Ideal student profile
This master's degree is addressed to graduates in the social sciences and humanities who are seeking to specialise further in the use of tools to analyse, design and implement social policies and community action. Access to this master's degree is open to those in possession of a degree in Sociology, Political Science, Social Psychology, Social Work, Social Education, Pedagogy, Economics, Law, Anthropology, Geography, History, Journalism, Teaching, Medicine, Nursing or Occupational Therapy who wish to gain insight into public policy and community action.
Knowledge
- Identify concepts and tools for understanding social reality, conflict and social change, as a way to promote and improve social policies and community actions.
- Describe social policies from a territorial perspective both micro and macro, identifying relationships of interdependence and conflicts between problems, actors and actions at different levels of administration.
- Interpret the political nature of social policies and community actions, identifying the challenges they currently impose in terms of social equity, environmental sustainability and democratic strengthening.
- Identify the ethical, epistemological, methodological and technical foundations of social interventions, social policies and community actions.
- Distinguish between various institutional designs, approaches and management models of social policies and community actions, considering their relevance to the territories and populations where they are developed.
- Distinguish the implications for the generation of knowledge of the different epistemologies and methodologies of social research applied to the field of social policies and community actions.
- Identify the relevance of the use of qualitative and quantitative tools for the collection and analysis of information in social research, applied in the field of social policies and community action.
Skills
- Apply the theoretical contents on complexity and change of social reality, social policies and community actions, to the study and analysis of empirical cases safeguarding participation and social empowerment.
- Critically analyse the performance and actions of professionals involved in the design, implementation and evaluation of social policies and community actions.
- Plan methodologically processes of diagnosis, design and evaluation of policies, social programs and community actions, which are relevant and viable in the contexts where they are applied, safeguarding criteria of inclusion, non-discrimination and accessibility.
- Analysing social policies and community actions from approaches that problematise the political, social, territorial, economic, place of origin or sex/gender order, currently in force.
- Analyse solutions for improving social policies and community actions that contemplate emerging approaches that address complexity and social change, and safeguarding respect for human rights and fundamental rights.
- Apply information collection and analysis techniques that are relevant and viable for specific applied social research projects.
- Apply research methodologies in social policies and / or community actions, responding to a previously founded problem, theoretically and empirically.
Competences
- Critically evaluate the responsiveness of social policies and community actions to the challenges of current, complex and changing social reality.
- Innovate in the search for alternatives, solutions or strategies for the improvement of social policies and community actions, safeguarding their adaptability to the contexts where they are applied.
- Detect theoretical-epistemological positions, technical-methodological resources and own attitudes, identifying areas of personal improvement that favour professional and/or research work around social policies and community actions.
- Work in teams generating synergies that promote the definition of responsibilities, coordination of tasks, collaboration and respect for diversity around research projects or social-community intervention.
- Develop projects in social policies and community action in accordance with the principles of ethical responsibility of social research, respecting human and fundamental rights, freedom of thought, non-discrimination and safeguarding the inclusion of diverse perspectives.
- Communicate their own analysis and conclusions on social policies and specific community actions, to specialised and non-specialised audiences in a clear and unambiguous way.
- Create innovative tools for the transmission of knowledge about the territorial reality of social policies and community actions, using information technologies.