Markets and Welfare in Contemporary Society: Local and Global Perspectives

This course aims to create broad knowledge about sociological perspective on relations between capitalist markets and welfare. Welfare is approached here in the broad sense as domains that traditionally were supported and regulated by the welfare states, and that has been extensively marketized in the recent decennia. Actual research topics developed at the department comprise the core themes to reflect the relations between markets and welfare: varieties of capitalism and welfare regimes, labour markets and relations, financialization and economization of pensions, healthcare and education, commercialization of intimacy and emotions, economization and marketization of environment, welfare crime and securitization. Course participants are expected to actively participate in all forms of teaching – independent individual preparations, literature search and presentation, groupwork before and during the seminars, group presentations and individual critical reflections, peer-review.