Migrancy, Home and Exile

Subject 121-415 (2009)

Note: This is an archived Handbook entry from 2009. Search for this in the current handbook

Credit Points: 12.50
Level: 4 (Undergraduate)
Dates & Locations:

This subject has the following teaching availabilities in 2009:

Semester 2, - Taught on campus.
Pre-teaching Period Start not applicable
Teaching Period not applicable
Assessment Period End not applicable
Last date to Self-Enrol not applicable
Census Date not applicable
Last date to Withdraw without fail not applicable


Timetable can be viewed here. For information about these dates, click here.
Time Commitment: Contact Hours: A 2-hour lecture and a 1-hour tutorial per week
Total Time Commitment: 3 contact hours/week, 7 additional hours/week. Total of 10 hours per week.
Prerequisites: Entry to Honours or Postgraduate Diploma in Anthropology and/or Social Theory or Development Studies, or a Masters program, and approval of the co-ordinator.
Corequisites: None
Recommended Background Knowledge: None
Non Allowed Subjects: None
Core Participation Requirements:

For the purposes of considering request for Reasonable Adjustments under the Disability Standards for Education (Cwth 2005), and Student Support and Engagement Policy, academic requirements for this subject are articulated in the Subject Overview, Learning Outcomes, Assessment and Generic Skills sections of this entry.

It is University policy to take all reasonable steps to minimise the impact of disability upon academic study, and reasonable adjustments will be made to enhance a student's participation in the University's programs. Students who feel their disability may impact on meeting the requirements of this subject are encouraged to discuss this matter with a Faculty Student Adviser and Student Equity and Disability Support: http://services.unimelb.edu.au/disability

Coordinator

Prof Andrew Dawson

Contact

Prof Andrew Dawson

dawsona@unimelb.edu.au

Subject Overview: The accelerated speed, frequency and commonality of the movement of people through space is an increasingly ubiquitous feature of the modern world. Consequently, migration studies has developed as an established field of enquiry, encompassing disciplines such as anthropology, development studies, geography, sociology and political science. Its key shortcoming, however, rests in its exclusion of other forms of human movement or mobility. In contrast, drawing widely on examples from within and between the developed and developing worlds, this subject considers human mobility in the fullest sense, providing an understanding of the structural and experiential differences and commonalities between different kinds of human mobility, from the forced migration of refugees to the nomadism of Gypsies to the leisure migration of 'old aged travellers' for example. In so doing, it explores a number of related questions that are simultaneously empirical, theoretical and methodological: how do people move? Where do people move to? How have human mobility, its impact on places and the identity-making processes that mobile people engage in been theorised. Given that most social science methodologies have been designed to study situations of its opposite, fixity, what particular approaches are required to research and write about human mobility? Finally, and centrally, the subject's objectives are political in hue. By investigating how nation states legislate and police human mobility, it seeks to offer an understanding of how mobility is experienced as a form of home or exile.
Objectives: Students who successfully complete this subject should
  • understand the range of circumstances which might produce human mobility in the modern world and the different forms mobility takes including tourism and migration;
  • comprehend the implications of movement for citizenship rights, labour markets and other relevant social, political and economic circumstances;
  • understand the different scales (global, national and local) which are relevant to thinking about mobility;
  • be able to integrate existing theorectical and empirical material within oral presentations.
  • Have an understanding key empirical, theoretical and methodological knowledge pertaining to human mobility and, in particular, to migrancy, home and exile
Assessment: A 1-hour in-class test 25% (due during semester) and a 4000 word essay 75% (due at the end of week 12).
Prescribed Texts: Brettell, C.B. and Hollifield, J.F. (2000) Migration Theory: Talking Across Disciplines, New York and London: Routledge.
Breadth Options:

This subject is not available as a breadth subject.
Fees Information: Subject EFTSL, Level, Discipline & Census Date
Generic Skills:
  • Independent research for essay preparation using a variety of media
  • Exercise of critical judgement in written assignments and group discussion
Notes: Students who have completed 121-026 The Mobile World are not eligible to enrol in this subject.
Related Course(s): Diploma in Arts (Development Studies)
Master of Development Studies(CWT)
Postgraduate Diploma in Arts(Development Studies)
Related Majors/Minors/Specialisations: Anthropology
Anthropology and Social Theory
Development Studies
Development Studies
Development Studies
Social Theory
Social Theory

Download PDF version.