Analysis of contemporary Chinese society

Teacher(s)

Laugrand Frédéric;

Language

French

Prerequisites

None.

Main themes

General introduction to the study of the Indian sub-continent since 1947.
The course will put a special emphasis upon the different aspects of contemporary Indian society, in particular social organisation, politics and the economy. The caste system will receive a special attention both from the point of view of its traditional aspects and its recent transformations. We shall also see how the contemporary political system links modernity and tradition. A special attention will be devoted to the study of economics, both from the local and general points of view. Specific themes will also be dealt with, such as poverty, population problems, urbanisation, etc. A number of texts will be made available to the student.

Learning outcomes

At the end of this learning unit, the student is able to :
1	At the end of this course, the student will be capable of gathering the adequate sources available on different questions relative to India as studied during the lectures. He/She will be able to analyse and synthetise those sources.

Content

For every theme studied, a documentary file and a general introduction will be provided by the teacher; this will be followed by an oral and written presentation by students of a critical synthesis with a special emphasis on the characteristics of the sources which have been used, their biases and their corollary shortcomings; the informations provided by the authors and their conclusions will also be critically analysed.

Teaching methods

The student's personal work is essential to this course.

Evaluation methods

• oral presentation of a file : 30%
• written presentation of a file : 40%;
• critical appraisal of the files presented during the course: 30%.

Faculty or entity

FIAL