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.

This module seeks to deepen students’ understanding of social policy by examining the development of social policy in four key areas in historical and comparative perspective.

The first section focuses on the development of housing, health, education and social security policy in the 19th and early 20th centuries, exploring key debates around the causes and consequences of policy change.

The second part of the module examines the same areas in comparative perspective, looking at the concept of welfare state models and the forms and reasons for policy difference between welfare states.

The module concludes with an examination of global social policy development and transnational challenges to social policy.

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.

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.

The aim of this module is to provide students with the conceptual framework that underpins applied social research in such a way that meets ESRC core research methods training requirements. By bringing together staff and students from across social work and social policy, the module aims to offer a multi-disciplinary perspective on applied social research.

This module will complement modules on research methodology and methods run on a faculty-wide basis by offering students wishing to undertake a taught Masters in Social Work research with the substantive social work content necessary to specialise in this area.

This module will consider the nature and use of evidence in Social Work research and Social Work practice and explore the contested nature of this.  It will offer students the opportunity to engage in critical debate, exploring a range of arguments and theories that underpin social work research and evidence-informed practice.

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

In this class you will learn about how economists make use of tools to appraise (i.e. evaluate) projects to help government make informed decisions. You’ll also learn about how to manage such projects once they are operational and to critically assess whether or not they have been a success. The class begins with the basic concepts and principles of project appraisal that form the foundation of all economic appraisal. You will learn about cost-benefit analysis and the procedures that make-up a good analysis of policy options – including discussions of issues such as discounting, deadweight, displacement, the evaluation of non-market costs and benefits and the concept of opportunity cost.

The modelling elements of the class gives students an introduction to the foundations of economic modelling, and lets students learn through applications. Modelling adopts a practical, applied orientation throughout. Students will be supported in exploring practical examples of how modelling can be used, using Input-Output (IO) and Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) models.

This class explores the role of the Government in the economy with a focus on situations in which markets do not work properly. After a general introduction of public economic theories of market failures and government intervention, students will be guided to the application of these economic principles to the regulation of public utility markets, the correction of externalities, and the optimal provision of public goods.

In the second part, the course will be more empirically oriented, it will focus on the role of taxation, and how labour supply responds to taxes, the concept of social insurance, in particular unemployment insurance, and the provision of education.

In order to complete the MSc, all students will be 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.