HEN633 Studying Local Rural Systems

Faculty of Social Studies
Spring 2013
Extent and Intensity
0/2/0. 4 credit(s). Type of Completion: z (credit).
Teacher(s)
Mgr. Eva Fraňková, Ph.D. (lecturer)
Dipl. Ing. Willi Haas (lecturer), doc. Mgr. Bohuslav Binka, Ph.D. (deputy)
Dr. Simron Jit Singh (lecturer), doc. Mgr. Bohuslav Binka, Ph.D. (deputy)
Guaranteed by
doc. Mgr. Bohuslav Binka, Ph.D.
Department of Environmental Studies – Faculty of Social Studies
Contact Person: Mgr. Zdeňka Lechnerová
Supplier department: Department of Environmental Studies – Faculty of Social Studies
Prerequisites
SOUHLAS
upper-intermediate English language skills
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is only offered to the students of the study fields the course is directly associated with.

The capacity limit for the course is 5 student(s).
Current registration and enrolment status: enrolled: 0/5, only registered: 0/5
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
Course objectives
The course aims to provide insights and methodological training in studying local communities through the use of anthropological and social ecological field methods, and interpret the results within the framework of sustainability and development studies. Taking a systems perspective, the students are encouraged to look at rural systems as coupled socio-ecological systems (SES) with material, energy, land, labour and technology as relevant variables.
Syllabus
  • An information meeting will take place on Tuesday, 19th of February at 18:00 at the Faculty of Social Studies (the room will be announced via email to the registered students). All the students interested in the course are asked to come to this meeting. If there are more than 5 registered students, we will decide collectively who is going to take part in the course.
  • The course itself begins with a one day pre-seminar on Monday, 22nd of April at the Institute of Social Ecology (Vienna) with an overview of the theoretical and operational framework of social ecology and societal metabolism.
  • The actual seminar takes place as a 5-day block (13.-17.5.2013)in a culturally challenging environment of Třeboňsko (Klikov village, near Třeboň, Czech Republic) where further inputs are given and actual field work is undertaken. Here we learn and experience how to establish contact, build rapport and interact in a culturally sensitive way. We also learn to design innovative field methods of generating data that provides relevant information on the functioning of local rural systems such as material and energy flows, time use, land-use, and to estimate quantities of society’s stocks such as population, livestock, land, and artefacts. The seminar concludes with reflection on our experiences and results, and makes an attempt to interpret them within the framework of sustainability and development interventions.
  • Main topics: • Material and energy flow analysis • Land use • Functional time use analysis • Institutional aspects
Literature
    required literature
  • • 3 – 5 shorter scientific articles on social metabolism, land use, Třeboňsko Biosphere reserve, small-scale farming etc., will be specified and provided in March
  • • Singh, S.J. et al. (2010) Local studies manual. A researcher’s guide for investigating the social metabolism of local rural systems. Social Ecology Working Paper, Vienna. Available at http://www.uni-klu.ac.at/socec/downloads/WP120_Web.pdf (10.2.2013)
Teaching methods
Interactive block seminar: inputs, role plays, field work, analysis and writing in small groups. The course is designed for students interested in human-environment relations, anthropological and socio-ecological field methods, local sustainability and development paradigms from backgrounds such as sociology, anthropology, ecology, international development and related disciplines.
Assessment methods
Participation during the entire seminar (including the pre-seminar), field work, brief presentation of results and writing a short assignment in groups on the outcome and analysis of the field research.
Language of instruction
English
Further comments (probably available only in Czech)
Study Materials
The course is taught annually.
The course is taught: in blocks.
Information on course enrolment limitations: Předmět je určen pouze studentům mateřských oborů.
The course is also listed under the following terms Spring 2014, Spring 2015, Spring 2016, Spring 2018, Spring 2019.
  • Enrolment Statistics (Spring 2013, recent)
  • Permalink: https://is.muni.cz/course/fss/spring2013/HEN633