The advanced Master of Cultural Anthropology and development Studies (CADES) brings together students and professionals from all over the world, involved in consultancy, policy, education and research in the international development sector. It offers you a large international and interdisciplinary platform to deal with development issues from an anthropological perspective.

CADES is a unique, international advanced Master programme that provides a broad interdisciplinary platform that facilitates students in addressing development issues and social transformations from an anthropological perspective. The programme brings together students and professionals from all over the world who are involved or interested in social, educational, emancipatory or policy work in the development, or, more broadly, the social sector.

Development:

Development is only sustainable when it fully acknowledges the culture-specific ways in which societies or networks deal with what are often increasingly scarce life resources.

Most often, communities view change or development as desirable only when it meaningfully coalesces with the cultural values that inspire their heritages of knowledge, religion and art, networks of communication, deliberation and decision-making, or notions of responsibility, parenthood, nutrition and health. However, rather than view this as an obstacle, it should be understood as the way for any lasting, meaningful change or development to take root. Development is, for that matter, always mediated by a community's common-sense knowledge and pragmatic motives, along with how its members think about and practice kinship, gender, identity, ethics, politics, justice, and so on. 

Anthropology:

By focusing on the social dimension, anthropology, more so than any other discipline, intends to uncover the hidden transcripts and power dynamics that lie beneath the surface of many development issues.  Knowledge acquired mainly through fieldwork and participant observation enhances our understanding of the rich diversity of knowledge systems, worldviews and modes of living from within. Anthropologists avoid approaching a given culture in light of their own standards of knowledge, truth, values or technological development.

Students:

You are an ambitious, and enthusiastically dedicated applicant with an interest in policy, education, consultancy or research in the international and/or intercultural development context. You think out of the box and your personal objective is to obtain an interdisciplinary critical academic understanding of development policies and processes, both in North and South.

The programme will offer you concepts and a theoretical framework embedded in anthropology to acquire a better grasp of the complexity of international development. You will also learn how to translate aspects of this complexity into research questions and appropriate research methods. Following in depth courses combined with setting up collective and individual ethnographic field work on a topic of your choice form the core of what you will be tasked with during the programme.

Our partners, network and the extended research networks of staff members will provide you with ample opportunities for organising the ethnographic research required for your master thesis.