University of Glasgow

This course introduces the politics and power dynamics of policy making and implementation. Students examine how selected social problems (e.g. teenage pregnancy and welfare reform) are constructed and why some are high on the policy making agenda whilst others are not. This course challenges taken-for-granted assumptions about policy responses to selected social problems via an examination of politics and power; explores the ways in which social problems are socially constructed in political discourse, public debate and policy presentation; locates the lived experiences of social problems within the context of global and local inequalities; and differentiates between policy design, implementation, and lived experience.

In this course students analyze key social problems such as worklessness, poverty, homelessness, and ill health, and how they have been addressed by public policy. Students examine the historical origins and evolution of the welfare state and engage with challenging debates about the government's current role in welfare.

The course introduces students to the origins of modern economic thought; the development of the main traditions and the differences and controversies between them, and demonstrates their contemporary relevance. It examines the history of economic ideas and the evolution of the main schools of economic thought from the 18th century to the present day. 

This course explores how scholars and practitioners use musical data, both in audio and notated formats. Students are given the opportunity to develop skills in encoding, analyzing, categorizing, and curating music recordings and notated music. These skills are developed by encouraging an intimate understanding of the nature of different musical formats, an appreciation of their uses, and approaches to computational analyses of their electronic manifestations.

This course introduces the social, ethical, legal, and professional issues involved in the widespread deployment of information technology. It stimulates students to develop their own, well-argued positions on many of these issues.

Students think about the social and ethical implications of the widespread and sustainable use of IT; develop awareness of the laws and professional codes of conduct governing the IT industry; explore IT industry working practices, including the need for continuing professional development; develop information gathering skills; and adopt principled, reasoned stances on important issues in the topic area. 

This course explores the interconnected spheres of paid employment, unpaid labor, and care and welfare in order to understand the politics of contested UK reforms in international and comparative perspective.