SFV4300 The Intersection of Social Categories in Social Work Course description

In the social sciences, social categories, such as gender, social class, ethnicity, 'race', sexuality, and age, have traditionally formed separate research fields, often attached to different theories. A result of this division has been that such categories are often portrayed as isolated variables in people's lives. Criticism levelled at such interpretations makes the point that they do not sufficiently address the dynamism that emerges when several categories intersect. Is importance attached to the category "man" or to the category "ethnic minority"? Does the category "woman" offer the same room of opportunity for all those who are categorised or identify as women? Do the categories "young", "boy", "immigrant", have another meaning attached to them than "young", "boy", "Norwegian"?

The course looks at theories that address how such categories have different meanings depending on the combination with other categories. The course offers theoretical, methodological and practical opportunities to explore the dynamism that emerges in the interaction between key social categories. During the course, we will work at making these types of analyses relevant for social work in general.

None.

After completing the course, the student should have the following overall learning outcomes defined in terms of knowledge, skills and general competence:

The student has

• knowledge of power and categorisation processes that contribute to forming the relevant categories in our age
• insight into the intersection between the categories¿ design and importance in different socio-cultural contexts
• knowledge of classical and new theoretical contributions that attempt to understand prominent social categories, such as gender, ethnicity, ¿race¿, social class, sexual orientation and age
• an understanding of how social categories and intersections between them has importance for professionals as well as the different user groups' conditions and social sphere of action

Skills

The student is capable of

• mastering analytical aspects and approaches that are appropriate for analysing implicit and explicit understandings and theoretical contributions, as well as empirical phenomena in the various fields of social work from a perspective of intersectionality
• applying knowledge about the relevant social categories and their interaction in research and development work relating to the social work field and/or different user groups, and to social work's conditions and functions in society

General competence​

• can critically reflect on various power relations and their interactions that are evident in social work

None.

A student who has completed his or her qualification has the following learning outcomes defined in terms of knowledge and skills:

Knowledge

The student has advanced knowledge of

• social protection strategies, in particular related to;major social risks: unemployment, sickness, disability, lack of a provider, child abuse, and old age
• the interplay between protection provided by the state, the voluntary sector, the family and the market
• principles of social insurance and health insurance
• strategies for providing residual or universal social and health assistance
• the extended family as a risk-managing institution
• problems with social protection coverage and strategies for extending coverage
• strategies for efficient delivery of health and social services
• policy evaluation methods in health and social care

Skills

The student can

• identify similarities and differences in social and health protection strategies in high-, middle-, and low-income countries
• investigate the arguments for and against public management, public/private partnerships, outsourcing and other strategies with regard to the delivery of publicly provided health and social services
• analyse processes of social/health policy implementation
• evaluate social/health policy outputs and outcomes

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General competence

The student is able to

• Participate in the debate on how to organise and implement social welfare and health policies, in a national as well as international context
• Participate in the discussion of which evaluation strategies that are most useful in various contexts, with regard to evakuations of social welfare and health policies, in a national as well as international context
• Participate in the debate concerning how to frame health and social policy goals across countries and cultures

The course is organised into a series of;lectures and seminars. Students are expected to play an active role. Lectures are given by the course lecturer and invited lecturers. Students will also be required to present papers, and discuss course themes during lectures and seminars.

Students must submit a work requirement of at least four pages, not including list of content and list of; references, written alone or in groups of max 4 students. calibri, size 12, paragraph 1.5.;Students must have approval from the course lecturer in order to write individually. The paper must be approved by the course lecturer. Students whose papers are not approved after the first submission will be given the chance to resubmit once.

Papers that are not approved after two submissions will disqualify students from sitting the final examination.

The papers are to be presented at a seminar, or poster session, or zoom gathering. Participation in the seminar, or poster session, or zoom gathering is a mandatory part of the work requirement.

The student's learning outcome will be assessed on the basis of an individual six-hour written school exam.;

Grade scale A - F

The exam is graded by an internal and an external examiner.

A random selection consisting of at least 25% of the exam papers will be graded by both an internal and external examiner. This will inform the grading of the remaining exam papers.