Module SOCM021 for 2021/2
- Overview
- Aims and Learning Outcomes
- Module Content
- Indicative Reading List
- Assessment
Postgraduate Module Descriptor
SOCM021: Food Systems, Alternative Food Networks, and Ethical Consumption
This module descriptor refers to the 2021/2 academic year.
Module Aims
You will read works on food systems within a range of disciplines, including political economy, development studies, geography, sociology, and anthropology. Through engagement with the literature, you will develop perspectives on food systems at various scales, not only analyzing how existing systems work but also how alternatives to these might be created. The module will prepare you for your own research in the field of study, whether academic or within the context of public institutions, industries, or third sector organisations with an interest in food and its role in economic development, social justice, cultural preservation and environmental sustainability.
| On successfully completing the programme you will be able to: | |
|---|---|
| Module-Specific Skills | 1. Critically analyze the histories of food systems of various types and scales 2. Identify and critically assess the roles of a range of actors and component parts of food systems of various types and scales |
| Discipline-Specific Skills | 3. Discern the political and economic drivers of food systems of various types and scales 4. Recognize and articulate critical perspectives on the social and environmental consequences of food systems of various types and scales |
| Personal and Key Skills | 5. Critically analyze sources pertaining to the operation of existing food systems and proposed alternatives 6. Present relevant information in support of coherent critical appraisal of existing food systems and proposed alternatives |
Module Content
Syllabus Plan
The module will be structured as a reading and discussion seminar. The following themes will likely be covered, with minor variation from year to year depending upon the availability and current research of lecturers contributing to the module:
- Food, Agriculture and the State in Historical Perspective
- Famine and Food Aid
- Food Security from the Global South to the Global North
- Trade and Globalization in Agriculture and Food
- Food Sovereignty
- Ethical Consumption
- Short Food Chains
- Slow Food and Transition Towns
- Food, Heritage and the Cultural Economy
- Food, Brexit and the end (?) of Neoliberalism
Learning and Teaching
This table provides an overview of how your hours of study for this module are allocated:
| Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities | Guided independent study | Placement / study abroad |
|---|---|---|
| 22 | 278 |
...and this table provides a more detailed breakdown of the hours allocated to various study activities:
| Category | Hours of study time | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Scheduled Learning & Teaching activities | 22 | 11 x 2-hour weekly seminar |
| Guided independent study | 50 | 10 x 5-hours weekly reading for seminar preparation |
| Guided independent study | 20 | 10 x 2-hours weekly preparation of reading response papers |
| Guided independent study | 58 | Research and writing of essay |
| Guided independent study | 150 | Research and writing of extended essay |
Online Resources
This module has online resources available via ELE (the Exeter Learning Environment).
Indicative Reading List
This reading list is indicative - i.e. it provides an idea of texts that may be useful to you on this module, but it is not considered to be a confirmed or compulsory reading list for this module.
Basic reading:
Desmarais, Annete Aurélie and Nettie Wiebe, eds.,(2010) Food Sovereignty: Reconnecting Food, Nature and Community, (Pambazuka Press).
Devereux, S. (ed.) (2006) The New Famines: Why Famines Exist in an Era of Globalization. London: Routledge.
Hinrichs, C. Clare (2003) ‘The practice and politics of food system localization’, Journal of Rural Studies, 19 (1): 33-45.
Lang, Tim and Victoria Schoen (2016) Food, the UK and EU: Brexit or Bremain?, http://foodresearch.org.uk/food-and-brexit/.
Leitch, Alison (2013 [2009]) “Slow Food and the Politics of ‘Virtuous Globalization’”, in Food and Culture: A Reader, eds. C. Counihan and Penny Van Esterik (Routledge), pp. 409-425.
Nove, Alec (1969) “The Great Debate”, in An Economic History of the USSR (Penguin Books), pp. 119-135.
Pottier, Johan (1999) Anthropology of Food: The Social Dynamics of Food Security (Cambridge: Polity Press).
Raynolds, L. 2000. Re-Embedding Global Agriculture: The International Organic and Fair Trade Movements. Agriculture and Human Values 17(3), 297-309.
Rosset, Peter (2006) Food is Different: Why We Must Get the WTO Out of Agriculture (Zed).
West, Harry G. (2016) “Artisanal Foods and the Cultural Economy: Perspectives on Craft, Heritage, Authenticity and Reconnection”, in The Handbook of Food and Anthropology, eds. James L. Watson and Jakob A. Klein, London: Bloomsbury, pp. 406-434.
