Structure of the Curriculum

Rights Inequalities and Social Exclusion (HR)

Course PDF
Rights Inequalities and Social Exclusion (HR)
COURSE OUTLINE
GENERAL
SCHOOLSchool of Economics and Political Science
DEPARTMENTSociology
Level of StudyUndergraduate
COURSE CODE431099
COURSE TITLERights Inequalities and Social Exclusion (HR)
Independent Teaching Activities Weekly Teaching Hours CREDIT UNITS
Lectures - assignments 3 6
TOTAL 3 6
Course TypeSpecial Background
Prerequisite CoursesNo
Teaching and Examination LanguageGreek
THE COURSE IS OFFERED TO ERASMUS STUDENTSNo
Course Webpage (URL)https://eclass.uoa.gr/courses/SOC240/
(2) LEARNING OUTCOMES

Upon completion of the course, students are expected to be able to

  • critically examine the relationship between the state and inequality—specifically gender, economic, and racial inequality—and evaluate the concepts of social exclusion and the welfare state not only at the level of recognition and description, but primarily in terms of their origin and the ideas that support or oppose them.
  • they understand how the different forms of inequality intertwine, creating a new field of exclusion and domination.
  • decode Greek reality by familiarizing themselves with and drawing upon relevant international experience and literature.

General Capabilities

  • Cultivation of reflective thought and critical thinking,
  • Search, analysis and synthesis of data and information, using the necessary tools: literature search Project preparation: autonomous work
  • Working in an interdisciplinary environment
  • Generation of new research ideas
  • Respect for vulnerable groups and socially excluded and marginalized groups, demonstration of social, professional, and ethical responsibility and gender sensitivity
(3) COURSE CONTENT

The course «Rights, Inequalities and Social Exclusion» offers students the opportunity to understand the nature of inequality as it appears in society and its institutions, taking on the various forms of inequalities. The course will act complementarily to the compulsory courses of the Curriculum and, in particular, toward students' understanding of the fundamental mechanisms and ideas that produce social inequalities, which subsequently produce and/or reinforce social exclusion. This course will provide fundamental knowledge regarding the causes and consequences of social inequality and social exclusion in their various forms, focusing more on economic, racial, gender, and class inequalities and the exclusion resulting from them. In this sense, the course will focus on the processes producing inequalities at a central level and less on the ways they are perceived by society, considering that the latter are essentially determined by the former. Students will have the opportunity to critically examine the concept of rights in relation to the concept and reality of inequalities and exclusions, as well as the concept of the deserving and undeserving poor. Through this critical examination, the course will connect the subjects under study with contemporary and current relevant discussions regarding these concepts and the concept of the welfare state.

(4) TEACHING & LEARNING METHODS – EVALUATION
DELIVERY METHODFace to face
Information and Communication Technologies
  • PowerPoint presentation
  • Support of the learning process through the e-class electronic platform
Activity Semester Workload
Lectures 39
Work 39
Standalone Study 69
Participation in exams 3
Course Summary 150
Student Evaluation
Process Description Evaluation
  1. Preparation and presentation of a project (100%) or
  2. Final Exam (100%)
    Includes:
    Comparative evaluation of theories & critical evaluation of a specific case
    Critical reading of a text
    Evaluation of policies based on taught theory texts

 

All texts are referenced and accessible on e-class

(5) RECOMMENDED BIBLIOGRAPHY

Suggested Bibliography

  • Anderson, Elizabeth S. 1999. “What Is the Point of Equality?” Ethics 109 (2): 287–337. https://doi.org/10.1086/233897.
  • Arneson, Richard J. 1989. “Equality and Equal Opportunity for Welfare.” Philosophical Studies: An International Journal for Philosophy in the Analytic Tradition 56 (1): 77–93. JSTOR. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4320032.
  • Arneson, Richard J. 1990. “Liberalism, Distributive Subjectivism, and Equal Opportunity for Welfare.” Philosophy & Public Affairs 19 (2): 158–94. JSTOR. http://www.jstor.org/stable/2265408.
  • Arneson, Richard J. 1991. “A Defense of Equal Opportunity for Welfare.” Philosophical Studies 62 (2): 187–95. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf00419053.
  • Arneson, Richard J. 1996a. “Should Surfers Be Fed?” The Good Society 6 (2): 38–42. JSTOR. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20710746.
  • Arneson, Richard J. 1996b. “Should Surfers Be Fed?” The Good Society 6 (2): 38–42. JSTOR. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20710746.
  • Bossert, Walter, Conchita D’Ambrosio, and Vito Peragine. 2007. “Deprivation and Social Exclusion.” Economica 74 (296): 777–803. JSTOR. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4541571.
  • Dill, Bonnie Thornton, and Ruth E. Zambrana, eds. 2009. Emerging Intersections: Race, Class, and Gender in Theory, Policy, and Practice. Rutgers University Press.
  • Dworkin, Ronald. 1981a. “What Is Equality? Part 1: Equality of Welfare.” Philosophy & Public Affairs 10 (3): 185–246. JSTOR. http://www.jstor.org/stable/2264894.
  • Dworkin, Ronald. 1981b. “What Is Equality? Part 2: Equality of Resources.” Philosophy & Public Affairs 10 (4): 283–345. JSTOR. http://www.jstor.org/stable/2265047.
  • Dworkin, Ronald. 2002. “Sovereign Virtue Revisited.” Ethics 113 (1): 106–43. JSTOR. https://doi.org/10.1086/341579.
  • Fabian T. Pfeffer and Robert F. Schoeni. 2016. “How Wealth Inequality Shapes Our Future.” RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences 2 (6): 2. https://doi.org/10.7758/rsf.2016.2.6.01.
  • Fleurbaey, Marc. 2002. “Equality of Resources Revisited.” Ethics 113 (1): 82–105. JSTOR. https://doi.org/10.1086/341320.
  • Floris, Giacomo. 2025. “The Invisible Social Class: Relational Equality and Extreme Social Exclusion.” Political Studies 73 (3): 1273–91. https://doi.org/10.1177/00323217241286789.
  • Galbraith, J.K. 1970. The Affluent Society. Papazisis.
  • Gilder, George F. 1981. Wealth and Poverty. Basic Books.
  • Giroux, Henry A. 2021. “Paranoid Politics and the Plague of Inequality in the Age of Pandemics.” Symplokē 29 (1/2): 123–42. JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/48642808.
  • González, Lucas, and Marcelo Nazareno. 2022. “Resisting Equality.” Comparative Politics 54 (2): 303–25. JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/27114567.
  • Graves, Joseph L., and Alan H. Goodman. 2023. Racism, Not Race: Answers to Frequently Asked Questions. Paperback edition. Columbia University Press.
  • Hanna, Rema, and Benjamin A. Olken. 2018. “Universal Basic Incomes versus Targeted Transfers: Anti-Poverty Programs in Developing Countries.” The Journal of Economic Perspectives 32 (4): 201–26.
  • Hill Collins, Patricia. 2019. Intersectionality as Critical Social Theory. Duke University Press.
  • Hill Collins, Patricia, and Sirma Bilge. 2016. Intersectionality. Key Concepts. Polity Press.
  • Hochschild, Arlie Russel. 2016. Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right. The New Press.
  • Jordan, Bill. 2003. “Welfare and Social Exclusion.” In Political Concepts, edited by Richard Bellamy and Andrew Mason. Manchester University Press. JSTOR. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt155jbcx.11.
  • Kane, John. 1996a. “Basal Inequalities: Reply to Sen.” Political Theory 24 (3): 401–6. JSTOR. http://www.jstor.org/stable/191920.
  • Kane, John. 1996b. “Justice, Impartiality, and Equality: Why the Concept of Justice Does Not Presume Equality.” Political Theory 24 (3): 375–93. JSTOR. http://www.jstor.org/stable/191918.
  • Keynes, John Maynard. 2001. The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money. Papazisis.
  • Kilcullen, Justin. 2014. “Poverty and Social Exclusion.” The Furrow 65 (2): 85–90. JSTOR. http://www.jstor.org/stable/24635903.
  • Lentin, Alana. 2008. “Europe and the Silence about Race.” European Journal of Social Theory 11 (4): 487–503. https://doi.org/10.1177/1368431008097008.
  • Lippert‐Rasmussen, K. 1999. “Arneson on Equality of Opportunity for Welfare.” Journal of Political Philosophy 7 (4): 478–87. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9760.00087.
  • Lucarelli, Stefano, and Andrea Fumagalli. 2008. “Basic Income and Productivity in Cognitive Capitalism.” Review of Social Economy 66 (1): 71–92. JSTOR. http://www.jstor.org/stable/29770450.
  • Milanović, Branko. 2018. Global Inequality: A New Approach for the Age of Globalization. First Harvard University Press paperback edition. The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
  • Mill, John Stuart. 1998. Principles of Political Economy; And, Chapters on Socialism. Edited by Jonathan Riley. Oxford World’s Classics. Oxford University Press.
  • Mills, Charles W. 2022. The Racial Contract. Twenty-Fifth anniversary edition. Cornell University Press.
  • Mills, Melinda. 2008. “Globalization and Inequality.” European Sociological Review 25 (1): 1–8.
  • Murray, Charles A. 2006. In Our Hands: A Plan to Replace the Welfare State. With American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research. AEI Press; Distributed to the trade by National Book Network.
  • Nettle, Daniel. 2018. “Getting Your Head around the Universal Basic Income.” In Hanging on to the Edges, 1st ed. Essays on Science, Society and the Academic Life. Open Book Publishers. JSTOR. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv8d5sn3.13.
  • Nolan, Brian, and Luis Valenzuela. 2019. “Inequality and Its Discontents.” Oxford Review of Economic Policy 35 (3): 396–430. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxrep/grz016.
  • Pierson, Christopher, and Francis G. Castles, eds. 2006. The Welfare State Reader. 2nd ed. Polity.
  • Scheffler, Samuel. 2003. “What Is Egalitarianism?” Philosophy & Public Affairs 31 (1): 5–39. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1088-4963.2003.00005.x.
  • Sen, Amartya. 1996. “On the Status of Equality.” Political Theory 24 (3): 394–400. JSTOR. http://www.jstor.org/stable/191919.
  • Stevens, Harvey, and Wayne Simpson. 2017. “Toward a National Universal Guaranteed Basic Income.” Canadian Public Policy / Analyse de Politiques 43 (2): 120–39. JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/90010466.
  • Thompson, Michael. 2007. The Politics of Inequality: A Political History of the Idea of Economic Inequality in America. Columbia University Press.
  • Van Parijs, Philippe. 1991. “Why Surfers Should Be Fed: The Liberal Case for an Unconditional Basic Income.” Philosophy & Public Affairs 20 (2): 101–31. JSTOR. http://www.jstor.org/stable/2265291.
  • Van Parijs, Philippe. 1992. “Basic Income Capitalism.” Ethics 102 (3): 465–84.
  • Veen, Robert van der. 2002. “Equality of Talent Resources: Procedures or Outcomes?” Ethics 113 (1): 55–81. JSTOR. https://doi.org/10.1086/341321.
  • Weeden, Kim A., and David B. Grusky. 2012. “The Three Worlds of Inequality.” American Journal of Sociology 117 (6): 1723–85. https://doi.org/10.1086/665035.
  • Wodtke, Geoffrey T. 2016. “Social Class and Income Inequality in the United States.” American Journal of Sociology 121 (5): 1375–415.

Related Scientific Journals

  • American Journal of Sociology
  • Canadian Public Policy / Policy Analysis
  • Oxford Review of Economic Policy
  • European Sociological Review
  • Review of Social Economy
  • European Journal of Social Theory
  • The Journal of Economic Perspectives

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