Overview of Course

This course explores key international social welfare issues from the perspective of globalization in social, economic, and political arenas. Students will analyze a variety of global social issues related to social welfare and social development. They will analyze economic (e.g., capitalism, socialism) and political (e.g., democratic, autocratic) systems on framing societies. The course will explore the impacts of cultural, religious, historical, and environmental factors on societal structures, and social welfare policy and delivery. Students will critically compare the impacts of living in high, middle, and low resourced countries and regions. We will apply social welfare analyses before docking in each SAS country we visit, and process experiences upon leaving.

This course utilizes universal diversity theory to investigate strategies that mitigate, ameliorate, and prevent social problems that transcend specific times, identities, and locations. It uses a five component framework to analyze the impacts intent and impact of social welfare policies; 1) those that overtly limit access or deny rights, 2) implicitly disadvantage groups, protect or provide services to target groups, 4) promote rights or redress wrongs of disadvantaged groups, and 5) promote universal access for all groups.

This class is also offered as SOWK 450 through the CSU Department of Social Work.