Unit 8: (Week 15 & Week 16) Globalization and the Study of Social Policy

Globalization poses some rather difficult questions for the study of social policy, not least because of the way in which it disrupts the `national' focus of attention within social policy. Social policy tends to be studied in relation to national welfare states or welfare systems. Even comparative social policy has been centred on comparisons between different national welfare states or systems. Globalization and the transnational processes and relationships associated with it represents a signifficant challenge to this conventional formulation of the object of study in social policy. At the same time, the encounter between globalization and social policy produces other dificulties. This unit aims to cover followig topics:

Week 15: Lecture 15

  • Globalization and political economy
  • Globalization and social-cultural dynamics
  • Globalization and institutional realignment 
  • Globalization as discourse 

Week 16: Lecture 16

  • Comparative social policy
  • Social policy in developed economies
  • social policy in developing countries

Required Reading:

Kennett, P. (ed.) (2004), A Handbook of Comparative Social Policy. Edward Elgar: UK 

Lewis, G., Gewirtz,S., and Clarke, J. (2000), Rethinking Social Policy, The Open University Press

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