Location:

Shanghai, China

Program Type:

Study Abroad

Degree Level:

Undergraduate

Term:

Summer

Program Overview

Program Description:

The mode of instruction consists of class lectures and field work assignments etc. This course has been designed for students of social sciences (incl. law, economics, business), sciences and engineering at senior undergraduate or graduate level with an interest in politics, governance, commerce and sustainability. A general background in business or the social sciences is desirable, but no specific expertise is required. This course is taught by Prof. Pan Tianshu (Ph.D. in Anthropology, Harvard University) from Fudan University. He is the Director of the Fudan-Harvard Medical Anthropology Collaborative Research Center. His research areas are global/local dynamics, the cultural politics of historical memory, urban anthropology, culture and development, and urban redevelopment.

This course is taught at Fudan University (Shanghai, China) as part of the China Europe International Summer School (CEISS). This course addresses several major themes focusing on the dynamics of China’s unprecedented socioeconomic transformations. Topics covered will include the implications of globalization for everyday life in the local contexts, the rise of consumerism in contemporary China, important policies and various emerging markets etc. One important goal of this course is to provide a set of conceptual tools and a new perspective that will hopefully help you better describe and understand the social world around you. In learning this new perspective, I hope that you develop a critical, even “skeptical” view toward superficial explanations of take-for-granted practices by replacing your common sense understandings of interpersonal interactions with an uncommon sense about the links between individual experiences, structural forces and particular marketplaces. It is my hope that we can work together as a learning community to explore issues of general interests. Well-documented case studies and business ethnographies will be woven into in-class discussions of these major themes as a way of grounding theory in marketing practices. Course reading is arranged in weekly units around specific thematic issues. Discussions of the case study materials will be accompanied by presentations of the instructor’s research on a range of topics related to the application of anthropological/sociological methods of inquiry to business practices in different field settings.

Setting Description:

Fudan University is the most prestigious, research-oriented university in Shanghai, and belongs to China’s top-3 universities. In the QS ranking of world universities for 2014/2015, Fudan University is ranked 71st worldwide, and 3rd overall among Chinese universities. Fudan is a member of Universitas 21, an association of leading research-oriented universities worldwide. There are 30.000 students at Fudan, including 5.000 international students. CEISS is a collaboration between six of the leading universities in China and Europe: Fudan University (China), Utrecht University (Netherlands), Freie Universität Berlin (Germany), LUISS Business School (Rome), Universita Cattolica del Sacro Cuore (Milan) and the University of Copenhagen (Denmark) and Edvance Education International (China). CEISS offers summer courses that explore the world's main economic, social and political trends and the way they impact on the economies and societies of Europe and China.

Cost:

11.500 CNY (course fee + course materials + housing + social programme)