VERB2100 Individual and Society Course description

The course presents main social protection strategies with regard to major social risks, as well as evaluation methods to assess the advantages and disadvantages of health and social policy interventions.

None.

On successful completion of the course, the student has the following learning outcomes classified as knowledge, skills and general competence:

Knowledge

The student

• can describe the role of those who carry out health and welfare services in a democracy
• can describe the differences between the public and private sectors
• can explain the structure and function of the public administration at the local and national levels
• can describe the interaction/relationship between the individual and the system from a system theory perspective
• can explain different ways of understanding social inequality
• can describe how social inequality and social problems such as neglect, violence, abuse, bullying, substance abuse and socioeconomic issues affect health, living conditions and quality of life
• can explain how stigmatisation can impact people's lives and social relationships
• can describe how diversity and culture impact social relationships
• can explain social identity and group processes
• can explain different processes that underlie social influence on individuals and their group identification
• can explain how the public administration works

Skills

The student

• can apply basic concepts and perspectives from sociology, social anthropology, organisational theory and political science to understand the context within which service recipients and service providers operate

General competence

The student

• can discuss how organisations function
• can discuss political and administrative decision-making processes, the most common organisational and administrative models for welfare services, and the social educator's role as a health and social policy actor
• can reflect on how social conditions can affect people's opportunities and self-understanding, and can take this into account in his/her professional practice
• can reflect on how social barriers can impair people's functioning, and can take this into account in his/her professional practice

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.;

Students may use a spelling dictionary, as well as a bilingual dictionary.

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.

Einar Øverbye