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At the end of this course, students are able to:
- position academic contributions, policy documents, and public debates within the different analytical approaches that exist with regard to poverty, wellbeing, and social justice (inequality);
- interpret and reconstruct commonly used empirical measures that aim to capture levels and intensity of poverty, wellbeing, and social justice (inequality) across geographical units;
- critically discuss the pros and cons of different analytical notions and empirical measures of poverty, wellbeing and social justice (inequality) in view of the specific purpose of a scholar or policymaker;
- make a connection between the problem analysis concerning poverty, ill-being or inequity, and the policy options to redress these, using a case study of a particular social group;
- evaluate policy proposals (at a basic level) for specific cases of groups affected by poverty, ill-being or structural inequality;
- articulate different mechanisms that link issues of poverty, wellbeing, and social justice and draw out its implications for policy-making.
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The course consists of three blocks, focusing on poverty (3 weeks), wellbeing (3 weeks), and social justice (2 weeks), respectively.
Each block has both an analytical and a more policy-oriented element. The poverty block deals with common (static) poverty metrics, poverty dynamics, poverty targeting, and impact measurement of poverty reduction interventions. Then the course turns to wellbeing and distinguishes between the quality-of-life (capability-oriented) and the subjective wellbeing (happiness) approach. Policy initiatives for 'living well' are also reviewed, in particular the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) framework. Under the heading of social justice, the course offers a broad overview of perspectives on fairness and considers different 'inclusionary' policies.
The seminars are more topical in nature and include the issue of setting poverty lines, the impact of cash transfer programs, the formulation of national wellbeing indices, and the mechanisms of intergenerational transmission of inequalities. For each seminar, the students prepare an assignment based on empirical material.
Throughout the course, the interrelations between poverty, wellbeing and inequality are highlighted. Students apply such an intersectional analysis to a specific vulnerable group in their final essay. |
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