course; 2) make all data collected through the assigned field exercises accessible on the course website; and 3) participate actively in class through, for instance, student presentation (the course lecturers stipulate the specific requirements for active class participation).
Marking scale
7-point grading scale
Censorship form
No external censorship
There is appointed a second internal assessor to assist with the assessment
when the first assessor finds this necessary.
Criteria for exam assesment
See description of learning outcome. Formalities for Written Works must be fulfilled, read more: MSc Students/ BA students (in Danish)/ exchange, credit and Open University students