POVERTY, POLITICS AND WELFARE - 2025/6

Module Overview

This module focuses on social need and how societies organise to provide for those in need. We examine how poverty is defined and policies formulated in response to this, at local, national and global levels. Exploring how the political context changes overtime and diversity in cultural experiences, allows us to take a global perspective but to interrogate this by looking at particular welfare systems. We consider the relative position of social classes, generations, ethnicities, and men and women in respect to poverty, inequality and welfare. We explore the changing boundaries between the roles of the state, the market, the family and the voluntary sector in the mixed economy of welfare. Diverse topics are covered to facilitate this, such as: education, health, housing, criminal justice, arts and culture, and work and pensions ¿ which also encourages students to consider their own employability plans. As an urgent global challenge, which can significantly impact individual life chances, a sociological framework is utilised to understand poverty, incorporating both historical developments, such as workhouses and development of the NHS, and contemporary issues, such as food banks and the cost of living crisis.

Module provider

Sociology

Module Leader

TIMMS Jill (Sociology)

Number of Credits: 15

ECTS Credits: 7.5

Framework: FHEQ Level 5

Module cap (Maximum number of students): N/A

Module Availability

Semester 1

Prerequisites / Co-requisites

None

Module content

Indicative key content themes include:

 

•  Definitions of poverty and its measurement


•  The development of the state’s role in social welfare


•  The political context of different types of social needs and policy responses


•  Connections between social class, gender, ethnicity and inequality and social needs


•  Contemporary social policy including: education; health; housing; criminal justice; social services; and, pensions

 

Indicative weekly themes which may be amended for each year of study, include:

 

• What is poverty and how is it measured?


• The development and state intervention into welfare


• Welfare ideology


• Inequality and social need


• Health, the state and inequality


• Education, the state and inequality


• Housing, the state and inequality


• Crime, punishment and social justice


• Work, employment and pensions


• Low carbon living and energy poverty


• Families and the care and protection of children


• Art, culture and the state

Assessment pattern

Alternative Assessment

N/A

Assessment Strategy

The assessment strategy is designed to allow students to demonstrate that they have met the learning outcomes through critical engagement with a wide range of scholarly material.

 

The summative assessment for this module consists of:

 

Assessment 1 - Course work in the form of an recorded online individual presentation (addresses LO1, LO2 and LO3). This is designed to draw on the digital capabilities of students, using online sources, database skills and analysis of representations of poverty focused on key themes on the relationship of changing social needs with welfare.  

 

Assessment 2 - Individual essay drawing on academic research and identifying a recent controversy in that area (addresses LO2, LO3 and LO4). The emphasis here is on building academic writing skills and developing analysis techniques to integrate historic and recent academic as well as policy related evidence, to answer one from a range of questions developed from the course themes.

 

Formative assessment and feedback:

 

Feedback in class on regular student inputs

 

Written feedback on individual assignment for assessment one will shape the preparation of the second and cohort feedback from the overall findings of the assessment will be offered in class and on SurreyLearn to all to further support preparation for the final assessment.

Module aims

• Develop an understanding of the key issues and perspectives relevant to the study of poverty
• Demonstrate awareness of the role and nature of the central welfare institutions in society
• Critically evaluate historical and contemporary patterns in policy responses to social need

Learning outcomes

Methods of Teaching / Learning

The learning and teaching strategy is designed to:

• Use interactive sessions to develop the knowledge, skills and capabilities of students, and by drawing on their own experiences in areas such as education, health and the arts, as well as sectors relevant to their future career options.

 

The learning and teaching methods include:

• Lectures, seminars, class discussion and exercises, independent reading, engagement with current affairs and preparation of coursework.

 

Key concepts, theories, themes, and sociological approaches to understanding poverty and social need will be clearly set out in lectures and different approaches and relevant research selected in readings. Seminars will then allow these to be explored and facilitate the student’s own reflections on how these connect to their experiences, and inequalities around developing resourcefulness and resilience. Examples utilised will be from diverse cultural contexts including particular welfare challenges, policies, campaigns and events, historic and contemporary, to enable students an appreciation of how cultural factors can impact experiences of poverty.

 

The module also lends itself to exploit current affairs, to host contributions from guest speakers virtually or in-person, and to field trips. An example of this would be the private tour of The Spike Heritage Centre on the site of Guildford workhouse, which enacted the changing policy and legislation we study, and provides a forum for exploring the impact of poverty on local lives.

Consideration of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly in relation to zero hunger and sustainability, will be built in. This is designed to enable students to actively reflect on how their learning about poverty and their own employment potential is impacted by ongoing global challenged such as inequality, welfare reform and climate crisis.

Indicated Lecture Hours (which may also include seminars, tutorials, workshops and other contact time) are approximate and may include in-class tests where one or more of these are an assessment on the module. In-class tests are scheduled/organised separately to taught content and will be published on to student personal timetables, where they apply to taken modules, as soon as they are finalised by central administration. This will usually be after the initial publication of the teaching timetable for the relevant semester.

Reading list

https://readinglists.surrey.ac.uk
Upon accessing the reading list, please search for the module using the module code: SOC2107

Other information

The Department of Sociology is committed to developing graduates with strengths in Employability, Digital Capabilities, Global and Cultural Capabilities, Sustainability, and Resourcefulness and Resilience. This module is designed to allow students to develop knowledge, skills, and capabilities in all these areas, as highlighted throughout this module descriptor. A summary of how this is achieved for each of the five key pillars is provided below:

 

Employability – This module includes consideration of work in relation to inequality, wealth, social need and employment related welfare policies. Students are encouraged to reflect on their own career aspirations in the different areas we consider, such as health, education, arts and family services, with an incite provided into particular professions such as social work. Our weekly seminar activities, as well as both assignments, also require students to build on their analytic and search skills to identify and follow relevant political and current affairs issues, providing an awareness of the sort of key events employers will expect from graduates.

 

Digital Capabilities –The first assignment requires students to individually design, perform and upload an online presentation. This is supported by resources from the Digital Learning Team and where possible a live class presentation, to encourage student to explore the range of online platforms available and to understand their strengths and weaknesses. Students will also be accessing databases of historical and contemporary archives to build their knowledge of public policy, such as on the SDGs, workhouse records, and police stop and search statistics.

 

Global and Cultural Capabilities – At the core of this module is the global challenge of poverty and inequality, taking our learning beyond understandings of social need in one particular place or nation. The welfare system of the UK is used as a consistent example, but our global framing means other countries and local policies are considered, as well as recognizing the interrelated nature of tackling inequalities arising from climate crisis and global health issues, for example. The SDGs are a focus for understanding some of the policy responses to these, but the issue of culture and the arts is also highlighted as a particular social need that states are called to promote and develop cultural capabilities for their citizens.

 

Sustainability – This theme is particularly relevant to our understanding of social need and inequality, both at a global level in terms of the vulnerable being exposed to the consequences of climate change, and at more local levels when energy poverty and the cost of living crisis are impacting the lowest income families. We also consider attempts to improve our ecological footprint and repair damage in a ‘just’ way to avoid exacerbating existing inequalities. Again the SDGs provide a framework for investigation.

 

Resourcefulness and Resilience – Students explore their own experience of and knowledge of key areas of welfare to date, such as education, the arts and health systems, to relate to the issues and theories we consider. The module also provides opportunity for a range of skills to be developed through the resourcefulness needed for each of the individual assessments of online presentation and essay to draw on current affairs. In addition, resourcefulness and resilience are both recurring themes within the module as we consider coping strategies and methods employed to protest or overcome inequalities and poverty at a personal, local, national and global level.

Programmes this module appears in

Please note that the information detailed within this record is accurate at the time of publishing and may be subject to change. This record contains information for the most up to date version of the programme / module for the 2025/6 academic year.