Outline of Module – SA317, Research Project and Placement – SS5400 in the Higher Diploma 2006/2007
The SA317 module will give an overview of social professions and their different understanding (a) with regard to different sub-sections of the profession, (b) in regard of different policy issues and (c) different socio-political actors. The use of the term social professional action is somewhat problematic. As will be shown, this is not meant to argue along the lines of ‘accredited professions’. Lay knowledge, social movements, social action and others will be seen as highly relevant in the context of social policy making. However, it is argued for a limitation of such openness in two points:
a) A more general concern is given by the fact that a too broad approach is not suitable to acknowledge the fact that basically any human action is influencing ‘the social’. However, at the same time there is some more specific area and action that requires special attention and – taking the given society as the point of reference – that can and has to be seen as distinct.
b) Furthermore, certain activities and actions require professional approaches – during the course it will be clarified what exactly this means. Already here, it can be said that accordingly in certain areas it is highly problematic to simply acknowledge lay knowledge, social activism and the like as equally suitable answers.
The discussion of these points will follow the line along developing an understanding of social policy. The focus will be on looking for methodological questions, strictly following a materialist approach in the tradition of dialectical and historical materialism. For this, the course will concentrate on different theories of the welfare-state and its emergence. Different traditions of thinking the relationship between
* ‘society’ and ‘individual’ and
* ‘institutions’ and ‘communities’
will be presented and elaborated.
Some general theoretical issues will be closely linked to questions of historical and contemporary political practice, looking in a comparative perspective at the developments of Ireland and Italy.
The work on the research project and as well the placement (SS5400) will be mainly concerned with the latter, i.e. the comparative study of Ireland and Italy. – The research project will be undertaken as group work with individual parts.
The placement will be organised as study visit to Italy and both, research project and placement will be linked to exchange with Italian partners as far as feasible.
The course requires active participation of the students as they will be asked to make presentations during the year, actively facilitating classes and take part in collaborative research. This will be reflected in the marking scheme.
Participation in additional seminars, organised by the Department of Applied Social Studies (William Thompson Lecture Series, scheduled for Monday afternoons) is obligatory; contents of these Talks will be considered as relevant for exams.
Literature
The following mentions basic documents and have to be read by all students attending the Module and taking part in the research project. In some cases you find only the title as various editions are available.
Additional literature will be mentioned during the year. As well, documents might be posted on the course website.
* Aristotle: The Politics. A Treatise on Government
* Baars, Jan/ Beck, Wolfgang/Herrmann, Peter/v.d. Maesen, Laurent J.G./Walker, Alan C., 2003:
Social Quality. A Sustainable Project for Europe. Briefing Paper for the Round Table of the European Commission; Amsterdam: The European Foundation on Social Quality – www.socialquality.org
* Charles Dickens:
A Tale of Two Cities
* Durant, Will:
The Story of Philosophy. The Lives and Opinions of the Greater Philosophers; New York: Simon and Schuster, 1927
* Herrmann, Peter, 2005:
Politics and Policies in the European Union – Looking at the Hidden Agendas; New York: Nova
* Herrmann, Peter, 2006:
Developing a Methodology Based on the History of Ideas for Social Professions – The Meaning of the Founding of the State. Meta-Theoretical Perspectives for Developing a Methodology for an International Approach (unpublished – will be distributed)
* Hamer, Bent: Kitchen-stories – film (will be shown in class; see details: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0323872/)
* Marx, Karl/Engels, Frederick, 1845-46:
The German Ideology. Critique of modern German Philosophy According to its Representatives Feuerbach, Ba. Bauer and Stirner, and of German Socialism According to its Various Prophets; in: Karl Marx/Frederick Engels. Collected Works. Volume 5. Marx and Engels: 1845-47; London: Lawrence& Wishart, 1976 (here pages 19-93)
* Nash, Kate, 2000:
Contemporary Political Sociology. Globalization, Politics, and Power; Malden/Oxford: Blackwell
* Pierson, Christopher/Castles, Francis G. (Eds.), 2000:
The Welfare State. A Reader; Cambridge: Polity Press
* Plato: The Republic
* Rabb, Theodore K.:
The Last Days of the Renaissance & the March to Modernity; Cambridge: Basic Books, 2006