MSc International Social Welfare

Key concepts like liberty, equality and social justice have played a central role in shaping the development of the welfare state and still underpin contemporary political discussion of social policy.

This course begins by exploring these concepts and then moves on to a range of both classic and contemporary theoretical perspectives, in particular, critical perspectives, that seek to evaluate and explain welfare arrangements.

Bringing concepts and theories together, the last section of the course examines the three dominant traditions in social policy: social democracy; liberalism and conservatism.

The module explores welfare systems and policy developments across a range of countries, with an OECD focus. Gain a thorough comparative understanding of how and why different welfare systems have developed as they have and the consequences of this for key health and social outcomes. You will utilise comparative methods of inquiry to critically evaluate the performance of different welfare systems. This module is likely to appeal to students interested in learning from international comparisons.

This class will develop a conceptual and theoretical understanding of the ideas underpinning international social work, a critical appreciation of key themes and issues confronting social work practitioners globally and key policies underpinning social work and social development globally. It is a key class for a course of international Social Welfare, which underpins further modules on this course.

This class introduces the use of quantitative methods in social research. Like qualitative methods, quantitative methods are tools in the social scientist’s tool kit. Learning when and how to use them will make you a better social researcher, open new scope for dissertation work, and improve job prospects.

The class serves three principal purposes. First, to ground students in the language of research methods: research questions, variables, hypotheses and so on. Second, to introduce two types of quantitative data: official statistics and survey responses. The third purpose is to provide a statistical foundation upon which the QMII class can build.

This class provides an overview of the ever-expanding field of qualitative methods in political science, international relations and public/social policy.

A variety of methods and analytical tools will be examined, and situated within different traditions of social research such as positivism and interpretivism. The focus is on both principles and practices. The idea is to develop an understanding of the logic and quality standards associated with different forms of qualitative inquiry, but also engage the practical tasks involved in conducting qualitative research. Rather than privileging one tradition as ‘more scientific’ or ‘more humanistic’ than the other, this class adopts an inclusive, pluralistic approach.

The core assumption is that the complexity of the social and political world can be approached from multiple methodological perspectives, using a diverse set of tools. The common ground though is our strong commitment to the standards of systematic, rigorous social and political research.

The aim of this module is for you to develop a critical understanding of the use, impacts and harms of imprisonment. It's designed to equip you with both the knowledge and the theoretical tools to engage in debates surrounding contemporary imprisonment.

You'll learn about the diversity, complexity and international breadth of scholarship in the area of punishment and society scholarship.

In particular, the module will draw from social theory, political science, critical gender studies, human rights and anthropological and narrative studies.

We look at the ontological and epistemological foundations of contrasting methodological paradigms, encouraging students to consider the assumptions that underpin widely used quantitative and qualitative methods. We also look at the challenges in bringing qualitative and quantitative data and analysis together. This module is particularly suited to students with interests in research design, evidence synthesis and critical analysis of research.

This module offers an integrated approach to the understanding of risk assessment and risk management by situating risk practices with the organisations which carry out these roles and responsibilities.

This module is intended to provide you with knowledge and understanding of theoretical frameworks of social work intervention and to equip you with the practice skills and theory required for Practice 2.

This course introduces students to the literature and research agendas related to conflict and cooperation in international relations studies. We will cover a wide array of approaches that relate to interstate and intrastate conflict, cooperation and other contemporary security topics such as peacekeeping operations, terrorism, and human rights violations.

By the end of this course, students should be able to answer questions such as why international (intrastate) conflicts occur, when cooperation between countries emerges, whether peacekeeping missions are effective in reducing violence against civilians and promoting post-conflict peace, how terrorist groups emerge, why some governments torture their citizens and how international institutions might prevent human rights violation.

While we will not have time to comprehensively cover all the important relevant work, we will sample a spectrum of the work from foundational studies to state-of-the-art approaches.

This class investigates theories of the policy-making process. After taking this class you will be able to describe, and perhaps even influence, real-world policy making.

Economic appraisal and modelling lie at the heart of what most economists in business, consulting and government do on a day-to-day basis. You'll examine the key principles and techniques of economic appraisal and learn – through your own applications - how these are used in private and/or social analysis. Techniques covered will include cost-benefit analysis, cost-effectiveness analysis and multi-criteria analysis. The economic modelling component will provide you with insights into how models designed to describe the operation of any economy can be used to help inform decision making. You’ll drawing on the practical modelling expertise gained within the Fraser of Allander Institute which has – for over forty years – developed an international reputation in the development and use of economic modelling for analysing policy-relevant issues.

This module considers pressing health policy challenges comparatively across a range of international health systems. Examples of key topics include debates around health care funding, and the tensions between calls to address acute healthcare concerns and pressure to do more to address commercial and social determinants of health. The module also considers how we can compare the performance of distinctive health systems, noting the limitations of some commonly-used indicators.

The aim of the project is to deepen students understanding of issues and interventions, actions and knowledge in international social welfare theory and practice. Within the time-frame of one semester, the students realise the project they have developed with the expert guidance of lecturers on the International Social Welfare programme and/or experts and contact persons of the practical field.

This class is designed to provide students with relevant knowledge, understanding and skills to critically engage with theory, research and contemporary debates about penal responses to people who offend. This module seeks to encourage students to engage with critical debates in contemporary policies and practices and with more radical approaches to penal change.

This module Contemporary Issues in Criminology introduces students to the subject of criminology, tracing some of the major themes and topical issues that arise within this discipline. It begins with an overview of the development of criminology and provides an in-depth critique of criminological theory. It follows with three sub-topics, allowing for more detailed focus on three contemporary issues over the course of one semester. These subtopics are:

• crime, criminal justice & the media
• punishment & the State
• gender, sexuality & justice

All students are required to undertake a 15,000-word dissertation on a topic of their choice. The dissertation will be supervised by a member of staff but is intended to provide students with the opportunity to develop their skills as independent researchers. Students on this programme can choose to undertake their dissertation in Social Policy or Social Work.