Life-course, Ageing, and Social Exclusion

Aim

After completing the course, the student will be able to:

• understand and illustrate social science concepts of life-course, ageing and social exclusion and their empirical applicability in the analysis of changing contemporary societies in a Swedish, European and global perspective.

• compare and contrast risk factors and outcomes of social exclusion from a life-course perspective.

• describe and critically reflect on the social and political relevance of the various aspects of social exclusion – economic, spatial, cultural, civic, services, social relations – in ageing societies and corresponding problems for national, European and global policies from an interdisciplinary perspective.

• apply knowledge and research skills to examine social exclusion with ageing using a life-course perspective.

Content

Social exclusion is a process where individuals are prevented from participating fully in society and the concept of social exclusion is multidimensional and covers life domains such as production, activity, health and health behaviour, material/financial resources, social relationships, civic participation, and access to services. The course emphasises the issue of social exclusion, with health and life-course as crosscutting perspectives. A specific emphasis will be put on shifts related to the demographic transition and the extended importance of later life. The interdisciplinary and intersectional correspondences of the issue will be accentuated. Besides a Swedish focus, an international comparative perspective will be taken. The students will be enabled to contribute with their own research questions and to discuss analytical designs to process them.