Module guide

Key information:

Assignatura: Social Policy

Codi de l'assignatura: 21706

Estudis: Grau en Ciències Polítiques i de l'Administració

Nombre de Crèdits: 4 crèdits ECTS (100 hores de dedicació)

Curs Acadèmic: 2014-2015

Trimestre: 3er

Llengua de Docència: Anglès / English

Course aims:

The aim of this module is to understand social policy in a historical and comparative perspective, which makes it relevant to understand today's challenges to welfare provision. The module examines different theoretical perspectives to welfare states in order to identify the main ideological and structural challenges that welfare states face in the 21st century. Whilst there will be examples from different areas of the world, the module focuses on advanced political economies of welfare.

Course objectives:

·       To identify key models of welfare state capitalism

·       To understand the historical evolution of social policy

·       To critically engage with the key challenges to an andocentric western understanding of welfare states

·       To analyse the ideological dimensions of social policy

Key skills/competences:

·       To be able to work cooperatively in groups

·       To be able to write at a high academic level in English

·       To know the key issues and debates in social policy

Language

The course will be delivered entirely in English. Final essays can be submitted in English, Spanish or Catalan.

Course organisation:

The course will be delivered through a mixture of introductory lectures and seminars. Following an introductory session, we will meet weekly (for nine weeks), for three-hour sessions. Everyone will be expected to read thoroughly prior to the session and to contribute fully to discussions. Attendance at seminars is compulsory.  If you know in advance that circumstances beyond your control will prevent you from attending a seminar, you should contact the lecturer as soon as possible to explain your absence.

Course evaluation:

·       The course will be assessed with continuous evaluation.

·       Plagiarism will mean a mark of 0. Plagiarism is a form of academic misconduct, which involves passing the work of others as your own. It goes beyond copying and it will be considered as a serious academic offence. If you are in doubt over what constitutes plagiarism, please consult me.

·       If you fail the module you will only be allowed to re-sit in July if you have submitted all four assessments. Non-submission of one of the assessments will mean a fail mark for the course.

·       Be aware of your use of language. Sexist, racist or homophobic language will not be tolerated. In addition, a certain level of English is required in order to ensure you can be understood.

Group presentation - 20%

During the first seminar, work groups will be formed and there will be a chance for you to meet your team and nominate a leader. During the first seminar, you will choose the topic that your group will work on.

PowerPoints and handouts are required for the group presentations. In addition, you are encouraged to be creative in your presentation, so feel free to involve the audience or develop role-play exercises.

Presentations should be between 10 and 15 minutes long. They must relate to the week's overall theme, hence you should first read the allocated week's compulsory reading materials. This will give you an overall view of what the key arguments are.

Blog post - 20%

All students will be required to write a blog post on one of the weekly topics under consideration. You will need to decide which week you will complete the assignment by the end of week 1.

Blog address: http://socialpolicyupf.wordpress.com/

Writing a blog post will provide you with a useful set of skills related to writing for different audiences. Blog writing is becoming an increasingly popular skill in order to communicate with different types of people. Political blogs based around academia are proliferating and are used as platforms to share what we learn, think and research in shorter, more concise and more accessible ways. In a way, they may help contribute to social debates by sharing the knowledge we acquire (and produce) at universities.

Useful blogs:

This is a list of good quality blogs that are able to socialise knowledge produced and acquired in public universities:

In Catalonia/Spain:

El Pati Descobert: http://www.ara.cat/elpatidescobert/

Politikon: http://politikon.es/

Abroad:

LSE Europp blog: http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/europpblog/

SPERI blog: http://speri.dept.shef.ac.uk/comment/

Andreas Bieler blog: http://andreasbieler.blogspot.com.es/

Advice on writing a blog post:

-        Be clear and accessible to a range of audiences

-        A blog post is not a rant! Be serious in your ability to argue a point. This is not a Friday night conversation with friends but your well-argued, passionate and convinced contribution to an important debate.

-        Think about your title (make sure it's catchy and has a message).

Word length: 700-1000 words

How to submit your blog post? 5 days after the class that it relates to via the Aula Global (using Turnitin)

Essay - 60%

Advice:

·       Essays will be submitted using Turnitin by Friday 13th of June.

·       Plagiarism will mean a mark of 0.

·       You are advised to discuss a one-page outline of your essay with me during my office hours.

·       Essays should be no longer than 3000 words and they must be submitted in English.

·       You must read at least 3 or more academic articles or books from the course reading list.

·       Please find advice on how to write essays in the booklet by Adrian Leftwich in the Aula Global.

Course structure:

Selected reading materials:

Bakker, I. and Silvey, R. (2008) Beyond States and Markets. The challenges of Social Reproduction. Routledge.

Béland, D, (2005) "Ideas and Social Policy: An Institutionalist Perspective" Social Policy & Administration, 39-1: 1-18.

Bruff, I. (2013) "The Rise of Authoritarian Neoliberalism" Rethinking Marxism: A Journal of Economics, Culture and Society

Castells, M. (2012) Networks of outrage and hope: social movements in the internet age. Polity Press.

Cox, L. and Nilsen, A. G. (2014) We Make our own history. Marxism and Social Movements in the Twilight of Neoliberalism. Pluto Press

Cox, R. H. (1998) "The Consequences of Welfare Reform: How Conceptions of Social Rights are Changing" Journal of Social Policy, 27-1: 1-16

Cox, R. H. (2001), The social construction of an imperative: why welfare reform happened in Denmark and the Netherlands but not in Germany, World Politics, 53: 463-98.

Daguerre, A. (2004), Importing workfare: policy transfer of social and labour market policies from the USA to Britain under New Labour, Social Policy & Administration, 38, I: 41-56

Epstein, W.M. (1997) Welfare in America: How social science fails the poor, Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press.

Esping-Andersen, G. (1990) The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism. Cambridge: Polity Press

Fagan and Lee (1997) '"New" Social Movements and Social Policy: A Case Study of the Disability Movement', in Lavalette, M and Pratt, A. (eds.) Social Policy: A Conceptual and Theoretical Introduction. London: Sage.

Featherstone, B. (2006) 'Why Gender Matters in Child Welfare Protection',

Critical Social Policy 26(2): 294-314.

Federici, S. (2004) Caliban and the Witch. New York: Autonomedia.

Ferguson, I. Lavalette, M. and Mooney, G. (2002) Rethinking Welfare: A Critical Perspective. London: Sage.

Fraser, N. (1995) "From Redistribution to Recognition? Dilemmas of Justice in a "Post- Socialist" Age" New Left Review 212, pp. 68-92

Fraser, N. (2003) 'Social Justice in the Age of Identity Politics', pp. 7-109

in N. Fraser and A. Honneth (eds) Redistribution or Recognition? London

and New York: Verso.

Haagh, L. and Helgo, C. (eds.) Social Policy Reform and Market Governance in Latin America. Basingstoke: Palgrave.

Hirsch, J. (1988) 'The Crisis of Fordism, Transformations of the "Keynesian" Security State, and New Social Movements', Research in Social Movements,

Conflicts and Change 10: 43-55.

Honneth, A. (1996) The Struggle for Recognition. Cambridge: Polity Press.

Huston, A. (1991) "Children in poverty: Developmental and policy issues" In Huston, A. (ed.) Children in poverty. Child development and public policy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Jessop, B. (2002) The Future of the Capitalist State. Cambridge: Polity Press. (especially chapters 4 and 7)

Jones, O. (2011) CHAVS. The Demonization of the Working Class. London: Verso.

Levitas, R. (1998) The Inclusive Society? Social Exclusion and New Labour. Basingstoke: Palgrave. (chapter 1: Three Discourses of Social Exclusion)

Lister, R. (2002) 'The Dilemmas of Pendulum Politics: Balancing Paid

Work, Care and Citizenship', Economy and Society 31(4): 520-32.

Marshall, T.H. (1992) Citizenship and Social Class. London: Pluto Press.

Molyneux, M. (1984) 'Mobilisation without Emancipation?', Critical Social

Policy 10: 59-75.

Pierson, P. (1996), The new politics of the welfare state, World Politics, 48: 143-79

Ryner, J. M. (2002) Capitalist Restructuring, Globalisation and the Third Way. Lessons from the Swedish model. London: Routledge.

Sainsbury, D. (1999) "Gender and Social-Democratic Welfare States" In Sainsbury, D. (ed.) Gender and welfare state regimes. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Schram, S. F. (1995) Words of welfare: The poverty of social science and the social science of poverty, Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.

Sklair, L. and Miller, D. (2010) "Capitalist globalization, corporate social responsibility and social policy." Critical Social Policy, 30.

Skocpol, T. (1992), Protecting Soldiers and Mothers: The Political Origins of Social Policy in the United States, Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press.

Standing, K. (1999) 'Lone Mothers and "Parental" Employment: A Contra-

diction in Policy?', Journal of Social Policy 28(3): 479-95.

Taylor, V. (1999) 'Gender and Social Movements: Gender Processes in

Women's Self-help Movements', Gender and Society 13(1): 8-33.

Taylor, V. and Van Willigen, M. (1996) 'Women's Self-help and the Reconstruction of Gender: The Postpartum Support and Breast Cancer

Movements', Mobilization 1(2): 123-42.

Taylor-Gooby, P. (1994) 'Postmodernism and Social Policy: A Great Leap

Backwards?', Journal of Social Policy 23(3): 385-404.

Theodore, N. and Peck, J. (1999) 'Welfare-to- work: national problems, local solutions?', Critical Social Policy, vol. 19, no 4: 485-510.

Titmuss, R. M. (1974) Social Policy. An introduction. (chapter 2: What is social policy?). London: George Allen & Unwind Ltd.

Torfing, J. (1999) "Towards a Schumpeterian workfare postnational regime: path-shaping and path-dependency in Danish welfare state reform" Economy and Society, 28-1: 369-402.

Trickey, H. (2001) "Comparing workfare programmes - features and implications" In Lodemel, I. and Trickey, H. (eds.) 'An offer you can't refuse' Workfare in international perspective. Bristol: The Policy Press.

Williams, F. (1989) Social Policy: A Critical Introduction. Cambridge: Polity.

Williams, F. (1994) 'Social Relations, Welfare and the Post-Fordism Debate', pp. 49-73 in R. Burrows and B. Loader (eds) Towards a Post- Fordist Welfare State? London: Routledge.