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Social Policy, Family and Migration

Code: 102145 ECTS Credits: 12
2024/2025
Degree Type Year
2500262 Sociology OB 2

Contact

Name:
Sonia Parella Rubio
Email:
sonia.parella@uab.cat

Teachers

Romina Paola Tavernelli
Berta Güell Torrent

Teaching groups languages

You can view this information at the end of this document.


Prerequisites

None


Objectives and Contextualisation

The main goal of the course is to introduce students to the study of social conditions that favor or hinder the wellbeing of people, by understanding the processes of production and reproduction and distribution of resources within a society (state, market, family and civil society/community)

The course presents the vertebral axis of the subject "Social Policy" from the articulation of three parts. The first part emphasizes social policy in the most general sense, based on the approach to its history and the international comparison of the different welfare regimes.

The second part is set in the family and in the post-industrial transformations of this institution, paying special attention to family policies, on the basis of a critical look at their impacts from a gender perspective

Finally, the third part focuses on current international migrations and the challenges posed by  governability of human mobility, on one hand (which highlight the ineffectiveness of the unilateral policies of states),  and by the management of inclusion and cultural diversity in increasingly plural societies, on the other.


Competences

  • Analysing the problems arising from the implementation of public policies and conflict situations by recognising the complexity of the social phenomena and political decisions affecting democracy, human rights, social justice and sustainable development.
  • Applying the concepts and approaches of the sociological theory, specially the explanations of social inequalities between classes, between genders and between ethnic groups, to the implementation of public policies and to the resolution of conflict situations.
  • Assessing the contributions of sociological approaches to the study of culture, education, interaction between society and environment, social policy, and work.
  • Demonstrating a comprehension of the analysis of social phenomena presented in English, as well as observing their strengths and weaknesses.
  • Demonstrating a comprehension of the approaches of the sociological theory in its different aspects, interpretations and historical context.
  • Describing social phenomena in a theoretically relevant way, bearing in mind the complexity of the involved factors, its causes and its effects.
  • Developing self-learning strategies.
  • Generating innovative and competitive proposals in research and professional activity.
  • Respecting the diversity and plurality of ideas, people and situations.
  • Searching for documentary sources starting from concepts.
  • Students must be capable of assessing the quality of their own work.
  • Students must be capable of managing their own time, planning their own study, managing the relationship with their tutor or adviser, as well as setting and meeting deadlines for a work project.
  • Take sex- or gender-based inequalities into consideration when operating within one's own area of knowledge.

Learning Outcomes

  1. Comparing the reading of social policies from several ideologies of the social reality of Spain and Catalonia.
  2. Comprehending the social interpretations of social policy in accordance with these approaches.
  3. Defining the sociological concepts that interpret social policy.
  4. Defining the underlying social phenomena of social policies and conflicts about social needs.
  5. Demonstrating a comprehension of the analysis of social phenomena presented in English, as well as observing their strengths and weaknesses.
  6. Developing self-learning strategies.
  7. Distinguishing sociological concepts about social policy.
  8. Distinguishing the explanations of the access inequalities and the impact of social policies between classes, between genders and between ethnic groups that these actors take for granted.
  9. Expressing the debates regarding these approaches, that refer to social policy.
  10. Generating innovative and competitive proposals in research and professional activity.
  11. Relating the concepts, methods and techniques used to analyse social policy with general theoretical and methodological debates.
  12. Relating the debates regarding these approaches, that refer to social policy, with the historical context in which they emerged.
  13. Relating them with the debates about state, social change and inequality.
  14. Respecting the diversity and plurality of ideas, people and situations.
  15. Searching for documentary sources starting from concepts.
  16. Students must be capable of assessing the quality of their own work.
  17. Students must be capable of managing their own time, planning their own study, managing the relationship with their tutor or adviser, as well as setting and meeting deadlines for a work project.
  18. Take sex- or gender-based inequalities into consideration when operating within one's own area of knowledge.

Content

FIRST PART: SOCIAL POLICY

Professor:  PhD Massoud Sharifi

Block I. Theoretical foundations of social policy

  1. What is social policy?
  2. Social policy and political ideologies

Block II. Welfare State

  1. Concept and dimensions of the Welfare State
  2. Origin and evolution of social policy and the Welfare State
  3. from protective welfare states to investment welfare states
  4. Welfare regimes

Block III. Theories of the Welfare State

  1. Structural theories
  2. Class mobilization theory
  3. Gender perspective

Block IV. The Welfare State in Spain

  1. The "Authoritarian" Welfare State in Spain
  2. Social policy in the Constitution and during the transition
  3. The welfare state in Spain after 1977
  4. Changing trends in the Spanish welfare regime

Block V. Social policy in the autonomous communities and local administrations

  1. Competencies within the framework of an Autonomous State
  2. Social services in Catalonia

 

SECOND PART: FAMILY POLICIES

Professor: PhD Massoud Sharifi

Block I. Foundation of family policies

  1. Concept and dimensions of family policies
  2. The diversity of contemporary family models

Block II. Sociological Theories of the Family and Family Welfare

  1. Marxist sociology of the living conditions of working-class families
  2. Structural-functional theory
  3. Family systems theory
  4. Symbolic interactionism
  5. Conflict theory
  6. Family policies from a gender perspective

Block III. Family policies in a comparative perspective

  1. Origin and evolution of family policies
  2. Main components of family policies
  3. Welfare regimes and family policies

Block IV. Family policies in Spain

  1. Households and families in Spain
  2. Trajectories of change in family policy in Spain
  3. The current Spanish system of social assistance and services for families

Block V. Family support policies in Catalonia

  1. Evolution of households and families in Catalonia
  2. Family support policies in Catalonia

THIRD PART: MIGRATION POLICIES

Professors: PhD Romina Tavernelli and PhD Berta Güell

Block I: Introduction to International Migrations

  1. International migrations as a social phenomenon: concepts, causes, and main trends
  2. Evolution of migratory flows in Spain and Catalonia

Block II: Immigration, Public Policies, and Citizenship

  1. Migration control policies in Spain and the European Union
  2. Integration and recognition policies: debates, models, and trends in Europe
  3. Political participation and citizenship: policies of representation

Block III: Policies and Governance of Migrations: The Catalan Case

  1. Integration policies in Spain and in Catalonia: The "Catalan model of integration" under discussion
  2. The role of local administrations in the implementation of immigration and integration policies

 


Activities and Methodology

Title Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Type: Directed      
Master classes and Seminars 105 4.2 1, 4, 5, 7, 8, 11, 17
Type: Supervised      
Tutoring (individual and groups) 45 1.8 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13, 17
Type: Autonomous      
Readings. Teamwork. Preparation of written tests (exams) 150 6 2, 3, 9, 12, 13

The course development is based on the following teaching methodology:
a) "Master classes", where students can reach the conceptual bases of the subject
b) Seminars/exercises aimed at the discussion of basic texts. 
c) Teamwork (three people) on three proposals of Problem Based Learning (PBL), to choose one. Group follow-up within the tutorial hours.
d) Sexist, racist or LGTBQphobic comments o examples should be avoided during the sessions 

Annotation: Within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.


Assessment

Continous Assessment Activities

Title Weighting Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Group evaluation (teams of 3 people): Report PBL 25% 0 0 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 17
Individual evaluation: 3 writtten tests/ exams (one for each block) 60% (20% par test) 0 0 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13, 17
Presential participation: individual and group activity 15% 0 0 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18

Single evaluation activities

The course will be passed if the final grade of the different evaluation activities reaches the grade of 5. 

Title

Weight

PBL resolution report delivery

25%

A written exam of the three blocks of the course.

75%

Students who do not reach an average grade of 4, will have the option of repeating the written exam on the day of recovery.

Continuous evaluation activities

The course will be passed if the final grade of the different evaluation activities reaches the grade of 5.

The average grade of the three written tests (individual) and the resolution of the PBL case must have a minimum grade of 4 to be able to make average.

Students who do not reach an average grade of 4 (from the sum of the three written tests), will have the option to repeat only one of the three tests on the day of recovery. The recovery does not contemplate that the student who reaches an average grade, equal or superior to 5 (from the sum of the three written tests) can improve the grade, even if he has failed any of the three tests.

The students that during the course have done an adequate follow-up of the PBL and do not exceed the minimum grade of the group evaluation (lower than 5), may opt for the recovery, and re-deliver the work.

Inthe evaluation report only those who have not carried out the evaluation activities corresponding to 50% of the grade will have the qualification of "not submitted".

At the beginning of the course, a calendar will be published in the moodle classroom with the course schedule, and the dates of the different evaluation activities.

The unique evaluation will take place on the date indicated by the faculty.

 


Bibliography

Bibliography

FIRS PART: SOCIAL POLICIES

Esping-Andersen, G. (2000). Capítulo 5: Un nuevo examen comparativo de los distintos regímenes del bienestar. En Fundamentos sociales de las economías postindustriales (p. 101-127). Editorial Ariel.

 

Moreno Fernández, L., & Mari-Klose, P. (2016). Bienestar mediterráneo: Trayectorias y retos de un régimen en transición. En E. del Pino, M. J. Rubio Lara, & J. Adelantado Gimeno (Ed.), Los Estados de bienestar en la encrucijada: Políticas sociales en perspectivacomparada (2a ed. ampliada, p. 139-160). Tecnos.

 

Ciccia, R. and Sainsbury, D. (2018) Gendering welfare state analysis: tensions between care and paid work, European Journal of Politics and Gender, vol 1, no 1–2, 93-109.

 

Anton Hemerijck (2018) Social investment as a policy paradigm, Journal of European Public Policy, 25:6, 810-827.

 

González de Durana, A. A., & Rodríguez Cabrero, G. (2019). El Papel de Las Políticas Sociales a La Salida de La Crisis: Los Servicios Públicos y Las Prestaciones Sociales Entre La Regresión y Las Reformas. En G. F. Maíllo (Ed.), VIII Informe sobre exclusión y desarrollo social en España, 2019 (p. 329-390). Caritas Española: Fundación Foessa.

 

 SECOND PART: FAMILY POLICIES

Berger, Lawrence M., and Marcia J. Carlson. “Family Policy and Complex Contemporary Families: A Decade in Review and Implications for the Next Decade of Research and Policy Practice.” Journal of Marriage and Family 82, no. 1 (2020): 478–507. https://doi.org/10.1111/jomf.12650.

 

Allen, Katherine R., and Angela C. Henderson. “Family Systems Theory.” In Family Theories: Foundations and Applications, 103–23. John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, 2016. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uab/detail.action?docID=4613270.

 

Filgueira, Fernando, and Cecilia Rossel. “Family Policies Across the Globe.” In The Palgrave Handbook of Family Policy, edited by Rense Nieuwenhuis and Wim Van Lancker, 219–47. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-54618-2_10.

 

 

Meil, Gerardo Landwerlin. “La Transición de La Familia Patriarcal a La Familia Posmoderna En España.” Recherches Familiales n° 20, no. 1 (2023): 1–14. https://doi.org/10.3917/rf.020.0346.

 

Ezquerra, Sandra, and Maria de Eguia Huerta. “¿Redistribución de los cuidados? El papel de la familia, el mercado y las políticas públicas en Catalunya.” Política y Sociedad 57, no. 3 (2020): 769–95. https://doi.org/10.5209/poso.60900.

 

THIRD PART: MIGRATION POLICIES

Castles, Stephen. 2006 "Factores que hacen y deshacen las políticas migratorias". A: Alejandro Portes y Josh Dewind (coords.) Repensando las migraciones. Nuevas perspectivas teóricas y empíricas, México, Miguel Ángel Porrúa/INM/UAZ. (pp. 33-66). https://revistas.comillas.edu/index.php/revistamigraciones/article/view/4262/4084

 

Oso, L., López-Sala, A., & Muñoz-Comet,J. (2021). Migration Policies, Participation and the Political Construction of Migration in Spain. Migraciones. Publicación Del Instituto Universitario de Estudios Sobre Migraciones, (51), 1-30. https://revistas.comillas.edu/index.php/revistamigraciones/article/view/16736/14789

Rodriguez, Dan (2007) "Inmigración y modelos de incorporación: contextos, claves del debate y tendencias de futuro (Prólogo)". A: John Biles, Ines Michalowski i Lara Winnemore, Políticas y modelos de acogida. Una mirada transatlántica: Canadá y Alemania, Francia y los Países Bajos, Barcelona: CIDOB (pp. 8-37)file:///C:/Users/1573146/Downloads/doc_migraciones_12.pdf

Sánchez, Blanca. (2011) "La política migratoria en España. Un análisis de largo plazo". REIS, Monográfico nº 1 (pp. 243-268). https://revintsociologia.revistas.csic.es/index.php/revintsociologia/article/view/393/403

Zapata, Ricard & Blanca Garcés (coords.) (2008). La gestió municipal de la immigració a Catalunya. Barcelona: Associació Catalana de Municipis. (pp. 11-23; 129-171). https://www.acm.cat/sites/default/files/publicacions/fitxers/llibre_gestio_municipal_immigracio.pdf


Software

Not applicable


Language list

Name Group Language Semester Turn
(SEM) Seminars 1 Catalan annual morning-mixed
(SEM) Seminars 51 Catalan/Spanish annual afternoon
(TE) Theory 1 Catalan annual morning-mixed
(TE) Theory 51 Catalan/Spanish annual afternoon