Entry requirements

A Bachelor's degree, equivalent to a Swedish Kandidatexamen, from an internationally recognised university

Learning outcomes

A student who successfully completes the course will be able to:

• summarize and account for the development of welfare policies, its key actors, and discuss them from different theoretical perspectives and with empirical examples from different parts of the world.
• explain differences and similarities in different types of welfare measures introduced at particular stages of development, taking account of the historical context and the causes and consequences of these measures in terms of, inter alia, changed gender relations and relationships between ethnic groups.
• describe and assess how welfare policy has influenced and is influenced by different groups and social movements in different societies and critically discuss the relationship between different groups and the state.
• compare the Scandinavian development with developments in other countries with regard to the historical, cultural, and political contexts.

Content

The course deals with the development of welfare states from the early 1900s to the early 2000s, with a specific focus on Scandinavia. It deals with social changes related to class, gender, and ethnicity; political discussions and key actors; as well as the implementation of welfare measures. Central themes are a welfare states' association with economic and democratic developments, state transformation in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, the state's role both as a historical actor and as a subject of reform, as well as its problematic dimensions of control, repression, and intervention in the lives of individuals. The course content is discussed both theoretically and empirically, and in a historiographical context. The "Swedish model" is studied from an international comparative perspective.

Instruction

The course will consist of seminars.

Assessment

Assessment will be based upon written and oral assignments. Students that have missed a small number of mandatory assignments may complete them by the end of the term at the latest. If there are special reasons for doing so, an examiner may make an exception from the method of assessment indicated and allow a student to be assessed by another method. An example of special reasons might be a certificate regarding special pedagogical support from the University's disability coordinator.