COMPARATIVE POLITICAL ECONOMY AND SOCIAL POLICY

Course Structure

• COMPARATIVE SOCIAL POLICY

  The course aims to offer the basis for interpreting the analytical and methodological features, goals and results produced by social policies. The course first introduces the basic concepts and approaches used in the field of social policies and gradually provides tools and methods for the comparative analysis in the various "social” fields. The course also aims to offer a perspective for analysing the field of social innovation as a new driver to face poverty and social vulnerability, promote inclusion and encourage citizen participation in the design of new policies for social development.

• COMPARATIVE POLITICAL ECONOMY

  The perspective of Economic Sociology The main differences in the organization of the capitalist system Notions, indicators, data sources, etc. of labour market and policies Occupational models and welfare regimes in transition

   

   

   

   

   

  The European Employment Strategy and “flexicurity

Detailed Course Content

• COMPARATIVE SOCIAL POLICY

  Social Policy: goals and policies

  The Welfare state: evolution and contemporary assets

  Social Policy and social Indicators

  Social Innovation: concepts and characteristics

  Social Innovation and Social Policy

• COMPARATIVE POLITICAL ECONOMY

  The course will examine the main features of the sociological analysis of economic phenomena and of the main differences in the organization of the capitalist system between convergence and diversity through the conceptual and analytical categories of economic sociology and in particular of comparative political economy. Moreover, the course aims at providing students with the theoretical and methodological basis for the analysis of labour policies (models, features, objectives, effects).

Textbook Information

• COMPARATIVE SOCIAL POLICY

  Baldock J., Mitton L., Manning N., Vickerstaff S. (eds) (2012) Social Policy Oxford, University Press. chap. 1, 3, 17, 18, 20

  Baglioni S., Sinclair S. (2018) Social innovation and social policy: Theory, policy and practice. Bristol University Press.

   

  Readings:

  Castels, Leibfried, Lewis, Obinger, Pierson (eds) (2010) The Oxford Handbook of The welfare state, chap. 39 “Models of welfare” pp. 569-583

  Mulgan G. (2006) The Process of Social Innovation. Innovations: Technology, Governance, Globalization. MIT Press 1(2) 145-162

  Pol E., Ville S. (2009) Social innovation: Buzz word or enduring term? Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics. 38(6) 878-885

• COMPARATIVE POLITICAL ECONOMY
  • Trigilia, Economic Sociology, Routledge, 2002.

   

  • Crouch, Capitalist diversity and change, Oxford UP, 2005.

   

  • Hancke, Debating Varieties of Capitalism, Oxford UP, 2009.

   

  • Berton, Richiardi, Sacchi, The Political Economy of WorkSecurity and Flexibility, Chicago U.P., 2012.

   

  • Clasen, Clegg, Regulating the Risk of Unemployment, Oxford University Press, 2013.

   

  • De Beer, Schils, The Labour Market Triangle, Edward Elgar, 2009