Social Policymaking and Implementation (312-0-20)
Instructors
Cynthia Ellen Coburn
Meeting Info
Annenberg Hall 303: Tues, Thurs 11:00AM - 12:20PM
Overview of class
Social policy is integral to the fabric of society. It helps to determine who has access to resources and services, regulates how those are obtained, and is constantly negotiated by changing ideas about public need and the common good. A primary goal of this course is to explore social policy in the United States as a political, economic, and ideological process that is embedded in the racialized, classed, and gendered context of American society. In this class, we will learn about factors that shape policymaking, examine ways that policy impacts society through institutional and interpersonal pathways, and practice skills to analyze policy from development to implementation.
The first part of the course will focus on policy framing and development as key elements of policymaking. We will examine how social issues become policy problems, how and why policy agendas are set, whose voice is represented, and how research is engaged in the policymaking process. We will form policy workgroups to examine specific policy problems and learn about the ways that policy seeks to address social issues like poverty, educational access, and violence. Individually, students will have the opportunity to focus in on a specific social issue that is meaningful to them and explore how policy is used to address it. The second part of the course will focus on policy implementation, with an emphasis on the ways that policy impacts people differently depending on their identity, social status, and positionality in society. We will develop policy analysis skills, use analytical tools to examine impact, and learn how to read, write, and interrogate policy briefs as public-facing documents.