Comparative Social Welfare Policy

Catalog description

This course provides opportunities to contrast the approaches to defining social issues and solving related problems in the United States with those of other countries. Students will apply an equity framework to how social problems are defined, and how the policy solutions (or lack thereof) are developed and implemented, contrasting the United States with other Western nations and non-Western nations. Special attention will be given to countries in Africa, Central and South American, and Asia, but European countries with social democracies and universal systems of care are also examined. Given that values undergird professional social work practice, the course helps students apply the NASW Code of Ethics to how social issues are conceptualized, the issues of race, social class, gender influence those concepts and the policies developed, and how to influence social policy responses at the local, state and national levels for alignment with social work values and ethics. Traditional Option Prerequisite: MSW-541 , MSW-542 , MSW-543 , MSW-544 , MSW-545 , and MSW-546 ; Co- requisite MSW-547 Advanced Standing Option Co-Prerequisite: MSW-547