Veidlapa Nr. M-3 (8)
Study Course Description
Anthropology of Institutional Systems: Vulnerability and Adaptation
Course Code
SZF_266
Branch of Science
Social Anthropology; Sociology and social work
ECTS
3.00
Target Audience
Public Health; Social Anthropology; Sociology
LQF
Level 7
Study Type And Form
Full-Time
Study Course Implementer
Course Supervisor
Ieva Puzo
Structure Unit Manager
Ieva Puzo
Structural Unit
Faculty of Social Sciences
Contacts
SZF, Kuldigas Street 9C, szf@rsu.lv
About Study Course
Objective
The course examines institutional systems under conditions of polycrisis and uncertainty, focusing on vulnerability, adaptation, precarity, migration and security regimes from an anthropological perspective, with attention to Baltic and Latvian contexts.
Preliminary Knowledge
Basic knowledge of social or cultural anthropology, sociology or political science is recommended.
Learning Outcomes
Knowledge
1.Students understand anthropological approaches to institutions, theories of vulnerability and polycrisis, and mechanisms of institutional adaptation across scales.
Individual work and tests
Essay and oral presentation
Skills
1.Students are able to analyse institutional practices, apply concepts (precarity, resilience, security, mobility) and discuss institutional, system and governance issues in an anthropological and interdisciplinary context in a reasoned manner.
Individual work and tests
Essay and oral presentation • Active participation and literature analysis
Competences
1.Students develop the ability to critically assess the role of institutional systems in shaping social stability and inequality.
Individual work and tests
Active participation and literature analysis • Essay and oral presentation
2.The ability to reflect on the researcher’s positionality when studying vulnerable groups and sensitive policy domains.
Individual work and tests
Essay and oral presentation • Active participation and literature analysis
3.The ability to integrate theoretical debates with empirical examples from Latvian, Baltic, and global contexts.
Individual work and tests
Active participation and literature analysis • Essay and oral presentation
Assessment
Individual work
|
Title
|
% from total grade
|
Grade
|
|---|---|---|
|
1.
Active participation and literature analysis |
40.00% from total grade
|
10 points
|
|
Regular preparation for seminars, involvement in discussions, brief reflection or analytical tasks. |
||
Examination
|
Title
|
% from total grade
|
Grade
|
|---|---|---|
|
1.
Essay and oral presentation |
60.00% from total grade
|
10 points
|
|
Analytical essay based on case study (governance ethnography/institutional analysis/future scenario analysis), presentation and discussion. |
||
Study Course Theme Plan
FULL-TIME
Part 1
-
Class/Seminar
|
Modality
|
Location
|
Contact hours
|
|---|---|---|
|
On site
|
Study room
|
2
|
Topics
|
Polycrisis and Institutional Uncertainty
Description
The concept of polycrisis, vulnerability, resilience and adaptation in institutional systems. |
-
Class/Seminar
|
Modality
|
Location
|
Contact hours
|
|---|---|---|
|
On site
|
Study room
|
2
|
Topics
|
The State and Bureaucracy in Anthropology
Description
Institutions as moral, material and political formations. |
-
Class/Seminar
|
Modality
|
Location
|
Contact hours
|
|---|---|---|
|
On site
|
Study room
|
2
|
Topics
|
Precarity and Transformations of Work
Description
Theories of precarity, platform economies and mobile labour.
|
-
Class/Seminar
|
Modality
|
Location
|
Contact hours
|
|---|---|---|
|
On site
|
Study room
|
2
|
Topics
|
Migration and Mobility Regimes
Description
Borders, security regimes and transnational practices.
|
-
Class/Seminar
|
Modality
|
Location
|
Contact hours
|
|---|---|---|
|
On site
|
Study room
|
2
|
Topics
|
Social Protection and Wellbeing in Times of Crisis
Description
Welfare regimes and their limits.
|
-
Class/Seminar
|
Modality
|
Location
|
Contact hours
|
|---|---|---|
|
On site
|
Study room
|
2
|
Topics
|
Demographic Change and Regional Inequality
Description
Ageing, depopulation and regional policy. |
-
Class/Seminar
|
Modality
|
Location
|
Contact hours
|
|---|---|---|
|
On site
|
Study room
|
2
|
Topics
|
Climate Change and Institutional Adaptation
Description
Climate governance and adaptive mechanisms. |
-
Class/Seminar
|
Modality
|
Location
|
Contact hours
|
|---|---|---|
|
On site
|
Study room
|
2
|
Topics
|
Security, Geopolitics and Everyday Life
Description
Militarisation, border politics and public security.
|
-
Class/Seminar
|
Modality
|
Location
|
Contact hours
|
|---|---|---|
|
On site
|
Study room
|
2
|
Topics
|
Governance of Food, Energy and Material Flows
Description
Governance of food, energy and material flows in crises.
|
-
Class/Seminar
|
Modality
|
Location
|
Contact hours
|
|---|---|---|
|
On site
|
Study room
|
2
|
Topics
|
Institutional Ethics and Responsibility
Description
Governance, transparency and trust.
|
-
Class/Seminar
|
Modality
|
Location
|
Contact hours
|
|---|---|---|
|
On site
|
Study room
|
2
|
Topics
|
Baltic and Latvian Case Studies
Description
Regional institutional challenges. |
-
Class/Seminar
|
Modality
|
Location
|
Contact hours
|
|---|---|---|
|
On site
|
Study room
|
2
|
Topics
|
Institutional Futures and Scenarios
Description
Futures thinking and adaptive models.
|
-
Test
|
Modality
|
Location
|
Contact hours
|
|---|---|---|
|
On site
|
Study room
|
2
|
Topics
|
Final exam
|
Total ECTS (Creditpoints):
3.00
Contact hours:
24 Academic Hours
Final Examination:
Exam
Bibliography
Required Reading
1.
Fraser, N., 2023. Cannibal capitalism: How our system is devouring democracy, care, and the planet and what we can do about it. Verso books.Suitable for English stream
2.
Hull, M.S., 2012. Government of paper: The materiality of bureaucracy in urban Pakistan. Univ of California Press.
3.
Millar, K.M., 2017. Toward a critical politics of precarity. Sociology compass, 11(6), p.e12483.Suitable for English stream
4.
Andersson, R., 2024. Security and subversion in a time of monsters. The Cambridge Journal of Anthropology, 42(2), pp.114-135.
5.
Low, S. and Maguire, M., 2024. Security Inside Out: The Danger of “Interiority” in a World of Inequality. Anthropology Now, 16(3), pp.1-12.Suitable for English stream
6.
Dzenovska, D., 2024. Emptiness against decolonization: reflections from the imperial fault line in eastern Latvia. Slavic Review, 83(4), pp.687-704.
7.
Puzo, I. and Lulle, A., 2025. Recentring Intimacy in Hopping (Im) mobilities of Academic Precarity. Population, Space and Place, 31(8), p.e70132.
8.
Narotzky, S. and Besnier, N., 2014. Crisis, value, and hope: rethinking the economy: an introduction to supplement 9. Current anthropology, 55(S9), pp.S4-S16.
9.
Tazzioli, M., 2019. The making of migration: The biopolitics of mobility at Europe's borders.
Additional Reading
1.
Standing, G., 2011. The precariat: The new dangerous class (p. 208). Bloomsbury academic.Suitable for English stream
2.
Ticktin, M.I., 2011. Casualties of care: Immigration and the politics of humanitarianism in France. Univ of California Press.
3.
Eriksen, T.H., 2016. Overheating: An anthropology of accelerated change. Pluto Books.
4.
Gupta, A., 2012. Red Tape: Akhil Gupta on bureaucracy and poverty in India.
5.
Howe, C., Oreskes, N., Johnson, L.M. and Boyer, D., 2025. Communicating Climate: A Conversation (with Naomi Oreskes, Lacy M. Johnson, Dominic Boyer and Cymene Howe). Regeneration: Environment, Art, Culture, 1(3).Suitable for English stream
6.
Dzenovska, D., 2024. Good enough sovereignty, or on land as property and territory in Latvia. History and Anthropology, 35(3), pp.415-433.
7.
Bear, L., Ho, K., Tsing, A. and Yanagisako, S., 2015. Gens: A feminist manifesto for the study of capitalism. Cultural Anthropology, 30.
8.
Lulle, A. and King, R., 2016. Ageing, gender, and labour migration. Springer.