ISS-4144 Critical Social Policy for Transformative Development
Code
Weight of the course
Period
Course Leader
Lecturer
Teaching Methods
Modes of Assessment
Contact
ISS-4144
12 ECTS
TERM 1
Wendy Harcourt
Amrita Chhachhi, Andrew Fischer, Wendy Harcourt, Roy
Huijsmans
Participatory Lectures, Workshops, Study visits
Assignment(s): 55%, Written Exam: 45%
Marieke Klopper
Learning objectives
After the course, students will have developed:
 A grasp of major theoretical and methodological traditions and approaches in the field of social
policy as applied to questions of development, particularly from critical political economy and
historical institutionalist perspectives.
 An interdisciplinary conceptual framework of social policy centred on the challenges of social
reproduction, social provisioning and intersectionality, including the interrelations between:
poverty; inequality; vulnerability; disadvantage; exclusion; population; gender; generation; class;
ethnicity and race; social development; and work, labour and employment.
 Appreciation of how social policy modalities in the context of contemporary globalization can
serve to either reproduce and entrench inequalities, or else transform them towards greater
inclusion, sustainable livelihoods, gender equality, citizenship, and decent work, and the roles of
various actors in these processes.
 An ability to communicate their ideas to specialist and wider audiences and to participate with
confidence in debates, research and analysis in the field of social policy and development.
Course description
Social policy is concerned with the principle institutional processes by which rights and entitlements
are defined and/or practiced in a society, particularly through critical institutions such as education,
health and social security systems. The core course of the Social Policy for Development Major
provides a foundation for examining these processes within development as rooted in the problems of
social reproduction, social provisioning and intersectionality. Particular attention is given to the
gender, demographic, generational, ethnic/race and class-differentiated nature of these problems; to
poverty, inequality, and work and employment; and to issues of distributive justice and citizenship
rights, including body politics and governmentality.
The course is divided into two blocks. The first examines the foundational concepts for social
policy analysis, particularly with respect to development. The second block places the study of social
policy for development within a broader context of contemporary globalization. The course concludes
with student presentations of a social policy mapping exercise conducted throughout the term.
Indicative readings
Bangura, Y. (2010) Combating Poverty and Inequality: Structural Change, Social Policy and Politics.
Geneva: United Nations Research Institute on Social Development (UNRISD).
Katz, C. (2004) Growing Up Global: Economic restructuring and children’s everyday lives.
Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Mkandawire, T. (2004) ‘Social Policy in a Development Context’, in Thandika Mkandawire (ed.) Social
Policy in a Development Context. Basingstoke: Palgrave/Macmillan.
Webster, E., R. Lambert and A. Bezuidenhout (2008) Grounding Globalization: Labour in the Age of
Insecurity. Malden, MA, Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.