Professor Lucinda Platt OLD 2.25

This course is available on the MPA in European Policy-Making, MPA in International Development, MPA in Public Policy and Management, MPA in Public and Economic Policy, MPA in Public and Social Policy, MPA in Social Impact, MSc in City Design and Social Science, MSc in Criminal Justice Policy, MSc in Gender, Policy and Inequalities, MSc in Global Population Health, MSc in Inequalities and Social Science, 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, MSc in Social Policy and Development: Non-Governmental Organisations and Master of Public Administration. This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit.

The course is currently capped at 60 places. Offers of places will be made on the basis of applicants' statements. Priority for places is given to students on Social Policy MSc programmes and to students on the MSc Inequalities and Social Science. Students from departments other than the Department of Social Policy may be accepted onto a waiting list. Places remaining available three days before the start of the course will not be held back for late applicants from Social Policy programmes but offered to students from the waiting list.

This course focuses on the emergence of a range of concepts key to social policy relating to selective cumulative advantage and disadvantage in society, including concepts that supersede or complement classic concepts of poverty, such as social exclusion, capability deprivation, social immobility, social/cultural capital deficiency. It examines the uses of such concepts in both developing and industrialised countries. Topics addressed on the course may include - changes in inequality and their causes; the theoretical and empirical issues provoked by the 'underclass' debate; family change and disadvantage; long term unemployment and welfare-to-work; area segregation, housing and 'welfare ghettos'; ethnic division; disability; employment; education; crime; social exclusion and citizenship.

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

Students have the option of submitting a formative essay.

The core text for the course is: H Dean & L Platt (eds) 2016.Social Advantage and Disadvantage. Oxford University Press. Other indicative background reading: Milanovic, B. 2016. Global Inequality. The Belknap Pess. Held, D. and Kaya, A. (eds). 2007. Global Inequality. Polity; Dorling, D. 2010.  Injustice: Why social inequality matters.The Policy Press; Payne, G. (ed.) 2013. Social Divisions. Third Edition. Palgrave Macmillan; Platt, L. 2011. Understanding Inequalities. Polity.

Exam (100%, duration: 2 hours) in the main exam period.