Social Work 3110.03, Section A
Policy Frameworks
York University, School of Social Work
S2012
Professor: Tara La Rose
Time/Day: Tuesday and Thursday 4pm to 7pm
Room Number: MC111
Office hours: by appointment, before and after class
Email:
Telephone: 416 807-3149 or by skype: lonelysocialworker
Purpose and Objectives:
This course critically analyzes the Canadian welfare state and social policy systems in order to explore issues of social justice, including especially concerns about racism, sexism, and many other forms of social marginalization. The general questions raised in the course are what changes are taking place in the philosophies and practices of our systems of social support, and are they leading us towards or away emancipation, social justice, and social solidarity? The course provides you with an opportunity to critically analyze social policy, social programs and social issues. We will attempt to develop understandings that will ground you as a social work practitioner or researcher operating from social justice and anti-oppressive standpoints.
The course weaves together a focus on the history of the Canadian welfare state with one on the current reality. We will ask how are past policies and practices responsible in some way for the problems and injustices of the present?
While we will be concerned with examining the macro level of social change, we will also focus on the human side of the equation, exploring how policies and practices impact people on an individual, personal, everyday, and generational basis. We will also raise questions about possible futures. We will ask what are alternative visions of “the social” to the one offered under neo-liberalism, and what can we do politically and in our everyday lives to help work towards those better alternatives?
The objectives of the course can be summarized as follows:
-to further our knowledge of the history of the welfare state and social policy development in Canada and our capacity to view the present through the lens of the past.
-to build awareness of contemporary social problems and social policies, and of the shifting politics and concept of social policy in this period.
-to further develop our sense of the structural and societal bases of personal struggles for individual well-being.
-to enhance our skills in critical analysis and our ability to articulate ideas, verbally, and written form.
Required Readings:
-the following texts are required and are available for purchase at the university bookstore:
- Course Kit: AK/SOWK 3110, Section A, Spring 2012
- Online readings from the York U Library Database as listed
- Alvin Finkel, Social Policy and Practice in Canada – A History, Waterloo, Ont.: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2006.
See the week by week guide for the schedule of readings.
Supplementary readings are also listed for those looking for additional material.
Course Format:
The course will combine lecture, class and small group discussion, student group presentations, and films. You are expected to have read the required readings before coming to class.
Grading and Assignments:
-Attendance: students are required to attend class and to stay for the duration. The University policy on course attendance will be enforced.
-Library session and quiz – effective policy research: students are require to attend the session and complete a quiz at the end of the session (make up with documented reason only)
Quiz: Libraray workshop – policy research/online research
Total of course grade: 10%
Due Date: May 17 (at the Scott Library)
Submission Details: handed in during class time
Attendance: mandatory
Students will attend a library workshop on critical internet research and research of social policy. A quiz will be provided to students at the conclusion of the session. Session will take place in the Scott library.
Presentation Analysis and Reflection assignment:
Total of course grade: 15%
Due Date: Last Day of Class
Submission details: Through Moodle
As audience members to the in class presentations students will analyze and present their personal reflections on 3 (three) presentations from the course. Students will be asked to consider the literature used by the presenter as well as the visual and auditory materials presented by the group. You will also reflect on what you learned from the class and to consider how this material supported you emerging understanding of social policy as a social work practice. Additional details on the assignment will be provided in class.
Groups Presentations: (4(+/-) members per group)
Total of course grade: 25%
Due Date: Class 9, 10, 11
Students will work in groups of four to do group presentations during weeks 8, 9, and 10. Presentations will focus on a social policy, program, or service, or a social issue that relates to the broad topic of the class. You will critically analyze the policy, program, or issue, and analyze the current state of politics surrounding it. Presentations will consist of about 30 minutes of presenting and 15 minutes of class discussion. The same mark will be given to all students in the group.
Grading:
Grading will be based on three criteria:
- the range and quality of the research material used
- the strength of the analysis (are analytical issues highlighted? Does it represent a structural understanding? Does it encompass both the macro and micro issues (and possible meso issues)? )
- clarity, effectiveness and organization of the presentation.
Additional details will be provided in class.
Take Home Exam
Total of final grade: 40%
-40% - the exam will be distributed on the last day of class and will be due 1 week later. Students will complete an essay using course readings and resources to analyze a case study. Skill from the library research workshop will be applied in the exam.
-Extensions for the exam will require documentation in accordance with the University policy. Late assignments will be penalized 2% per day including weekends.
-The exam will be submitted electronically.
-Turn-it-in will be used for this assignment.
Plagiarism and Academic Dishonesty:
This will not be tolerated. Please refer to York Senate Policy on Academic Honesty at Also relevant is
Turn it in will be used in this course.
Course Schedule and Reading List:
Class / Date / Content/ReadingsOne / May 8th / Studying Social Policy:
Required Readings:
Alvin Finkel, “Introduction – Studying Social Policy”, in his Social Policy and Practice in Canada – A History, Waterloo, Ont.: Wilfred Laurier University Press, 2006, 1-14.
Mullaly, B. Extracts on social problems: pages 3 - 8. In Challenging Oppression…
Two / May 10 / History of Social Welfare and Social Policy – Pre-confederation
Alvin Finkel: Social Policy and Practice in Canada – A History, Waterloo, Ont.: Wilfred Laurier. University Press, 2006.
- Chap: 1 – First People and Social needs.
- Chapter 2: New France: The church, the State and Feudal Obligations
Three / May 15 / History – The Early Years of Canadian Social Policy
Alvin Finkel, Social Policy and Practice in Canada – A History, Waterloo, Ont.: Wilfred Laurier University Press, 2006.
- Chapter 3: British North America and the Poor Law
- Chapter 4: Early Canada Continuity and Change
Four / May 17 / Library session. Scott Library: Location TBA
QUIZ
John G. McNutt (2010): Social Work and Social Welfare Policy in Canada: A Consideration of Major Internet Resources for Research and Practice, Journal of Policy Practice, 9:2, 154-159
Log on to the Library - link to this article:
Graham, J.; Swift, K.; Delaney, R. (2012). Canadian Social Policy: An Introduction, 4th Edition. Toronto: Pearson.
- Chapter 8: The policy Making Process – pp. 168 – 192
- Appendix: Canadian Chronology of Social Welfare pp. 205 – 212
Five / May 22 / The Early Years Continued
Mariana Valverde, “Introduction” of her book, The Age of Light, Soap, and Water - Moral Reform in English Canada, 1885-1925, Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1993, 15-33. (Course Kit)
Alvin Finkel, Social Policy and Practice in Canada – A History, Waterloo, Ont.: Wilfred Laurier University Press, 2006.
- Chap. 5: War, Depression and Social Policy: 1914 – 1939
- Chap. 6: Paradise Postponed, 1939 - 1950
Six / May 24 / The Era of Expansion in Social Policy
Alvin Finkel, Social Policy and Practice in Canada – A History, Waterloo, Ont.: Wilfred Laurier University Press, 2006.
- Chap 7: Social Policy and the Elderly
- Chap 8: Medicare Debate
- Chap. 9: The Child Care Debate
seven / May 29th / The Era of Expansion in Social Policy - continued
Alvin Finkel, Social Policy and Practice in Canada – A History, Waterloo, Ont.: Wilfred Laurier University Press, 2006.
- Chap. 10: Housing and State Policy
- Chap. 11: Anti-poverty Struggles
Remember Africville
eight / May 31st / Retrenchment and Neo-liberalism
Alvin Finkel, Social Policy and Practice in Canada – A History, Waterloo, Ont.: Wilfred Laurier University Press, 2006.
Chap. 12: The Welfare State since 1980
Directions
Curry-Stevens, A. (2008) Building a case for the study of the middle class: Shifting our gaze from margin to centre. International Journal of Social Welfare 17(4). Pp. 379 – 389.
nine / June 5th / Presentations:
1.
2.
3.
Karen Swift, “‘Risky Women’: The Role of ‘Risk’ in the Construction of the Single Mother,” in Shelley Gavigan and Dorothy Chunn (eds), The Legal Tender of Gender – Law, Welfare and the Regulation of Women’s Poverty, Oxford and Portland, Oregon: Hart Publishing, 2010, 143-163.
ten / June 7th / Presentations
1.
2.
3.
Bezanson, K. (2010) Child Care Delivered through the Mailbox: Social Reproduction, Choice, and Neoliberalism in a Theo-Conservative Canada pp. 90-112. In, Susan Braedley and Meg Luxton (eds.), Neoliberalism and Everyday Life, Kingston and Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press.
eleven / June 12 / Presentations (if needed)
Social Policy and Expressions of Neo-liberalism
Parton, N. (1999). Reconfiguring child welfare Practices: Risk, advance liberalism and the government of freedom. pp. 101 – 127. Adrienne Chambon, Allan Irving and Laura Epstein (Eds.). Reading Foucault for Social Work. New York: Columbia University Press.
Wilson, A. and Pense, E. (2006). U.S. Legal Interventions in the Lives of Battered Women: An Indigenous Assessment. pp. 199 – 225. Dorothy Smith (Ed.). Institutional Ethnography as Practice. Maryland: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers Inc.
twelve / June 14 / Neo-liberalism Continued
Alvin Finkel, Social Policy and Practice in Canada – A History, Waterloo, Ont.: Wilfred Laurier University Press, 2006.
- Chap. 13: The New Millennium and Social Policy
Take Home Exam Provided to Students
Exam / June 21st / Take Home Exam Due by 11:55pm
Submit by Moodle
Supplemental Readings
The History of Social Protection under the Canadian Welfare State
Dennis Guest, chpt. 3, “Saving for a Rainy Day: Social Security in Late-Nineteenth-Century and Early-Twentieth-Centry Canada,” in his The Emergence of Social Security in Canada, 3rd ed. (Vancouver: UBC Press), 1997.
Margaret Little, No Car, No Radio, No Liquor Permit - The Moral Regulation of Single Mothers in Ontario, 1920-1997, (Toronto: Oxford University Press), 1998, chpt. 1 (“Maternal Origins:God Could Not Be Everywhere, So He Made Mothers”), pp. 1-31.
James Rice and Michael Prince, The Changing Politics of Canadian Social Policy, (Toronto: University of Toronto Press), 2000, chpt 2 (Early Developments in Canadian Social Welfare), pp. 34-53.
Jane Ursel, Private Lives, Public Policy, 100 Years of State Intervention in the Family, Toronto: Women’s Press, 1992, historical background, pg. 61-82
The Keynesian Welfare State in Canada – the 1940s to the 1970s
Wanda Thomas Bernard and Judith Fingard, “ Black Women at Work: Race, Family, and Community in Greater Halifax,” in Judith Fingard and Janet Guildford, eds., Mothers of the Municipality – Women, Work, and Social Policy in Post-1945 Halifax, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2005, 189-225.
Hugh Shewell, ‘Enough to Keep Them Alive’ – Indian Welfare in Canada, 1873-1965, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2004.
Gary Teeple, chpts 2 and 3in his Globalization and the Decline of Social Reform, Toronto: Garamond Press, 1995.
-Gary Teeple, chpt 4, “The Global Economy and the Decline of Social Reform”, in his Globalization and the Decline of Social Reform, Toronto: Garamond Press, 2000.
-Rice and Prince, chpt 3, The Changing Politics of Canadian Social Policy, (Toronto: University of Toronto Press), 2000.
Dominque Jean, “Family Allowances and Family Autonomy: Quebec Families Encounter the Welfare State, 1945-1955,” in Bettina Bradbury (ed.), Canadian Family History, (Toronto: Copp Clark Pitman), 1992, 401-437.
Ann Porter, Women, Unemployment Insurance, and the Political Economy of the Welfare State in Canada, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2003, chpt. 2, (“Gender and the Construction of the Postwar Welfare State”), pp. 37-61.
The Shift to the Neo-liberal Model – the 1980s to 2000s
James Rice and Michael Prince, chpt 6, “Global Capitalism and the Canadian Welfare State: Impacts of Economic Integration, Fiscal Policy, and Market Liberalism on Social Policy,” of their book, The Changing Politics of Canadian Social Policy, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2000, 130-156.
Stephen McBride, chpt. 4 (“Domestic Neo-liberalism”), in his Paradigm Shift, Globalization and the Canadian State, Halifax: Fernwood Publishing, 2001, 79-101.
Gary Teeple, chpts 4 and 5, in his Globalization and the Decline of Social Reform, Toronto: Garamond Press, 1995.
Wendy McKeen and Ann Porter, “Politics and Transformation: Welfare State Restructuring in Canada,” in Wallace Clement and Leah Vosko (eds.), Changing Canada - Political Economy as Transformation, Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2003.
Maureen Baker and David Tippen, chpt 3 (“Government Debt and Policy Choices: Restructuring in Canada”), in their book, Poverty, Social Assistance, and the Employability of Mothers, (Toronto: U of T Press), 1999.
James Rice and Michael Prince, chpt. 4 (“The Crisis of the Welfare State: Canadian Perspectives and Critiques”) and chpt 5 (“Response to the Crisis: Retrenching the Welfare State and Changing Responsibilities for Social Provision”) in their The Changing Politics of Canadian Social Policy, (Toronto: University of Toronto Press), 2000.
Judy Fudge and Brenda Cossman, “Introduction: Privatization, Law, and the Challenge to Feminism”, in Fudge and Cossman (eds.), Privatization, Law, and the Challenge of Feminism, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2002.
Pat Armstrong, “The Welfare State as History,” in Raymond Blake, Penny Bryden, Frank Strain, eds., The Welfare State in Canada, Past Present and Future, Irwin Publishing, 1997.
The Impact of Neo-liberalism and the Current Recession
Susanne MacGregor, “Welfare, Neo-Liberalism and New Paternalism: Three Ways for Social Policy in Late Capitalist Societies,” Capital and Class, 67, 1999, 91-118.
Kate Bezanson, ““Child Care Delivered through the Mailbox”: Social Reproduction, Choice, and Neoliberalism in a Theo-Conservative Canada,” in Susan Braedley and Meg Luxton (eds.), Neoliberalism and Everyday Life, Kingston and Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2010, 90-112.
Pat Armstrong, “Social Cohesion and the Neo-liberal Welfare State: The Healthcare Example” in Alexandra Dobrowolsky (ed.), Women and Public Policy in Canada – Neo-liberalism and After?, Don Mills: Oxford University Press, 2009, 87-106.
Janine Brodie, “The Great Undoing: State Formation, Gender Politics, and Social Policy in Canada,” in Catherine Kingfisher, ed., Western Welfare in Decline: Globalization and Women’s Poverty, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2002, 90-110.
Alexandra Dobrowolsky and Jane Jenson, “Shifting Representations of Citizenship: Canadian Politics of “Women” and “Children”, Social Politics, Vol. 11, No. 2, Summer 2004, 154-180.
Wendy McKeen, chpt. 6 (“Feminism and Child Poverty Discourse in the Late 1980s and Mid-1990s: ‘Writing Women Out’”) in her book, Money in Their Own Name: The Feminist Voice in Poverty Debate in Canada, 1970-1995, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2004.
Jean Swanson, chpt 4 (“ History: justifying the race to the bottom”) and chpt 5 (“ Using language to corrupt thought”) in her book, Poor-Bashing: The Politics of Exclusion, (Toronto: Between the Lines), 2001, 58-70.
Sheila Neysmith, Kate Bezanson, Anne O’Connell, chpt. 7 (“The Myth of Community, Family and Friends”) in their book, Telling Tales – Living the Effects of Public Policy. Halifax: Fernwood Books, 2005.
Paul Browne, chpt. 3 (“The Contracting Regime”) in his book, Love in a Cold World? The Voluntary Sector in an Age of Cuts, Ottawa: Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, 1996, 41-50.
Armine Yalnizyan, “How Growing Income Inequality Affects Us All” in Edward Broadbent (ed.), Democratic Equality: What Went Wrong?, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2001, 130-147.
Robert Fisher, “Political Economy and Public Life: The Context for Community Organizing,” in Jack Rothman, John Erlich, John Tropman (eds.), Strategies of Community Intervention, 6th edition, Itasca, Illinois: E. E. Peacock Publishers, 2001, 100-117.
Naomi Kline, chpt. 9 (“The Discarded Factory – Degraded Production in the Age of the Superbrand”) and chpt. 10 (“Threats and Temps – From Working for Nothing to “Free Agent Nation”) in her book, No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies, Toronto: Vintage Canada, 2000.
Wendy McKeen and Ann Porter, in W. Clement and L. Vosko, eds., Changing Canada – Political Economy as Transformation, Kingston and Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2003, 109-134.
James Rice and Michael Prince, chpt 6, “Global Capitalism and the Canadian Welfare State: Impacts of Economic Integration, Fiscal Policy, and Market Liberalism on Social Policy,” The Changing Politics of Canadian Social Policy, (Toronto: University of Toronto Press), 2000.
“The Neo-Liberal University: Looking at the York Strike,” The Bullet, No. 165, December 5, 2008.
Alternatives to Neo-liberal Social Policy? The Politics of Compassion, Care, Dignity, Voice, and Solidarity
Janet Mosher, “Intimate Intrusions: Welfare Regulation and Women’s Personal Lives,”in Shelley Gavigan and Dorothy Chunn (eds), The Legal Tender of Gender – Law, Welfare and the Regulation of Women’s Poverty, Oxford and Portland, Oregon: Hart Publishing, 2010, 165–188.
Susan Scott, “The Ambulance is Waiting at the Bottom of the Cliff” chpt. 10 of her book, All Our Sisters, Stories of Homeless Women in Canada, Toronto: Broadview Press, 2007, 187-204.
Supplementary:
Janet Mosher, “Welfare Reform and the Re-making of the Model Citizen”, in Margot Young, Susan Boyd, Gwen Brodsky, Shelagh Day, eds., Poverty: Rights, Social Citizenship, and Legal Activism, Vancouver: UBC Press, 2007, 119-138.
Vic George and Paul Wilding, chpts. 2, 3, and 4 (“The anti-collectivists,” The reluctant collectivists,” and “the Fabian socialists”) in their book, Ideology and Social Welfare, London: Routledge and Kegan, 1985.