Inequalities,Institutions and Public Policies

Code:

SOCI043

Acronym:

DIPP

Keywords
Classification	Keyword
OFICIAL	Sociology

Instance: 2024/2025 - 2S

Active?	Yes
Responsible unit:	Department of Sociology
Course/CS Responsible:	Bachelor in Sociology

Cycles of Study/Courses

Acronym	No. of Students	Study Plan	Curricular Years	Credits UCN	Credits ECTS	Contact hours	Total Time
SOCI	12	SOCI - Study Plan	3	-	6	41	162

Teaching language

Suitable for English-speaking students

Objectives

Knowledge of the major sociological studies on the emergence of the "social question"; Comparative sociological knowledge of the relations between the various political and ideological perspectives and the implementation of various methods of governmental action in the "social" domain;

Detailed knowledge of the sociological view of the different models of welfare state structures in Europe;

Knowledge of the process of social differentiation in Europe and the various policy solutions built by Governments for regulatory measures; Knowledge of the processes of (de-) structuring of the welfare state in different countries in Europe.

 

Learning outcomes and competences

Development of the comparative sociological perspective, the institutional implementation of different policies; to develop a critical capacity for research, selection and analysis of information.

Working method

Presencial

Program

1. Introduction. A relational and multidimensional conception of social inequalities. A comparative sociology of the Welfare State.

2. The ‘Social Question’ and the ideological debate about its resolution.

3. The genesis of Welfare State in Europe and the modalities of its institutional structuration.

4. Sectorial public policies in Europe: poverty and social security, (un)employment, education and housing.

5. Public policies and the crisis of Welfare State in Europe. Modalities of institutional de-structuration. 

Mandatory literature

Almeida João Ferreira de; Desigualdades e perspetivas dos cidadãos. ISBN: 978-989-8536-19-8
Alcook, Pete; The Student’s Companion to Social Policy 2006, Blackwell, 2006
Castel, Robert; As Metamorfoses da Questão Social, Vozes, 1998
Desmond Matthew; Evicted. Poverty and profit in the American City, Crown, 2016
Dubois, Vincent; The bureaucrat and the poor: encounters in French welfare offices, Ashgate, 2010. ISBN: 978-1-4094-0289-3
Esping-Andersen, G.; The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism, Polity Press, 1990
Pierson, Christopher; Castles, Francis G. (editors); The Welfare State Reader, Polity Press, 2006
Thomas Piketty; Uma breve história da igualdade. ISBN: 978-989-644-707-6
Pinto, José Madureira; Pereira, Virgílio Borges (Org.); Desigualdades, Desregulação e Riscos nas Sociedades Contemporâneas, Porto, Afrontamento, 2008., Afrontamento, 2008
Siblot, Yasmine; Faire valoir ses droits au quotidien. Les services publics dans les quartiers populaires, Presses de Sciences Po, 2006
Wacquant, Loic; Urban Outcasts, Polity Press, 2008
Loic Wacquant; Bourdieu na cidade. ISBN: 978-989-53538-6-6

Complementary Bibliography

Thomas Medvetz; Think tanks in America. ISBN: 978-0-226-14366-8

Teaching methods and learning activities

Teaching methodologies are structured in the frame of lectures with theoretical and practical goals, with a main focus on conceptual work and on the identification of pertinent social and political processes. This work is sustained by a set of detailed reading instructions that students should follow during the course. Lectures are complemented with tutorial work; tutorial sessions are dedicated to the analysis of texts and of the theoretical and methodological strategies that inform them. Besides the work developed in the classroom, the Sigarra platform is used as a space for the dissemination of research materials and as a space of communication with students.

keywords

Social sciences
Social sciences > Sociology

Evaluation Type

Distributed evaluation with final exam

Assessment Components

Designation	Weight (%)
Exame	70,00
Trabalho escrito	30,00
Total:	100,00

Amount of time allocated to each course unit

Designation	Time (hours)
Estudo autónomo	89,00
Frequência das aulas	39,00
Trabalho de investigação	33,00
Apresentação/discussão de um trabalho científico	1,00
Total:	162,00

Eligibility for exams

The grade for each assessment may not be less than 8 (out of 20). The assessment corresponds to a weighted average of the grade obtained in the final exam and in the work done in tutorials, as shown in the next paragraph. Students who fail may sit the final exam in the Resit period.

Calculation formula of final grade

The final exam grade counts for 70% in the final grade. 
The grade for the reports counts for 30% of the final grade.

Special assessment (TE, DA, ...)

Students who are exempted, by law, from attending classes will have to contact the lecturer at the beginning of course classes, in order to define their assessment.
Students with special status, namely those covered by the status of Association Manager, Student Athlete, Student Firefighter, Military Student, National Team Athlete, High-Performance Sports Practitioner or Student Worker" (Art. 14, point 1) they must contact the teacher to set special deadlines for the assessment component distributed. These students have the right to be evaluated during the special evaluation period. 

Classification improvement

Students may ask to improve their grades. The improvement of grades applies to one component: final exam. The formula for calculating the final classification is kept. The new exam will count for 70% of the final classification; the other 30% will use the results of the activities of the tutorial sessions.  

Observations

The lecturer’s contact hours will be announced at the beginning of classes; students, however, must book the meetings the lecturer beforehand.