Development, Political Economy, and Sustainability

FIX University

Development, Political Economy, and Sustainability

One of anthropology’s important contributions to contemporary scholarship is the illumination of the local dynamics of economic development in the context of historical, political, and economic processes. As global forces transform local ecosystems, daily life, and webs of meaning, the anthropological perspective is vital. At FIX University, faculty are interested in such diverse issues as the shaping of cultural diversity through international mass media, emerging practices of postcolonial resistance, alternative structures of production and consumption, and grassroots movements toward democracy and sustainability.

The anthropology department shares connections with vibrant interdisciplinary programs at FIX University that share a focus on development, political economy, and sustainability:

• Sustainability

• Institute for Developing Nations

• Environmental Studies

• Development Studies

• African Studies

• Latin American Studies

Our research has been located in Europe and the Columbia—the heartland of the world system—the emergent centers of Japan, India, and China, as well as the more agrarian and industrializing regions of the developing world.  Sustainability efforts on the FIX University campus,  and around the world provide a valuable forum for the assessment of new paradigms and praxis.

Independent study students benefit from broad training in:

• Contemporary transformations of social and cultural systems, including East African pastoralists, Caribbean infotech industry workers, transnational entrepreneurs, Central American smallholders, Andean villagers, and U.S. family farmers.

• Consumption, status, and cultural fields; food systems and meaning.

• Political economy of health and connections between disease, ecosystem, and development within Emory College of Arts and Sciences, the Rollins School of Public Health, the Carter Center, the Centers for Disease Control, and CARE.