|
 Academic Year:
| 2015/6 |
| Owning Department/School:
| Department of Social & Policy Sciences |
| Credits:
| 6 |
| Level:
| Masters UG & PG (FHEQ level 7) |
| Period: |
Semester 1 |
| Assessment Summary:
| CW 100% |
| Assessment Detail: |
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| Supplementary Assessment: |
Like-for-like reassessment (where allowed by programme regulations) |
| Requisites: | |
| Description:
| Aims: The overall aim is to foster in-depth, critical discussion of the ways that wellbeing is imagined and operationalised in public policy and international development. More specifically, the unit aims: * To distinguish different approaches to wellbeing and happiness in policy and politics, and the concepts and * methods they employ. * To consider how constructions of wellbeing vary by academic discipline, theoretical orientation, methodology, time, place and culture. * To consider the significance of gender, class, race/ethnicity, disability and life-course in structuring the experience of wellbeing. * To explore different ways that projects, programmes and policies aim to enhance wellbeing, and the outcomes of these. Learning Outcomes: By the end of the unit, students should be able to: * Discuss critically a range of forms in which wellbeing appears in public policy and international development * Critically evaluate the different concepts which underlie these approaches to wellbeing in public policy, the methods which they employ and how these reflect different disciplinary perspectives * Demonstrate critical awareness of how these concepts are understood across time, place and culture * Critically discuss the significance of various dimensions of social difference to the ways that wellbeing is experienced * Critically discuss a range of ways in which concepts of wellbeing are applied in social, community and development practice * Analyse the critically the application and influence of wellbeing in politics, policy and practice, paying attention to conceptual, methodological, and practical considerations Skills: Cross-cultural and interpersonal sensitivity (Taught/Facilitated) Comprehensive and scholarly written communication (e.g. essays) (T/F/Assessed) Effective oral communication (e.g. seminar presentations) (T/F/A) Ability to select, summarise and synthesis written information from multiple sources (T/F/A) Ability to synthesise multidisciplinary perspectives on the same problem (T/F/A) Ability to produce work to agreed specifications and deadlines (T/F/A) Concise, time-bound and effective written communication (T/F/Assessed) Ability to develop rigorous arguments through precise use of concepts and models (T/F/A) Ability to work effectively as part of a group or team (T/F/A) Content: Part 1: Wellbeing in public policy The four 'faces' of wellbeing in politics and policy: comprehensive, personal, utility, alternative to development The four key concepts which underlie these: capability, psychological wellbeing, subjective wellbeing, relational wellbeing Part 2: Wellbeing methodologies Critical reflection on the key terms that structure wellbeing research: objective and subjective, qualitative and quantitative. What can we know and how can we find out? Part 3: Wellbeing in practice * Field trip to local wellbeing project * Working with wellbeing and social difference * Wellbeing, place and environment. |
| Programme availability: |
SP50230 is a Designated Essential Unit on the following programmes:Department of Social & Policy Sciences
SP50230 is available for Auditing on the following programmes:Department for Health
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