SOCIAL JUSTICE AND POLICY CHANGE

Course Objectives: The aim of this course is to help students analyze different schools of thought in social justice and encourage them to think about analytical approach to policy making. In this context, this course focuses on analytical tools and frameworks that enable them to develop informed evidence-based solutions to social inequalities.

Course Content: Students will study why we need public policies, why some of them fail while some other succeed, and how to scientifically evaluate them. In this context, students analyze the concept of social justice, examine how political and social systems might approach it differently, and consider the implications for the organization of social and economic life. Case studies might cover poverty, gender inequality, or racial/ethnic discrimination with an explicitly comparative perspective on the welfare state: different theoretical perspectives, different dimensions, different substantive domains, and different regions, nations and historical periods. These comparisons will be offered with a policy perspective in mind, including but not limited to how organizations and movements aim to change those said policies.