SO4103 - Welfare Politics

1. Module Code SO4103 2. Module Title Welfare Politics

3. Module Level 4 4. Module Credit 20 CC   10 ECTS

5. Delivery Site(s) Chester

6. Available to / Restrictions None

7. Expected Student Learning Activity and Contact Hours including Key Information Set (KIS) data

Notional overall learning time is 200 hours of which tutor contact comprises 48 hours, made up of  24 x 2  hr
lecture sessions across the academic year

Scheduled hours Placement Hours Independent Guided study

48 0 152

8. Attendance Guidance

It is expected that all students attend all sessions, unless there are clear mitigating circumstances which
indicate otherwise. Much of the work undertaken in class is formative and contributes to the achievement of the
learning outcomes.

9. Module Content

Block 1: Origins and underpinning ideas

 Emergence of Industrial Society

 Political Discourse
 Welfare and Inequality
 Components of Welfare: Housing, Health, Education and Labour
 Liberal Solutions
 Public health, Private concerns
 Women, Children and Work
 Philanthropy
 The War Economy and Welfare
 The Beginnings of State Intervention

Block 2: Late 20th century

 Formation of the Welfare State 

 Welfare state and limitations of State provision
 Breakdown of consensus
 Privatisation and Free Market solutions
 The search for a 'third way'

[N.b. these themes are broadly indicative of module lecture content]

10. Aims

This module is a core module in the Sociology programme. It provides an historical background to the
development of the welfare state, including its foundation and subsequent development under the market
rationale. The module introduces a broad-based theoretical framework, which prepares students for more
specialised study in subsequent years of the course.

 To locate the development of social policy within the context of major social, economic and political
 changes occurring during the nineteenth, twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. 
 To introduce the main traditions of sociological thought influencing the development of social policy
during this period. 
 To develop a basic understanding of a range of theoretical perspectives drawn from sociology and
politics. 
 To apply these theoretical perspectives in the critical analysis of historical welfare policy developments.
 To examine the changing role of the state in welfare policy and provision.

11. Methods of Learning and Teaching and Formative Assessment

The module will be delivered in 24 x 2  hr lecture sessions across the academic year.  Coursework one will be a
structured analysis of a set reading. It will have a managed learning activity comprising the identification of key
concepts within a number of relevant contemporary (with the period) documents. Coursework two will be an
examination. 

12. Learning Outcomes

by the end of the module, students should be able to: 

1. Locate the development of social policy and the emergence of a 'welfare state' in the context of major
social, economic and political changes occurring during the 19th and 20th centuries.
2. Describe the main traditions of social and political thought influencing the development of social policy
in Britain. 
3. Demonstrate a basic understanding of a range of theoretical perspectives drawn from sociology and
politics that can be deployed in the study of welfare policy. 
4. Apply these theoretical perspectives to the critical analysis of late 20th century welfare state
transformation and discourses of welfare politics. 
5. Discuss the role which ideology plays in shaping social policy responses to the management of social
problems

13. Assessment and Reassessment Components and Weighting

 13a. Assessment

Component Weighting Learning outcome(s) KIS category

% assessed

2,000 word structured analysis of a set

1 50% 1,2 and 3 Coursework
reading

2 hour seen examination addressing key

2 50% 4 and 5 Written Exam
issues covered during the course

 13b. Reassessment

Reassessment will be of failed component (s) or equivalent.

14. Key References

Alcock, P. 2008. Social Policy in Britain, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan.

Harris, B. 2004. The Origins of the British Welfare State : Society, State, and Social Welfare in England and
Wales, 1800-1945, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan.

Hughes, G. & Lewis, G. (eds.) 1998. Unsettling Welfare: The Reconstruction of Social Policy, London: Routledge
in association with The Open University.

Lavalette, M, & Pratt, A. (2006). Social policy: theories, concepts and issues London: Thousand Oaks, CA:
SAGE Publications.

Lowe, R. 2005. The Welfare State in Britain since 1945, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan.

Piersen, C. (2006). Beyond the Welfare State?: The New Political Economy of Welfare Cambridge: Polity.

Williams, F. (1989). Social Policy: A Critical Introduction. Cambridge: Polity.

15. Module Leader

Dr. Joe Rigby

16. Module Assessment Board

Social and Political Science

17. Approved by

Revalidation Panel for Sociology programme

18. Date of Approval

Wed, 27 Jan 2016

SO4103

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