SocW 501 Poverty and Inequality

Course Description

This course is a critical analysis of poverty and inequality in the US, with an analytic and descriptive focus on measurement, processes of production and perpetuation, and public policy responses. It examines competing perspectives on the causes of poverty, the role of policy, and socioeconomic dimensions of stratification, including race, ethnicity, class, gender, immigration status, disability, age, sexual orientation and family structure. This course builds upon historical and critical analysis content covered in the "Intellectual and Historical Foundations of Professional Social Work Practice" and links to policy advocacy and policy analysis material covered in policy practice sessions in the "Macro practice" sequence. Together, these courses offer a foundation in the historical, political, economic, and philosophical context of US social welfare policy, familiarize students with current policy controversies, build skills in policy analysis and advocacy, and help students critically analyze competing perspectives on poverty and inequality, in preparation for socially just social work practice. Course goal: To enable students to critically examine the dimensions, causes, consequences and perpetuation of poverty and inequality in the U.S., to understand the role of policy in producing, maintaining, and alleviating poverty and inequality, and to offer a theoretical and analytic foundation for promoting social and economic justice. Objectives: At the conclusion of this course, students will be able to:

• Understand different measures of poverty and inequality, their value and empirical dimensions, and their consequences for the social construction of the problem, policy response, and the political debate.
• Be familiar with the type, magnitude, and trends of disparities in several dimensions including power, status, health, as well as social and economic inequalities.
• Understand stratification and inequality by various social dimensions such as race, ethnicity, class, gender, immigration status, disability, age, sexual orientation and family structure.
• Understand the role of historical oppression in creating and perpetuating poverty and inequality.
• Critically analyze competing perspectives on the causes of poverty, particularly individual versus structural explanations, how these theories are invoked in public discourse, and their implications for governmental response.
• Critically evaluate and apply alternative perspectives on poverty and inequality, both within the US and global contexts, that encompass conflicts between labor and capital, synergistic processes of economic and social stratification, and other critical forces that produce and perpetuate poverty and inequality.
• Understand the role of public policy and its implementation in producing, maintaining and alleviating poverty and inequality in the US.

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