230030 FPR Research Practice 1: Social policy in comparative perspective (2018S)

Territorial cohesion and regional disparities play an increasing importance in rethinking the role of social policy in contemporary societies in particular in relation to social exclusion and its territorial patterns. In this one-year Research Lab (two semesters) in the field of Comparative Social Policy, we will focus on policies related to territorial cohesion as an increasingly key sector in the domain of social policy and its territorialisation. We will approach the topic of changing social policy by reconstructing the international debate within which we will embed the Austrian case in a comparative perspective. We will do this by illustrating the conceptual frame of paradigmatic change in the field of social policy, as well as by providing methodological tools that will allow us to understand how the system is structured, how it changes and relates to other social policy’s sectors (Social investment policies including education, labour market, rescaling, multilevel governance). The theoretical background will be provided by different approaches to comparative welfare state analysis and social policy.
The objective of the course is to introduce different ways of conducting research on the territorial dimension of social policies and its relation to social cohesion. This will be done by looking at the life course of individuals, at the institutional dimensions of policy fields related to social cohesion, at the available sources of data on these topics. The aim of the Research Lab is to provide you with tools to connect theoretical concepts with empirical data by making use of adequate methods. During the course, we will cover various steps that are part of every research process, including the conceptualization of research questions, the search for appropriate data, the development of tools for the collection of data, the analysis of data and the translation of findings into research reports.
The set-up of the course is related to the following project:
"COHSMO Inequality, urbanization and territorial cohesion: Developing the European Social Model of economic growth and democratic capacity"
The Research Lab follows a practice-based approach. With your assignments, you will make an active contribution to the research projects mentioned above.