CYP4222 - Families, Inequality and Social Justice

Objectives:

On successful completion of the module, students will be able to:
Consider how and to what extent personal and private difficulties may be actually part of wider social issues.
Analyse how social change may impact the lives of families and conversely how families participate and constitute social life.
Identify and critically evaluate the impact of significant social and economic issues on families’ lives.
Critically understand issues around broader concepts of social justice and how these may relate to families’ everyday life.

Content:

This module will be about developing an understanding of families through their social context, in particular the focus will be on the difficulties of ordinary familes in meeting material needs and moral obligations. Assessing broad issues around inequalities, including gender, ethnic inequalitites and social class disparities, this module will be then not simply be restricted to discussing topics around child poverty or family poverty.

The initial part of the module will be about beginning to develop an understanding of familial and individual life from the standpoint of wider society, in that the module aims at introducing a broader type of thinking to students, that is: how private troubles (or joys) may be considered part of public issues. The module will begin to describe and analyse how private troubles around employment may be seen as part of the wider social organisation of work, thus we will discuss how this organisation may impact on family life. Following the same approach, the module will also explore how the work of mother is essential for the material and moral security of their families, but also how this work can be seen as part of the ‘emotional’ and ‘care labour’ which is requested from women to ensure the general ‘social reproduction’ of society. We will discuss how this labour is not equally distributed.

There will be a part of the module where theoretical issues will be considered and properly explained to students. Within lectures and seminars, discussions around ‘specialised’ terms and concepts (such as the one just mentioned above: care labour) will be supported in order to make meaningful social analysis accessible. Families will be considered in their complexity and in their diverse nature, thus family life will be considered under the aspect of its particularity. This module will strive to open up what it means ‘family’ and in that, students’ contribution will be vital.

Learning and Teaching Information:

Learning will take place via lectures, which will focus on conceptual as well as factual issues, and in interactive sessions incorporating seminars, discussions, debates and ICT research. Students will be supported by VLE materials, suggested reading and workshop sessions. Formative assessment opportunities will be integrated into taught sessions.

Lectures, seminars, workshops and tutorials
Hours: 27
Intended Group size: Cohort

On-line support and small group tutorials
Hours: 1 (min)
Intended Group size: 6-10

Guided independent study
Hours: 172

Further details relating to assessment
Directed Activities will provide opportunities for students to assess and debate given themes or readings on a weekly basis.

The presentation will assess students in their ability to work in groups and to communicate with each other. Applying critical reasoning, analysis and synthesis, they will be assessed in their ability to research information and knowledge and to present it to an audience.

The essay will provide an opportunity to begin to critically analyse causes and consequences of the inequalities families face in twenty-first century.

Assessment:

001 Directed Activities (Throughout the semester) 10%
002 Presentation 1500 words equivalent 40%
003 Assessed Essay 2000 words 50%

Fact File

Module Coordinator - Stefano Ba'
Level - 4
Credit Value - 20
Pre-Requisites - NONE
Semester(s) Offered - 4S2

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