Observing the city: Introduction to fieldwork in an urban environment - YBLS026

• Anglický název: Observing the city: Introduction to fieldwork in an urban environment
• Podoba výuky: seminář
• Zajišťuje: Program Liberal Arts and Humanities (24-SHVAJ)
• Fakulta: Fakulta humanitních studií
• Platnost: od 2025
• Počet semestrů výuky: 1
• Semestr: zimní
• E-Kredity: 4
• Způsob provedení zkoušky: zimní s.:
• Rozsah, examinace: zimní s.:0/2, KZ [HS]
• Počet míst: neurčen / neomezen (20)
• Maximální kapacita předmětu: 20
• Minimální obsazenost: 5
• 4EU+: ne
• Virtuální mobilita / počet míst pro virtuální mobilitu: ne
• Stav předmětu: vyučován
• Jazyk výuky: angličtina
• Forma uskutečňování: prezenční
• Staré označení: YBAJ264
• Možnost opakovaného zápisu: 1 (2) / 1 / 1 / 1
• Poznámka: předmět je možno zapsat mimo plán; povolen pro zápis po webu
• Garant: Mgr. Michal Lehečka, Ph.D.
• Vyučující: Mgr. Michal Lehečka, Ph.D.
• Třída: Courses available to incoming students
• Prerekvizity : {Pomocná skupina prerekvizit pro LAH a Exchange studující - ANTR}
• Neslučitelnost : YBAJ201, YBAJ264

Anotace

čeština

The accelerating complexity and diversity of urban life has been a central concern of social and cultural anthropology since the early twentieth century. In the context of increasing global interconnectedness, contemporary urban research must address the process of urbanites’ dwelling: moving, knowing and skilling. This means, how urban dwellers navigate and respond to multiple, often distant socio-material phenomena that shape their everyday realities. This course introduces students to key perspectives, concepts, and methodological approaches in urban anthropology. Through fieldwork trips and excursions across Prague, students will engage with various urban environments—such as multicultural neighborhoods, modernist districts, urban “non-places,” green corridors, and infrastructures—through the lens of ethnography. Emphasis will be placed on developing research practices, ethical awareness, and methodological sensitivity in studying the anthropology of the city.

Poslední úprava: Lehečka Michal, Mgr., Ph.D. (03.09.2026)

angličtina

The accelerating complexity and diversity of urban life has been a central concern of social and cultural anthropology since the early twentieth century. In the context of increasing global interconnectedness, contemporary urban research must address the process of urbanites’ dwelling: moving, knowing and skilling. This means, how urban dwellers navigate and respond to multiple, often distant socio-material phenomena that shape their everyday realities. This course introduces students to key perspectives, concepts, and methodological approaches in urban anthropology. Through fieldwork trips and excursions across Prague, students will engage with various urban environments—such as multicultural neighborhoods, modernist districts, urban “non-places,” green corridors, and infrastructures—through the lens of ethnography. Emphasis will be placed on developing research practices, ethical awareness, and methodological sensitivity in studying the anthropology of the city.

Poslední úprava: Horáčková Karolína, Mgr. (26.08.2026)

Podmínky zakončení předmětu

Attendance:

• One absence maximum.

Course grading (40 points maximum) consists of:

• Exercises & Homework (50%)
  • The course combines fieldwork practice and in-class lectures and discussions. Students will conduct various fieldwork & qualitative analysis (4 in total, 6 points each) exercises connected with the participant observation in urban spaces.
• Participation (12,5%)
  • Class will meet once in two weeks. Students should contribute by asking questions, answering questions, or otherwise constructively contributing to class discussions. If they don't participate, they will not earn these points. (maximum 5 points)
• Final essay (37.5%)
  • Reflexive essay referring both to lessons learned during the semester and outcomes of students' fieldwork research (maximum 15 points). Essays submission (via email) due 25 January 2025)

Grading:

• 44-39 points = 1
• 38-31 points = 2
• 30-23 points = 3

Poslední úprava: Horáčková Karolína, Mgr. (26.08.2026)

Sylabus

The course is divided into three modules. Class meets once per two weeks for 150 minutes (each class entails two topics/lectures /activities) – 6 classes consisting of 12 topics. 

Module 1 - Urban Ethnography: Overview and Perspectives

Class 1:

1) Course Introduction, Syllabus Details, and Overview of Qualitative Research Methods: The Position of Urban Anthropology within Social and Cultural Anthropology

2) Ethnographic Fieldwork Research Methods, Reflexivity, and Ethics: Field Notes, Participant Observation, Informal Interviews, etc.
 

Module 2 - Fieldwork Practice 

Class 2:

3) On-Site Fieldwork Research Practice I (Hybrid Suburban Area): Urban Space Mapping and Field Notes

4) Reflection on Fieldwork Experience: Archaeology of Decay and the Violence of Urban Planning
 

Class 3:

5) On-Site Fieldwork Research Practice II: Developing Attentiveness to the Urban Environment, with a Focus on Everyday Practices and Public Space (Post-Socialist Modernist City)

6) Fieldwork Experience Reflection. Death of the Street, Production of Social Space, Solid/Void Spatial Dichotomy, Capitalist vs. Socialist Spaces 
 

Class 4:

7) On-Site Fieldwork Research Practice III (Transportation Node, Busy Urban Space): Sensory Ethnography in Urban Space 

8) Reflection on Fieldwork Experience: Appropriation of Space, the Private/Public Space Dichotomy, Semi-Private Space, and Non-Places

 
Module 3 – Analysing and Presenting the Data 

Class 5:

9) Analysing Data Created in the Field: Segmentation, Coding, and Interpretation

10) Coding and Segmentation Exercise: Discussion 
 

Class 6:

11) Final Presentations by Research Teams 

12) Reflection on the Research Experience and Course Wrap-Up: Discussion of Outcomes and Sharing of Experiences and Knowledge Gaine 

Poslední úprava: Horáčková Karolína, Mgr. (01.09.2026)