Veidlapa Nr. M-3 (8)
Study Course Description
Urban-Rural Relationality: Food, Communities and Sustainability
Course Code
SZF_262
Branch of Science
Social Anthropology; Sociology and social work
ECTS
6.00
Target Audience
Social Anthropology
LQF
Level 7
Study Type And Form
Full-Time
Study Course Implementer
Course Supervisor
Agnese Bankovska
Structure Unit Manager
Ieva Puzo
Structural Unit
Faculty of Social Sciences
Contacts
SZF, Kuldigas Street 9C, szf@rsu.lv
About Study Course
Objective
The aim of the course is to develop students’ understanding of urban–rural relations from an anthropological perspective, demonstrating how food practices, infrastructures, mobility, and communities shape social and environmental transformations. The course fosters critical thinking about sustainable futures, wellbeing, and social participation in contemporary societies.
Preliminary Knowledge
A basic knowledge and understanding of the social sciences or humanities (e.g., sociology, anthropology, cultural studies, human geography) is recommended. An interest in urban, rural, food, environmental, or societal processes is considered an advantage but is not mandatory.
Learning Outcomes
Knowledge
1.Students understand key theoretical approaches in urban anthropology
Individual work and tests
Active participation in the course • Final exam
2.Students are familiar with core concepts of food anthropology in urban–rural contexts
Individual work and tests
Final exam • Active participation in the course
3.Students understand the role of infrastructures, mobility, and spatial practices in socioeconomic and environmental change
Individual work and tests
Active participation in the course • Ethnographic observation • Final exam
Skills
1.Students acquire skills to analyse urban–rural interactions using anthropological concepts
Individual work and tests
Ethnographic observation • Final exam
2.Connect food practices, spatial arrangements, and infrastructures with wellbeing and social relations
Individual work and tests
Final exam • Active participation in the course
3.Critically analyse ethnographic research
Individual work and tests
Active participation in the course • Ethnographic observation • Presentation
4.Apply qualitative research approaches in urban–rural contexts
Individual work and tests
Presentation • Ethnographic observation
5.Formulate well-argued conclusions in written and oral form
Individual work and tests
Ethnographic observation • Presentation • Active participation in the course • Final exam
Competences
1.Students develop the ability to analyse complex social and spatial transformations in urban and rural environments
Individual work and tests
Final exam • Presentation
2.Reflect on sustainability, wellbeing, and future possibilities from an anthropological perspective
Individual work and tests
Presentation
3.Assess the roles of diverse actors – communities, institutions, humans, and more-than-human entities – in societal processes
4.Apply anthropological knowledge in academic, professional, and public contexts
Assessment
Individual work
|
Title
|
% from total grade
|
Grade
|
|---|---|---|
|
1.
Active participation in the course |
15.00% from total grade
|
10 points
|
|
Students are actively engaged in studying the course literature and critically discussing its themes. |
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|
2.
Ethnographic observation |
15.00% from total grade
|
10 points
|
|
Mini ethnographic observation on course topics |
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|
3.
Presentation |
20.00% from total grade
|
10 points
|
|
Group presentations on topics/subjects or sources of literature learned in the course. |
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Examination
|
Title
|
% from total grade
|
Grade
|
|---|---|---|
|
1.
Final exam |
50.00% from total grade
|
10 points
|
|
Final project - future scenario/draft of a scenario and its oral presentation. |
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Study Course Theme Plan
FULL-TIME
1.part
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Lecture
|
Modality
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Location
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Contact hours
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|---|---|---|
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Off site
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E-Studies platform
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2
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Topics
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Introduction: Urban and Rural Anthropology
Description
Urban and rural anthropology as research fields; historical city–countryside oppositions; spatiality and hybridity; urban–rural relational perspectives. Students are familiarised with the course's main topics and layout, as well as with the examination and valuation principles. |
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Lecture
|
Modality
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Location
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Contact hours
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|---|---|---|
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Off site
|
E-Studies platform
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2
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Topics
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Anthropology, space and place
Description
Topics covered in the class comprise territory, landscape, spatial narratives, development of urbanism, and the city as a social and cultural space. |
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Lecture
|
Modality
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Location
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Contact hours
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|---|---|---|
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Off site
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E-Studies platform
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2
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Topics
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Urban Development Trajectories and Marginal Representations
Description
The main themes covered in the class: urban informality and slums; death and memory politics; epidemics and microorganisms; shrinking cities. |
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Class/Seminar
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Modality
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Location
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Contact hours
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|---|---|---|
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Off site
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E-Studies platform
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2
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Topics
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What Are “City” and “Countryside”?
Description
Discussion of urban and rural concepts; work with readings; conceptual mapping exercise. |
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Lecture
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Modality
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Location
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Contact hours
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|---|---|---|
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Off site
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E-Studies platform
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2
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Topics
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(R)Urbanization, Demography and Mobility
Description
Urban expansion and contraction; mobility; spatial justice; belonging and displacement. |
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Lecture
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Modality
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Location
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Contact hours
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|---|---|---|
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Off site
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E-Studies platform
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2
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Topics
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Mobility and Accessibility
Description
Everyday mobility; transport; digital and physical accessibility; rural marginality. |
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Lecture
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Modality
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Location
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Contact hours
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|---|---|---|
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Off site
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E-Studies platform
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2
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Topics
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Food, city and countryside
Description
Food, identity, power, body, kinship; food as an urban–rural connector. |
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Lecture
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Modality
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Location
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Contact hours
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|---|---|---|
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Off site
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E-Studies platform
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2
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Topics
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Food, Kinship and Communities
Description
Eating practices in families and communities: belonging and care. |
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Class/Seminar
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Modality
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Location
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Contact hours
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|---|---|---|
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Off site
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E-Studies platform
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2
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Topics
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Food, Identity, Place and Body
Description
Practical exercises; discussion of ethnographies from readings; reflexive analysis. |
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Lecture
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Modality
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Location
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Contact hours
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|---|---|---|
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Off site
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E-Studies platform
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2
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Topics
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Food Systems and Infrastructures
Description
Traditional and new forms of agriculture, supply chains, climate, terroir, and alternative food systems. |
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Class/Seminar
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Modality
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Location
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Contact hours
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|---|---|---|
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Off site
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E-Studies platform
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2
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Topics
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Local and Global Food Practices
Description
Students analyse and present their field observations on urban or rural food practices that represent the local and global food systems. |
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Lecture
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Modality
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Location
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Contact hours
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|---|---|---|
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Off site
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E-Studies platform
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2
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Topics
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Living Space, Home and Architecture
Description
Anthropology of house and home; cultural models of dwelling. |
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Class/Seminar
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Modality
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Location
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Contact hours
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|---|---|---|
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Off site
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E-Studies platform
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2
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Topics
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Space as a Relational Field
Description
Everyday spatial practices; space as relational. |
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Lecture
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Modality
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Location
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Contact hours
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|---|---|---|
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Off site
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E-Studies platform
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2
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Topics
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Digital Transformation
Description
Platforms, digital infrastructures, surveillance, digitalization of place. |
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Class/Seminar
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Modality
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Location
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Contact hours
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|---|---|---|
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Off site
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E-Studies platform
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2
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Topics
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Digital Mapping and Netnography in Rural and Urban spaces
Description
Digital mapping; data locality; inclusion and exclusion in urban and rural contexts. |
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Lecture
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Modality
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Location
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Contact hours
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|---|---|---|
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Off site
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E-Studies platform
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2
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Topics
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More-than-Human Cities and Countryside
Description
Rural and urban space as an environmental crossroads shaped by more-than-human interactions. A focus on infrastructures, the lived experience of landscapes, and the consequences of human action. |
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Class/Seminar
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Modality
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Location
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Contact hours
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|---|---|---|
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Off site
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E-Studies platform
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2
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Topics
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Urban-Rural from More-than-human Perspective
Description
Urban and rural natures; human and more-than-human cities and countryside as an anthropological field. The seminar will involve discussing ethnographic materials and engaging in creative tasks. |
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Lecture
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Modality
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Location
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Contact hours
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|---|---|---|
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Off site
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E-Studies platform
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2
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Topics
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Communities, Civic Participation, Crises and Possible Futures
Description
Co-creation, participatory design. A comparative focus on how civic participation, municipal governance, and citizen |
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Class/Seminar
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Modality
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Location
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Contact hours
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|---|---|---|
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Off site
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E-Studies platform
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2
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Topics
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Wellbeing and Long-Term Thinking
Description
Invited researchers and practitioners share their research experience and findings. Hands-on exercises in scenario designs. |
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Lecture
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Modality
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Location
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Contact hours
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|---|---|---|
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Off site
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E-Studies platform
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2
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Topics
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Methods for Researching Urban–Rural Relations
Description
Mini ethnographic observation; small communities; urban peripheries |
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Lecture
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Modality
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Location
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Contact hours
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|---|---|---|
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Off site
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E-Studies platform
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2
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Topics
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Ethics and Researcher Positionality
Description
What is ‘local’? Responsibility, co-creation, authorship, and researcher positionality. |
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Class/Seminar
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Modality
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Location
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Contact hours
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|---|---|---|
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Off site
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E-Studies platform
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2
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Topics
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Scenario Workshop: Future Landscapes
Description
Foresight, speculative ethnography, how urban-rural systems respond to climate and ecological pressures through food, energy, and material flows. |
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Class/Seminar
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Modality
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Location
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Contact hours
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|---|---|---|
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Off site
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E-Studies platform
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2
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Topics
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Course Summary
Description
Collective reflection on the course and discussion of the selected final project topics. Reflection on the urban–rural relations addressed in the course, including participants’ personal urban–rural experiences. |
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Class/Seminar
|
Modality
|
Location
|
Contact hours
|
|---|---|---|
|
Off site
|
E-Studies platform
|
2
|
Topics
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Final Project Presentation
Description
Students present their future scenarios (conceptual sketches), drawing on the course themes, literature, and analytical work. |
Total ECTS (Creditpoints):
6.00
Contact hours:
48 Academic Hours
Final Examination:
Exam (Oral)
Bibliography
Required Reading
1.
Lefebvre, H., ”Ch.1: From the City to Urban Society” in “The Urban Revolution” p 1-23, The University of Minnesota Press, MinneapolisSuitable for English stream
2.
Low, S., “THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF CITIES: Imagining and Theorizing the City”, The Annual Review of AnthropologySuitable for English stream
3.
Roy, Ananya (2005) “Urban Informality: The Production and Regulation Space” in “International Encyclopedia of Social &Behavioral Sciences”, 2nd ed., Vol.24. (hrestomātisks avots)
4.
Ward, S.,V. 2012 “Cities as planning models”, Planning perspectives Vol28 No2 295-313 (hrestomātisks avots)Suitable for English stream
5.
Massey D., “Industrial Restructuring versus the Cities” in “Space, Place and Gender”, p25-50 University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, 1994 (hrestomātisks avots)
6.
Brinkley and Vitiello 2014 From Farm to Nuisance: Animal Agriculture and the Rise of Planning Regulation (akceptējams izdevums)
7.
Ortega, Arnisson Andre. 2022. ‘Beyond the Rural–Urban Aporia’. Dialogues in Human Geography 12 (2): 223–26.
8.
Wilk. 2010. Power at the Table: Food Fights and Happy Meals (akceptējams izdevums)Suitable for English stream
9.
Ochoa, Stephania Rovira, and Anastasia Badder. 2022. Food and Family: Cultivating Kinship through Cooking in Times of Uncertainty. 14 (2).
10.
Schelwald, Renate Sigrid, Wouter Spekkink, Suzan Christiaanse, and Arwin van Buuren. 2025. ‘The (Un)Sustainable Foodscape: An Ethnographic Study of Food Practices in Dutch Suburbia’. Journal of Consumer Culture.
11.
Miltenburg, Elisabeth, Hannah Tait Neufeld, and Kim Anderson. 2022. ‘Relationality, Responsibility and Reciprocity: Cultivating Indigenous Food Sovereignty within Urban Environments’. Nutrients 14 (9): 1737Suitable for English stream
12.
Awad, R., “‘Here, There, Everywhere’: An Ethnographic Study Exploring the Notion of Home” in “Ethnographic encounters”
13.
Augé, M. (1995). From Places to Non-Places in Non-places: Introduction to an anthropology of Supermodernity. London, Verso. 75-115 (hrestomātisks avots)
14.
Joshi, Deepa, Anna Panagiotou, Meera Bisht, Upandha Udalagama, and Alexandra Schindler. 2023. ‘Digital Ethnography? Our Experiences in the Use of SenseMaker for Understanding Gendered Climate Vulnerabilities amongst Marginalized Agrarian Communities’. Sustainability 15 (9): 7196.
15.
Fuentes, Christian. 2025. ‘Configuring Ethical Food Consumers: Understanding the Failures of Digital Food Platforms’. Journal of Cultural Economy 18 (6): 925–43.
16.
Gladkova, Ekaterina. 2025. ‘More-than-Human Urban Food Growing Imaginaries: Engaging with the Senses’. Social & Cultural Geography 26 (2): 241–65.
17.
Shingne, M.C. 2020 ‘ The More-than-Human Right to the City: A Multispecies Reevaluation’. 2021. March 29.
18.
Pink, Sarah. n.d. ‘Futures Anthropology for the Polycrisis’. Anthropological Forum 0 (0): 1–18.
19.
Sánchez-Hernández, José Luis. 2025. ‘Envisioning Alternative Economic Futures through the Lens of Food’. Placing the Future, 141–66.
20.
Voorst, Roanne van. 2025. ‘Futures Thinking as Collaborative Practice in Anthropology’. Anthropology Today 41 (2): 15–19.
21.
Figueiredo, Elisabete, Teresa Forte, Celeste Eusébio, Alexandre Silva, and Joana Couto. 2022. ‘Rural Ties and Consumption of Rural Provenance Food Products—Evidence from the Customers of Urban Specialty Stores in Portugal’. Foods 11 (4): 547.
Additional Reading
1.
Ragon, M.,(1983, [1981]). Villages and Cities of Dead in The Space of Dead. University Press of Virginia: Charlottesville. 39-57Suitable for English stream
2.
Dzenovska, D., 2012 “Migranti, ienācēji un aizbraucēji: Migrācija un nacionāli valstiskais ētoss” iekš “Aizbraukšana un tukšums Latvijas Laukos: starp zudušām un iespējamām nākotnēm”, SIA Biznesa Augstskola Turība.
3.
Carsten, Janet 1995 The Substance of Kinship and the Heat of the Hearth: Feeding, Personhood, and Relatedness among Malays in Pulau LangkawiSuitable for English stream
4.
Domingos, Nuno, José Manuel Sobral, and Harry G. West 2014 Food between the Country and the City: Ethnographies of a Changing Global Foodscape. Bloomsbury Publishing.
5.
Bourdieu, P. 1970. “The Berber house or the world reversed”. Information (International Social Science Council), 9(2), 151–170.Suitable for English stream
6.
Bourdieu, P. 1970. “The Berber house or the world reversed”. Information (International Social Science Council), 9(2), 151–170.
7.
Aistara 2018. Organic Sovereignties: Struggles Over Farming in an Age of Free Trade. University of Washington Press.