Prof Hartley Dean OLD2.30

This course is available on the MSc in Human Rights, MSc in Social Policy (European and Comparative Social Policy), MSc in Social Policy (Research), MSc in Social Policy (Social Policy and Planning), MSc in Social Policy and Development and MSc in Social Policy and Development: Non-Governmental Organisations. This course is available as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit.

The course will examine the basis of social or welfare rights as a component of human rights. It will situate social/welfare rights in an historical and comparative context and explore a range of debates concerning the relevance and effectiveness of a rights based approach to poverty alleviation and social welfare provision, both in the developed and the developing world. It will address the practical limitations of and the constraints upon social/welfare rights. Specifically, it will address: concepts of social rights and welfare citizenship; human needs and human rights; social/welfare rights in global context; critiques of social/welfare rights as human rights; the scope and substance of social/welfare rights; social/welfare rights and mechanisms of redress; rights based approaches to poverty alleviation; social development and social/welfare rights; constitutional instruments and social/welfare rights; human rights and the ethics of welfare.

10 hours of lectures and 15 hours of seminars in the MT. 1 hour of lectures and 1 hour and 30 minutes of seminars in the ST.

H Dean, Social Rights and Human Welfare, Routledge, forthcoming. (NOTE: for the 2014/15 session drafts of key chapters will be available to students on Moodle.) Other relevant readings include: H Dean, Understanding Human Need, The Policy Press, 2010; H Dean, Welfare Rights and Social Policy, Prentice Hall, 2002; A Eide, et al (Eds), Economic, Cultural and Social Rights: A textbook, Martinas Nijhaff, 2001; B Turner, Vulnerability and Human Rights, Pennsylvania State University Press, 2006; T Pogge (Ed), Freedom from Poverty as a Human Right, Oxford University Press, 2007 A Nevile (Ed.), Human Rights and Social Policy, Edward Elgar, 2010; C Gearty & V Mantouvalou, Debating Social Rights, Hart Publishing, 2011.

Exam (75%, duration: 2 hours) in the main exam period.
Essay (25%, 1500 words) in the LT.