Course code

STS6513.YK

old course code

STS6513

Course title in Estonian

Tänapäeva sotsiaalprobleemid

Course title in English

Contemporary Social Problems

ECTS credits

4.0

Assessment form

Examination

lecturer of 2023/2024 Spring semester

Not opened for teaching. Click the study programme link below to see the nominal division schedule.

lecturer of 2024/2025 Autumn semester

Not opened for teaching. Click the study programme link below to see the nominal division schedule.

Course aims

To help participants to notice and realize social problems, their impact on their everyday lives and social life as a whole. To support students to understand the causes of social problems, their structure and consequences, so that they will be able to work effectively with social problems.

Brief description of the course

Public debate about social problems is full of oversimplifications and ignorance (well, at least in Estonia), where people see social problems simply as a number of personal troubles without noticing and understanding their structural causes laying behind the scene of ostensible. In this course we’ll take a look into the concept of social problems and the most common theoretical perspectives we can use to analyse and understand social problems. We’ll discuss how to work with social problems, how to make such claims about them, that have a potential to make a difference in the real world. And – last, but not least – we’ll deal with some of the harshest social problems in the contemporary Estonian society, like homelessness, poverty and social exclusion, unemployment etc.

During this class we’ll also watch and debate several documentary movies about social problems like “The Take”, “Dark Days” and maybe some more.

Learning outcomes in the course

Upon completing the course the student:
- has a knowledge about the main concepts and theoretical explanations of social problems;
- can use such knowledge to analyse social problems, their causes, structures and consequecies;
- knows how to work with the social problems, how to make such claims about them, that have a potential to make a difference in the real world.

Teacher

Lecturer Margo Kikas, MA

Study programmes containing that course

Liberal Arts in Social Sciences (KKLSB/18.YK)
Liberal Arts in Social Sciences (KKLSB/17.YK)
Liberal Arts in Social Sciences (KKLSB/16.YK)
Liberal Arts in Social Sciences (KKLSB/15.YK)
Social Work (STSTB/15.YK)
Liberal Arts in Social Sciences (KKLSB/14.YK)
Social Work (STSTB/14.YK)
Liberal Arts in Social Sciences (KKLSB/13.YK)
Social Work (STSTB/13.YK)
Liberal Arts in Humanities (KKLHB/12_1.HT)
Liberal Arts in Social Sciences (KKLSB/12_1.YK)