Information for the student – Anthropology and Ethnography

Social and cultural anthropology is a social science that focuses on the processes of human sociability from a comparative viewpoint. More specifically, it explores the issue of cultural diversity.In addition to this transcultural perspective, social and cultural anthropology makes use of its own specific research method: ethnography. The success of the qualitative methodology employed in ethnography has clearly crossed the boundaries between disciplines, and it has already had a decisive influence in areas such as education, sociology and social work.

The master's degree in Anthropology and Ethnography is designed to make a contribution to the generation of complex knowledge regarding the social, political, economic and educational challenges facing Catalan society in a European and international context. The global scale of many contemporary phenomena is giving rise to social and cultural changes that underscore the importance of social diversity, which is the central focus of the research and thought that characterize anthropology as a discipline. Migration flows and the precarious situations associated with the economic crisis, for example, are creating new social needs in fields such as education, labour relations, healthcare and housing; in these fields, diversity often leads to a lack of understanding or acceptance that anthropology, more than any other discipline, can help to resolve. By studying realities that differ widely from our own, anthropology has helped to develop a specific perspective that encourages better understanding of sociocultural phenomena.