Department of Social & Policy Sciences, Unit Catalogue 2007/08 |
SP50137 Current issues in social policy |
| Credits: 6 |
| Level: Masters |
| Semester: 1 |
| Assessment: CW 100% |
| Requisites: |
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Aims: To provide students with a critical understanding of current issues in social policy. To give students a critical undersanding of the main conceptual debates in contemporary social policy, together with material on current policy issues. To enable studnets to apply these conceptual perspectives to the analysis of social policy.
Learning Outcomes: By the end of this unit, students will have: * Studied key texts relating to conceptual and current policy issues. * Critical understanding of the links between concepts and current policy issues. * Placed British social policy within wider conceptual and comparative contexts. By the end of this unit, students should be able to: * Identify and apply appropriate criteria and theoretical concepts for the analysis of social policy. Skills: * Comprehensive and scholarly written communication (e.g. essays) (Taught/Facilitated/Assessed). * Effective oral communication (e.g. seminar presentations) (T/F). * Ability to select, summarise and synthesise written information from multiple sources (T/F/A). * Ability to develop rigorous arguments through precise use of concepts and models (T/F/A). * Ability to select and use appropriate ideas to produce a coherent response to a pre-set question (T/F/A). * Ability to produce work to agreed specifications and deadlines (T/F/A). * Ability to work independently, without close supervision or guidance (F). * Ability to work effectively as part of a group or team (T/F). Content: * Concepts in contemporary social policy (e.g. market versus state; universality vs selectivity; the mixed economy of welfare; the social division of welfare). * Recent trends in British social policy, focusing on the 'Third Way' of the current New Labour Government. * Debates in contemporary social policy (e.g. conditionality; civil society; privatisation; evidence-based policy making). * Third Way or Multiple Third Ways: British social policy in comparative context. |