SWK4450 - Social policy and social justice

Upon successful completion of this unit, students should be able to:

1. Describe the meaning and nature of social policy, from different theoretical and practical points of view;
2. Describe the key trends and philosophies underlying the positions of major political parties;
3. Apply key theories and ideological perspectives in social policy to selected fields; and to learn how understanding different philosophical perspectives helps both to explain the nature of current policies influenced by particular philosophies, and to increase the options for policy development and change;
4. Describe the impact of social structure and social policy on welfare service users;
5. Discuss the role of social policy implementations upon their everyday social work practice as required by the Australian Association of Social Workers Practice Standards for Social Workers which require social workers to "promote and implement policies and practices which would achieve a fair, equitable and effective allocation of social resources; and identify inappropriate or equitable policy goals and outcomes";
6. Debate marxist, feminist, neoliberal and other ideological critiques of the welfare state, and their implications for particular policy areas;
7. Critique the roles, strategies, and effectiveness of a range of NGO and consumer advocacy/lobby groups in social policy debates;
8. Articulate the link between local and global welfare trends.