166-415 Organisations and Social Policy

Admission to the MSP, MPPM, or the postgraduate diploma or fourth year honours in sociology, or public policy and management.

In this subject, student will undertake a critical exploration and analysis of a phenomenon central to contemporary social life and to social policy processes: the organization. The subject engages with theoretical debates and empirical research that focus on different organisational forms, their emergence and their dynamic interaction with their institutional context. We will explore organizations comparatively, both by looking at organizations in different countries and by analysing organizations from diverse sectors, including the private, state, third and household sectors. We will also explore relationships between organizations, everyday experiences within organizations, and emerging organisational forms such as alliances and networks. Through such analyses, we will come to see organizations as contested sites of power and authority, and as sites that both influence and are influenced by social policy processes and through which social policy is experienced. You should complete the subject with a social science understanding of theories and empirical research of organizations, and be able to assess critically the interactions between organizations and social policy.

Written work totalling 10 000 words.

A subject reader will be available.