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93595 - Political and Communication Anthropology

Academic Year 2025/2026

                
                        Docente:
                        Stefania Spada
                    
                        Credits:
                        6
                    
                        SSD:
                        M-DEA/01
                    
                        Language:
                        Italian
                    
                        Teaching Mode:
                        In-person learning (entirely or partially)
                        
                            Campus:
                            Ravenna
                        
                            Corso:
                            First cycle degree programme (L) in
                            Mediterranean History, Societies and Cultures (cod. 5974)

                                    Course Timetable
                                
from Feb 04, 2026 to Mar 06, 2026

Learning outcomes

The course aims to present the basic theoretical concepts useful for studying and analysing the different forms that power takes in human social organisations and the ways in which it manifests and consolidates itself through various means of communication, as well as the consequences this has in terms of stratification, discrimination and hierarchies. The course aims to present classic ethnographic cases from the literature in order to strengthen a broad ability to recognise the historical nature of the processes of power construction and the ideological nature of the representations that legitimise it, starting from different conditions of social life. At the end of the course, students will have acquired the ability to identify and theoretically frame the dynamics that run through societies in terms of competition for power and the legitimate (or illegitimate) use of force, control of communication and orientation of consciousness, and the construction of consensus and legitimisation of political structures.

Course contents

The course aims to analyse forms of social organisation and the diverse ways in which power is governed through the knowledge and methodology of anthropology.
The main objective is to provide students with the fundamental skills to analyse and understand contemporary forms of social organisation, both locally and globally.
Through a dialogue-based approach anchored in ethnographic data, aimed at stimulating independent judgement and providing appropriate interpretative tools, the course will introduce the basic vocabulary and analytical lenses: bureaucracy, power, borders, sovereignty, governability, biopolitics, and citizenship will be the key concepts through which to analyse contemporary forms of power and state organisation (e.g., contemporary nationalisms).

Readings/Bibliography

PROGRAMME FOR ATTENDING STUDENTS:

1) Ciavolella R., 2013, Antropologia politica e contemporaneità. Un'indagine critica sul potere, Mimesis, Milan (only: introduction and part one).

2) Boni S., 2022, Culture e poteri. Un approccio antropologico, eleuthèra, Milan (only: part one and part two).

3) One text of your choice from those listed below.

[Attending students may bring the text of their choice with a group assignment, which will be agreed upon with the class at the beginning of the course; the evaluation of this partial assignment will contribute to the final evaluation].

- Scott J. 2019, Lo sguardo dello Stato, Eleuthera, Milano.

- Foucault M. 2004, Sicurezza, territorio, popolazione. Corso al Collège de France 1977-78, Feltrinelli, Milano.

- Bourdieu P., 2013, Sullo Stato. Corso al Collège de France, Vol. 1 (1989-1990), Feltrinelli, Milano.

- Herzfeld M., 2022, La produzione sociale dell'indifferenza, Franco Angeli, Milano.

- Appaduraj A., 2017, Sicuri da morire. La violenza nell'epoca della globalizzazione, Meltemi, Varese.

- Graeber D., Critica della democrazia occidentale, Eleuthèra, Milano, 2012 + Oltre il potere e la burocrazia, Eleuthèra, Milano, 2013.

- Aime M., 2020, Classificare, separare, escludere, Einaudi, Torino.

- Khosravi S., 2019, Io sono confine, Elèuthera, Milano.

- Ciabarri, 2020, L'imbroglio mediterraneo: le migrazioni via mare e le politiche della frontiera, Raffaello Cortina.

-Schmoll C., 2022, Le dannate del mare. Donne e frontiere nel Mediterraneo, Feltrinelli.

- Cordova G., 2023, Karim e gli altri. La gioventù tunisina dopo la Primavera, Rosenberg & Sellier.

- Ong A., 2005, Da rifugiati a cittadini. Pratiche di governo nella nuova America, Raffaello cortina, Milano.

- Mbembe A., 2019, Nanorazzismo. Il corpo notturno della democrazia, Laterza, Bari.

- Fassin D., 2014, Ripoliticizzare il mondo. Studi antropologici sulla vita, il corpo e la morale, Ombre Corte, Verona.

- Farris S., 2019, Femonazionalismo. Il razzismo nel nome delle donne, Alegre, Roma.

- Das V., Poole D., 2004, Anthropology in the Margins of the State, School of American Research Press, Santa Fe.

- Chatterjee P., 2006, Oltre la cittadinanza. La politica dei governati, Meltemi, Roma.

Sharma A., Gupta, A. 2006, The Anthropology of the State. A Reader, Blackwell, Malden-Oxford.

- Bierschenk T., J.-P. Olivier de Sardan, 2014, States at Work: Dynamics of African Bureaucracies, Brill, Leiden.

During the lectures, other materials (essays, book chapters) will be indicated, which will make up the handout for in-depth study for attending students.

PROGRAMME FOR NON-ATTENDING STUDENTS:

1) Ciavolella R., 2013, Political Anthropology and Contemporaneity. A Critical Investigation of Power, Mimesis, Milan (only: introduction and part one).

+ two texts chosen from the following: