This course aims to develop in students a capacity for understanding the values which underpin social care practice and policy. It aims to assist students to undertand how these values have been formed and to explore alternative viewpoints.
Participation and Social Care
Background to service user participation; Importance of service user participation; Benefits to the service user; tensions between different approaches to participation; Limitations to participation; Legislation and Policy related to participation;
Social Justice
What is Social Justice?; Exploring theories of justice; Exploring social justice in Social Care; John Rawls - Theory of Justice; Veil of Ignorance; 'Original Position'; The social contract; Social Justice and Income/Wealth re-distribution in Ireland; Social Justice and Health in Ireland;
Political Ideologies and Social Care
What is Ideology; What influences the Ideological preferences in individuals?; The ideological influences on States; Neo-liberalism; Social Democracy; How the States political ideological influences social care; privitization and social care; Three Worlds of Social Care? - competing state ideologies, alternative outcomes for care;
Theoretical Approaches
Michel Foucault - Power, Discipline and their implications for Social Care;Pierre Bourdieu - Social Capital, Cultural Capital;Habitus and their implications for social care;Gramsci - Hegemony and its implications for Social Care; Changes in the Social Care sector in Ireland - hegemony and counter-hegemony;
Sustainability and Social Care
Definitions of sustainability; Background to sustainability; Irish policy and commitments; Health effects of climate change; Climate change and vulnerable groups - esp. children and older people; Decarbonising health services; Promoting health via decarbonisation - alternative lifestyles and diets; re-designing public infrastructure, sustainability and health;
| Module Content & Assessment | |
|---|---|
| Assessment Breakdown | % |
| Other Assessment(s) | 40 |
| Formal Examination | 60 |