Program Overview

This short course, Social Justice, gives you the opportunity to explore issues of social and political justice focusing on ideas of welfare, poverty and the welfare state. We will investigate the American failure to constitutionalise welfare rights, and the thinking and activism of the National Welfare Rights Organization. Understanding the American context will take us to concerns with the New Deal and the War Against Poverty.

We will also examine the history and structure of the welfare state in Britain from 1945 until the present day. In order to capture the realities of poverty and welfare we will look at particular writings, including those by:

We will also consider the movement of ideas across the Atlantic from the progressive era, through Reagan/Thatcher, Clinton/Blair to the present culture wars around poverty, immigration and role of the state.

On this course we begin by thinking about the extent to which social justice can be linked with ideas of political and economic democracy. As part of this we will consider existential and ethical questions about poverty, welfare and social activism - in particular their development by the New Left, the Critical Legal Studies movement and Christian and Jewish radical thinkers.

Later in the course we will address the extent to which it is possible to create and sustain a ‘progressive’ agenda for the future of welfare. We will examine the way in which thinking about poverty and welfare requires a particular conception of the relationship between law, ethics and social justice.

This postgraduate-level course is ideal if you have a professional or personal interest in the field of law. You will also find it of particular interest if you wish to enhance your career through Continuing Professional Development in this area.

This short course is assessed by a 4000-word essay.

30 credits at level 7