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Card-index course

Major contemporary social issues

Grands enjeux sociaux contemporains

Responsible Faculty: Faculty of Social and Political Sciences (SSP)

Teacher(s): André Berchtold, Francesco Panese

Validity: 2020 ->

Course Timetable (Weekly)

Date Location Notice Topics Lecturer(s)
2020/2021 : Friday 12:15-14:00 (Weekly) Amphimax/413     André Berchtold, Laetitia Della Bianca, Francesco Panese
2020/2021 : Friday 14:15-16:00 (Weekly) Amphimax/412     André Berchtold, Laetitia Della Bianca, Francesco Panese

Course

Spring semester
4 hours per week
56 hours per semester
Weekly
Teaching language(s): French
Public: Yes
Credits: 6

Topic

Innovation sociale ; démarche d'enquête ; enjeux de société

Objective

General objectives
The goal of this course is to enable students to:
- become familiar with a wide range of contemporary social issues;
- understand the notion of inquiry, acquire and implement specific methodological skills: documentation, collaborative thinking, carrying out the required tasks (workshops and tutorials), communication of results;
- identify and document a specific intervention situation linked to a major contemporary issue: location, actors and actresses involved, etc.;
- imagine a social innovation that could potentially help improve this situation.

Learning outcomes
After following this course, the student will be able to:
- identify major contemporary social issues;
- mobilize the skills acquired for the identification and documentation of a specific situation related to a major contemporary social issue;
- collaboratively imagine a pragmatic and realistic social innovation to help improve this situation;
- establish a work plan according to the possibilities and constraints of the learning context;
- collect on the field relevant information using qualitative and/or quantitative research methods;
- produce critical analysis and synthesis about how to respond to the specific situation;
- present the situation, the approach, and its results in the proper scientific format (scientific text of 7 pages);
- clearly communicate the results to peers (oral communication) as well as to a broader audience (scientific poster);
- master the techniques and methods of collaborative work;
- manage possible differences of opinion and tensions within a working group.

Content

Significant upheavals mark our present time. For example, whether we think of the health and economic crisis stemming from the covid-19 pandemic, the environmental crisis linked to global warming, or the rise of alt-right nationalist movements, many issues upset our societies. This course aims to look more specifically at major social issues that our societies face today.

We will see in this course how various actors, coming from different backgrounds (for example activists, academics, politicians or associations) engage to solve these challenges. For example, the United Nations has defined in its 2030 Agenda 17 Sustainable Development Goals to be achieved; these goals are sometimes subtitled as 17 goals to save the world. Among them, we can cite "Good health and well-being", "Clean water and sanitation", "Reduced inequalities", "Gender equality" or "Peace, justice and strong institutions". To achieve such goals, goodwill is not enough; it becomes necessary for the actors involved to innovate with daring solutions.

This course will focus on the notion of innovation in the social sense of the term. As we will see, social innovation consists of "developing new responses to new or poorly satisfied social needs under current conditions, involving the participation of the actors concerned" (Report of summary of the CSESS, social innovation working group). We will invite you to participate in the reflection and development of such innovations in a spirit characterized by collaboration, dialogue, and imagination.

The course will be structured along two main axes. In the first axis, different social issues will be presented by "major witnesses" engaged in civil society and discussed with you, between you, and in dialogue with researchers. The course will offer a balanced panorama, combining many concerns relating in particular to people (health, education, work), social norms (law, ethics), or society in general (environments, information, communication).

The second axis will be more applied. Each of you will work within a group on a social issue that falls under one (or more) social issue(s) presented and will develop innovative solutions to the issue raised. Concretely, this will involve investigating to identify a specific problem here or elsewhere, then gathering the necessary information to imagine a response in the form of social innovation. In doing so, you will learn to develop a problem, identify relevant information sources, collaborate, and communicate with other people.

Evaluation

The modality of evaluation of this course is Contrôle Continu Sans inscription (CCS). For details, please refer to the course vademecum.

Programme requirements

None

Additional information

https://gesc.ch

Use contextFaculty codeStatusCredits
(2020 ->) ›› Optional6.00
Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Social Sciences, 2nd part (2019 ->) ›› Fundamental Courses, Social Sciences Module, Bachelor in Social Sciences, 2nd PartCompulsory6.00
Bachelor of Arts in Social Sciences, 2nd part (2013 ->) ›› Optional Courses Submodule, Social Sciences, Major in Social Sciences, 2nd partOptional6.00
Minor in Social Sciences, 2nd part (2019 ->) ›› Fundamental Courses Module, Social Sciences Minor, 2nd PartCompulsory6.00
Minor in Social Sciences, 2nd part (2012 ->) ›› Optional Courses Submodule, Social Sciences Module, Minor in Social Sciences, 2nd partOptional6.00
Minor in Social Sciences for Sports Students, 2nd part (2017 ->) ›› Optional Courses Submodule, Social Sciences Module, Minor in Social Sciences, 2nd partOptional6.00
Preparatory Program to the Master in Digital Humanities, Social Sciences (2016 ->) ›› Preparatory Program to the Master in Digital Humanities, Social SciencesOptional6.00
Preparatory Program to the Master in Social Sciences (2006 ->) ›› Preparatory Program to the Master in Social SciencesOptional6.00
Social Sciences (Minor/External Branch), 2nd Part (2019 ->) ›› Fundamental Courses Module, Social Sciences Minor, 2nd PartCompulsory6.00
Social Sciences (Minor/External Branch), 2nd Part (2012 -> 2020) ›› Optional Courses Submodule, Social Sciences Module, Minor in Social Sciences, 2nd partOptional6.00
Social Sciences (Minor/External Branch), 2nd Part (2017 ->) ›› Optional Courses Submodule, Social Sciences Module, Minor in Social Sciences, 2nd partOptional6.00
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