Postgraduate Course: Social inequality and social protection (PGSP11258)
Course Outline
| School | School of Social and Political Science |
College | College of Humanities and Social Science |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | How can we conceptualise the inequalities of social class, generation, race, disability and gender? How are such inequalities bought about through processes across the life course, from cradle to grave? This course aims to make the student familiar with the social structure and the institutional contexts across life courses and the corresponding social and public policies. The course focuses on policies that are used to support human development and family formation, childhood and educational trajectories, vocational training, labour market entry, occupational careers and income trajectories, retirement and ageing. The course takes the UK as its focus, although students are also encouraged to take a comparative perspective. |
| Course description |
Week 1
Introduction: Defining inequality, thinking about the life course & social protection
Week 2-Social stratification, social class and social mobility
Week 3-Environmental inequalities - A sustainability perspective
Week 4 -Health inequalities - A life course perspective
Part 2: Working with policy makers to improve social protection across the lifecourse
Week 5 -Conceptual and measurement issues in comparing inequality cross-nationally
Week 6
****NO SEMINAR ¿ Innovative Learning Week ***
Week 7-An introduction to policy impact evaluation
Part 3: Social protection across the life-course
Week 8-Child poverty
Week 9-Youth transitions
Week 10-Gender inequalities, employment and care
Week 11-The changing mix of public and private provision: Older people, pensions
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2014/15, Available to all students (SV1)
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Quota: 40 |
| Course Start |
Semester 2 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Lecture Hours 20,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
176 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
100 %,
Coursework
0 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
Long-essay (4,000) (90%)
Class participation (10%) |
| Feedback |
Not entered |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
By the time of submission, students should be able to:
- demonstrate the ability to carry out a sustained piece of independent scholarship, involving project and time management
- demonstrate the ability to frame a coherent and answerable set of research questions, to justify these in relation to existing knowledge and theories, and to demonstrate that answering them would constitute an advance on existing knowledge
- achieve a command of existing knowledge in their field of research, through a critical review of relevant literature engaging with salient debates
- demonstrate an understanding of research methods (empirical or theoretical), appropriate to the research topic and questions, taking due account of any practical, political and ethical issues affecting the conduct of their research
- where relevant, demonstrate the ability to implement the chosen research design and methods of data collection and analysis
- where relevant, come up with credible conclusions (eg, on the implications of a pilot study for a fuller study)
- where relevant, demonstrate the ability to integrate theoretical and empirical elements
- produce written scholarship in line with research and bibliographic conventions
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Reading List
Baldock, J., Mitton, L., Manning, N. and Vickerstaff, S. (2011), Social Policy, 4th edn, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Byrne, D. (2005), Social Exclusion, Buckingham: Open University Press.
Crompton, R. (2008), Class and Stratification, 3rd edn, Cambridge: Polity Press.
Dorling, D. (2010), Injustice: why social inequality persists, Bristol: The Policy Press.
Fulcher, J. and Scott, J. (2011), ¿Inequality, Poverty, and Wealth¿, Chapter 18 in Sociology, 4th edn, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Giddens, A. And Diamond, P. (eds) (2005), The New Egalitarianism, Cambridge: Polity Press.
Glennerster, H. (2009), Understanding the Finance of Welfare, 2nd edn, Bristol: The Policy Press.
Graham, H. (2007), : Health and Socioeconomic Inequalities, Maidenhead: Open University Press.
Grusky, D. B. and Syelenyi, S. (eds) (2006), Inequality: Classic Readings in Race, Class and Gender, Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press.
Grusky, D. B. and Syelenyi, S. (eds) (2011), The Inequality Reader: Contemporary and Foundational Readings in Race, Class, and Gender, 2nd edn, Boulder: Westview Press.
Hills, J. and Stewart, K. (eds) (2005), A More Equal Society? New Labour, Poverty, Inequality and Exclusion (CASE Studies on Poverty, Place & Policy), Bristol: Policy Press.
Hills, J., Sefton, T. and Stewart, K. (eds) (2009), Towards a More Equal Society? Poverty, Inequality and Policy since 1997. Bristol: The Policy Press.
Lister, R. (2004), Poverty, Cambridge: Polity Press. Especially chapter 3.
Millar, J. (2009), Understanding Social Security: Issues for Policy and Practice, 2nd edn, Bristol: The Policy Press.
Ridge, T. & Wright, S. (2008), Understanding Inequality, Poverty and Wealth, Bristol: The Policy Press.
Example Key Journals
American Sociological Review
Benefits: The Journal of Poverty and Social Justice
Economic and Labour Market Review - http://data.gov.uk/dataset/economic_and_labour_market_review
European Sociological Review
Research in Social Stratification and Mobility
Journal of European Social Policy
Journal of Social Policy
Sociology
Useful Links
Pathways ¿ A magazine on poverty, inequality, and social policy
http://www.stanford.edu/group/scspi/media_magazines.html
The Poverty Alliance
http://www.povertyalliance.org/
The Poverty Site
http://www.poverty.org.uk/index.htm
Equality and Human Rights Commission
http://www.equalityhumanrights.com/
Institute for Social and Economic Research, University of Essex
www.iser.essex.ac.uk
Have a look at their Working Paper Series
Joseph Rowntree Foundation
http://www.jrf.org.uk/
UK Government Equalities office
http://homeoffice.gov.uk/equalities/
UK Government Equality strategy
http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/publications/equalities/equality-strategy-publications/equality-strategy/equality-strategy?view=Binary
UK Government (previous administration¿s) National Equality Panel
http://sta.geo.useconnect.co.uk/national_equality_panel/publications.aspx
Minimum Income Standards
http://www.minimumincomestandard.org/index.htm
Scottish Neighbourhood Statistics ¿ interactive maps on key topics by postcode sector in Scotland.
http://www.sns.gov.uk/
OECD Ministerial meeting on Social Policy - Building a fairer future: the role of Social Policy
http://www.oecd.org/site/0,3407,en_21571361_47089446_1_1_1_1_1,00.html
Links to interesting reports
Social Policy Association¿s ¿In Defence of Welfare¿
http://www.social-policy.org.uk/downloads/idow.pdf
Growing Unequal? Income Distribution and Poverty in OECD Countries -
www.oecd.org/els/social/inequality
and
http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/32/20/47723414.pdf
Doing better for families OECD (2011)
http://www.oecd.org/document/49/0,3343,en_2649_37419_47654961_1_1_1_37419,00.html
¿How to Talk About Redistribution: An Historical Perspective¿, by Ben Jackson
http://www.historyandpolicy.org/papers/policy-paper-76.html
The IFS publishes an annual analysis of the latest poverty and inequality data (for the 2007 publication see http://www.ifs.org.uk/publications.php?publication_id=3932)
The Commission on Social Determinants of Health, chaired by Professor Sir Michael Marmot published its final report in August 2008
Copies of the report summary and full report are be available from the
following WHO website:
http://www.who.int/social_determinants/en/
The Scottish Government Early Years Framework
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/Doc/257007/0076309.pdf
Poverty and income inequality in Scotland
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/topics/statistics/Browse/Social-Welfare/IncomePoverty
and
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2011/05/povertystats0910
Poverty and Ethnicity in Scotland
http://www.jrf.org.uk/publications/community-consultation-poverty-and-ethnicity-scotland
Macpherson, S. and Bond, S. (2009), Equality Issues in Scotland: a review of research, 2000-8, Research report 29, Edinburgh: Equality and Human Rights Commission.
http://www.equalityhumanrights.com/uploaded_files/Scotland/equality_issues_in_scotland_a_review_of_research.pdf
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Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Not entered |
| Keywords | Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Valeria Skafida
Tel: (0131 6)51 3215
Email: Valeria.Skafida@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Miss Jade Birkin
Tel: (0131 6)51 1659
Email: Jade.Birkin@ed.ac.uk |
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