SOCIAL POLICIES
cod. 1003006

Academic year 2016/17
2° year of course - First semester
Professor
Academic discipline
Sociologia dei processi culturali e comunicativi (SPS/08)
Field
Discipline sociologiche
Type of training activity
Basic
36 hours
of face-to-face activities
6 credits
hub: PARMA
course unit
in - - -

Learning objectives

With respect to knowledge and understanding (descriptor 1) The course aims at the acquisition of a historical view (time evolution of welfare systems) and comparative (understanding the Italian social policies in comparison to others) because these approaches help the student in place the regulatory framework of social policies within a more complex socio-political scenario.
With respect to understanding applied to their future professional reality (descriptor 2), the course aims to contextualize the concepts learned on social policies with respect to operative procedures of the service through testimonies (seminars with experts, watching movies and debate) in order to enable the student to carry out a continuous shift between macro levels (strands of policy, institutional, normative dimensions) and micro levels (tools of the social worker, conflicts with users etc..).
The course is also particularly interested in the development of independent judgment with respect to the topics covered (descriptor 3) and in that sense aims to provide tools of observation ("walking the neighborhood") that facilitate the direct observation of reality and the empirical analysis of "local forms" of social policies. Much importance is given in the final evaluation to these discussions.

Prerequisites

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Course unit content

The course deals with the evolution of modern Western welfare in a comparative perspective (between different European countries), addressing the changes (in particular during the XX century) and the splitting in specific sectors (care policy, health care, social security, labor) respect to changes in the balance between State and Market before moving to the latest and most recent transformations linked to the crisis of European industry, the increasing precarization of the masses and the other main dimensions of social change we are experiencing.
In particular, the first phase of the course will explore the different forms of regulation in the equilibrium between State and Market and the different historical phases of the welfare state (expansion and contraction);
the second part will explore regulatory and operational models that distinguish different welfare systems at regional, national and European level;
the third part of the course describes the regulatory and operational dimensions of the different areas of Italian social policies;
Finally, the fourth part of the course deals with scenarios of the possible future of the welfare state (welfare lib; welfare mix, community welfare, etc.).

Full programme

complete program PART ONE of theoretical lessons (6 \ 8 academic hours): Outlines of Social Policies: Modernity, State, Market and the birth of the Welfare State between control functions and assistance. Introduction to the course; vision in the classroom of 2 movies and debate.
Seminar (2 academic hours): Social policies on domestic violence as a prime example: coupling which, as an introduction of the state in private spaces, such as evolution of norms in the context of cultural change?
Seminar (2 academic hours): Guest Roberto Abati: The public-private partnership and subsidiarity views from two points of view of the institutions and private social services.

PART TWO of theoretical lessons (6 academic hours): The regulatory and operational models that distinguish different welfare systems, regional, national and European level.
Seminar (3 hours academic): The case of the Scandinavian social democracies to understand the different systems of social policies: analysis of some instruments (contrasts poverty, minimum wages and incomes of universal citizenship: what assessment).

PART THREE of theoretical lessons (6 academic hours) describes the normative dimensions of the different areas of Italian social policies (social security policies, labor, health, social welfare)
Seminar (3 hours academic): the social production of poverty and social exclusion: the late modernity, the impoverishment of the middle class and the end of the modern welfare.

PART FOUR of theoretical course (6 academic hours): future scenarios of welfare: theories and perspectives.
Seminar (3 hours academic): New vulnerabilities and community welfare.

Bibliography

The course is based on three types of materials:
a) The lecture notes of the course by the teacher (about 60 pp.);

b) Chapters and essays on social policies:
Mara Tognetti Bordogna, Outlines of Social Policy, first edition, 2005, Cap: Politics and Social Policy;
Ugo Ascoli, The Welfare in Italy, first edition, 2011, Cap: (Giovanna Vicarelli) The policies of Health;
Fulvio Conti, Gianni Silei, A Brief History of the Welfare State, 2011 edition, Cap: Introduction; Cap: Towards the end of the welfare state?;
Riccardo Guidi, The Welfare as socio-political Construction, 2011 edition, Cap: A new tool for welfare. The public-private partnership and its forms;

c) c) Books on social policies viewed by citizens and users (service users, vulnerable subjects). A text of your choice:
d) - A. Nove, My name is Roberta, I have 40 years, earning € 250 per month, Einaudi, 2006 (theme: precarious employment and labor policies)
e) - V. Pellegrino, The West and the Mediterranean in the eyes of migrants, Unicopli, 2009 (issues: new forms of migration and integration policies)
f) - V. Pellegrino, Mentall illness narratives . The illness and its treatment in the eyes of psychiatric patients, UTET, 2012 (theme: psychosocial distress and response of the health and social services).

Teaching methods

The course is set to 4 different types of lessons that have appeared suitable for a relatively large number of students (about 80):
1. Theoretical lectures conducted by the teacher with final debate centered on 'keywords' (students brainstorming on the concepts exposed by the teacher and exchange of views and \ or questions);
2. Watching movies centered on social services in Europe, the figure of the social worker, the way in which citizens and users implementing social policies, vision aimed at the acquisition and review of the concepts taught critical of them (ex.: Ladybird Ladybird, 1994 directed Ken Loach; Raining Stones 1993 Ken Loach; Saimir 2004 Francis Munzi; Light of My Eyes 2001 Giuseppe Piccioni, Lorna's Wedding in 2008, Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne).
3. Seminars with "expert guests": the lectures are interspersed with workshops conducted in co-presence with witnesses and \ or experts of social policies in which students can ask questions after an initial short exposure. Experts usually are chosen not only for specific expertise but for capacity to stimulate critical of the current challenges of the welfare and innovative strands.
4. “Walking the neighborhood”: During the course students are introduced to the method of participant observation of walks or neighborhood (outreach methodologies). The walks (usually in small groups of students) are carried out in different neighborhoods and times and the students present a final reports that become part of the material to final verification.

Assessment methods and criteria

• • The verification of the course is as follows:

1 Final written test based primarily on lecture notes, chapters of books, materials provided by the invited experts as witnesses to the seminars.
It is mandatory 5 open questions and 1 to choose from 5 other (time to 4 hours). The questions are open and general, targeted to develop in students the ability to critically process. It is . often develop their own vision on the future of the welfare or on the differences between countries in their own judgment and so on. Finally, it is not only to verify the notional learning but to urge the synthesis of various "chapters" of study, to urge the understanding with respect to open-ended questions and formulated in a complex manner (descriptor 1).

2Report of a text chosen from those centered on the point of view of users with respect to social policies, their critical view of political and social service. The report includes a first part of description and a second part of critical analysis (integration with other sources, orientation as future social workers). In this sense, the relations (which may not be less than 3 \ 4 folders) check for comprehension skills applied to their social context and their own professional future (descriptor 2).

3. Report of a walk to the neighborhood (participant observation of urban contexts where there is a strong presence of social services and where develop forms of social disadvantage). In this case, the student must arrange a process of listening to witnesses through a set of questions, this must be brief analysis and must draw conclusions. This exam wants to insist on understanding applied (descriptor 2), but also on the independent judgment of the student (descriptor 3) and its ability to communicate (descriptor 4), which is necessary to move into the territory.

4. Relations of thematic seminars (Social Policy) going on in the city, to which they had been invited to travel (not mandatory, they give useful score in the final vote and \ or to praise).

The final evaluation of the student emerges from the weighted average of the marks obtained by the student in the different tests, which must all be present as a requirement of sufficiency (if one is missing, the student is not sufficient).
In particular:
- The written test, assessed in 30/30, is worth 50% of the final mark. To take sufficiency, the student must answer all open questions mandatory. Depending on the critical thinking and deepening the vote varies;
- The report of the text, also in 30/30, is worth 25% of the final mark;
- The final work of the walks in the neighborhood (30/30), is worth 25% of the final mark.
Students will be informed on these assessment criteria at the beginning of the course.

Other information

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