Social Policies and Inequalities

Recommended Prerequisites

Not applicable.

Teaching Methods

The pedagogical strategy consists in promoting the active participation of students, giving a reasonable margin of choice for individual contributions and valuing the collective discussion of topics proposed by students under the program. All work is organized according to a pedagogical plan prior agreed by the group, so that the topics correspond most closely to the scientific interests of the students and their thesis projects.

Learning Outcomes

The central objective is to discuss the challenges facing social policies in consequence of diverse closely interconnected processes: retrenchment of welfare state, neo-liberal orientation in welfare reforms, devastating effects of an unregulated global economy on wellbeing, increase in inequalities and poverty.  An additional objective is the analysis of social policies in Portugal, their particularities within the European social model and its proximity to the policies of other states, particularly those of Southern Europe and Latin America.
Among the skills to be acquired are the understanding of the process of building up the welfare state and social policies and the recognition of the existence of different regimes and models, the relationship between the crisis and the reform of public welfare with the change in the circumstances of these systems, and the identification of signals that allow us to understand the meaning of the changes underway 

Work Placement(s)

No

Syllabus

1.  The state and social policies.
2. Social inequalities.
3. The role of social policies in reducing inequalities.
4. Inequalities and social policies in Portugal.

Assessment Methods

Assessment
Oral presentation : 25.0%
Synthesis work: 75.0%

Bibliography

CASTEL, Robert - La montée des incertitudes : travail, protections, statut de l'individu. Paris : Editions du Seuil, 2013.

CITIZENSHIP and social theory. Ed. Bryan S. Turner. London : Sage Publications, 1993.

GOUGH, Ian ;; WOOD, Geoffrey D. - Insecurity and welfare regimes in Asia, Africa, and Latin America : social policy in development contexts. Cambridge : University of Cambridge Press, 2006.

MARSHALL, T. H. ;; BOTTOMORE, Tom - Citizenship and social class. London : Pluto Press, 1992.

OLHAR (UM) sobre a pobreza : vulnerabilidade e exclusão social no Portugal contemporâneo. Coord. Alfredo Bruto da Costa. 4a ed.. Lisboa : Gradiva, 2011.

REPENSER la solidarité : l'apport des sciences sociales. Ed. Serge Paugam. Paris : PUF, 2007.

RODRIGUES, Carlos Alberto Farinha - Distribuição do rendimento, desigualdade e pobreza : Portugal nos anos 90. Coimbra : Edições Almedina, 2007.

WELFARE states in transition. Ed. Gosta Esping-Andersen. Repr.. London : Sage Publications, 2007.