Master of Arts - Social Policy

This Master’s degree is a cutting-edge, new MA programme, which aims to set new standards in the critical study and application of social sciences. Learning from active researchers with diverse areas of expertise, students will be led through the key contemporary debates in social policy. Liverpool Hope University Master’s degree has a strong focus on critical and radical approaches to the study of social policy both here in the UK and from international and global perspectives. In particular, the course examines how social policies can reinforce and reproduce marginalization and oppression in society for groups such as women, deprived communities, ethnic minorities, migrants, disabled people and older people. The programme also analyses how various social policies have been the result of resistance to dominant economic structures and should therefore also be conceptualized as key institutions formalizing the rights of the same groups which social policies often oppress. Social policy is a deeply political subject and as consequence the programme explores the theoretical links between the economy and transformations in welfare systems, with a focus on change through different phases of welfare development. It considers the ideologies and political-economic projects that underpin different stages of welfare development, and possible future changes for the welfare state. The programme enables participants to develop and critically assess a range of dialogical and transferrable skills, which will maximise their potential and equip them with the knowledge and awareness of the changing global social dynamics, necessary in order to purse leading and managerial positions in various fields, including education, business, media and governance.