Social Anthropology and Economics
Social anthropology and economics is a combination that produces graduates who can understand human behaviour from two fundamentally different but complementary perspectives. Social anthropology examines how different cultures organise social life, construct meaning, manage resources and understand the world, typically through intensive fieldwork and ethnographic methods that prioritise close attention to how people actually live. Economics provides formal models of how agents make decisions under constraint, how markets allocate resources and how incentives shape behaviour at the level of individuals, firms and governments.
The tension and dialogue between these approaches is intellectually productive and practically relevant.
At SOAS, which is the UK's leading institution for the study of Africa, Asia and the Middle East, this three-year full-time programme includes a foundation year, giving you an extended route into the degree. SOAS's distinctive focus means that your social anthropology studies are enriched by the depth of area expertise concentrated in the institution, and the economics taught at SOAS reflects a global perspective that is not centred on the North Atlantic economies that dominate mainstream economics teaching. You will engage with anthropological fieldwork traditions and economic analysis in a context that takes the full diversity of human economic and social life seriously.
The foundation year provides the academic preparation needed to engage fully with both disciplines at degree level.
Graduates of this combination move into international development, humanitarian work, economic consultancy, the civil service, research, policy organisations, journalism, NGOs and international business. The combination of analytical rigour and cultural understanding is particularly valued in organisations working across different national and cultural contexts. Further study in anthropology, development economics, area studies or international relations is a natural option.