The aim of this module is to move beyond language as the primary lens on the social world and explore ways of documenting and analysing how people use a range of distinctly different semiotic resources for representation and communication. Students will engage with relevant theoretical and methodological frameworks, and explore multimodal communication across different settings, including classrooms, workplaces, museums and online spaces, using video and other visual data. This will make it possible to reflect on the potentialities and limitations of different modes, such as image, writing, gesture, speech, and gaze; the implications of changes in the semiotic landscape (e.g. the increase in the use of image) and, in doing so, consider the implications of multimodality for applied linguistics, TESOL, and education research.

Aims of the course 

The course seeks to provide students with an understanding of the principal surveying techniques employed by field archaeologists and...

Module Content

Collaboration is increasingly recognised as a key concept in modern enterprise – understanding how we collaborate is less common.

This...

Module Content

Collaboration is increasingly recognised as a key concept in modern enterprise – understanding how we collaborate is less common.

This module has a theoretical element with an anthropological take on collaborative practice, and which introduces some key concepts for collaborative working and the setting up of collaborative ventures. You will consider how collaboration brings into motion existing social relationships of people who live in existing societies, and the prevailing ideas of hierarchy, power, and value. You will look at egalitarianism, organisational cultures, and non-hierarchical organising in the contemporary capitalist world.

The practical element of the course introduces students to Open Space Technology (created by Harrison Owen) as a method for people to work together in self-organising groups. Students will learn the process, co-create and run Open Space together as a group, use Open Space as the method for completing a formative assignment; and then reflect on what happened and how you might apply ensemble processes to your own enterprise.

Learning Objectives:

By the end of the module, you should be able to:


	Demonstrate a systematic understanding of collaborative enterprise, and a critical awareness of non-hierarchical organising and the new paradigms of organisational design in 21st century capitalism.
	

	Critically evaluate existing organisational practices in the context of anthropological thinking.
	

	Assemble various contrasting viewpoints of organising and apply them to the development of their own enterprise.
	

	Employ Open Space Technology as a tool for self-organising, generating group work, and addressing complex questions.
	

	Appraise their own collaborative processes and the collaborative processes of others in ways that are insightful, productive, and tactful.
	
Delivery Method: Five seminars/lectures and one week of workshops.