New courses for spring 2013
November 2, 2012
The Taubman Center will be offering three new courses for spring 2013:
• Inequality, Poverty, and Public Policy in the United States
• Leading Social Ventures - Social Entrepreneurship
• Social Entrepreneurship
Find a complete list of Public Policy and American institutions courses on Banner. Download a pdf of all undergraduate courses below.
NEW COURSE
Inequality, Poverty, and Public Policy in the United States - PPAI 1701P
Rebecca Loya, 3:00 pm - 5:20 pm W
The course uses a multi-disciplinary social science approach to examine the intersections of racial and gender inequality, poverty, and public policy in the United States. The course is an advanced reading seminar that explores various approaches to theorizing, measuring, and researching poverty and inequality. The course also critically examines the role of historic public policies in reinforcing existing inequalities and evaluates policies and strategies to reduce poverty and inequality. Enrollment limited to 20 juniors and seniors.
NEW COURSE
Leading Social Ventures - Social Entrepreneurship in Action - PPAI 1701Q
Alan D. Harlam, 4:00 pm - 6:20 pm T
Intractable social problems across the globe demand new, impactful solutions. Social entrepreneurs, driven by passion to change the world, fuse social missions and savvy business practices to create enterprises that solve these complex challenges. Leading Social Ventures is designed for students who are leading social ventures or aspire to create and lead them. “Action learning” means students will apply educational content to a specific venture in the early stage of development. Students will work on a venture that they have created or select an existing early-stage venture among provided choices. Enrollment limited to 25.
NEW COURSE
Social Entrepreneurship - PPAI 1910
William Allen, 9:00 am - 10:20 am TR
This course introduces students to social innovation and social entrepreneurship and engages then in identifying significant issues, problems and solutions that drive social change. It helps students understand the competencies that are needed to be a transformative social entrepreneur and proven tools and strategies to create high performance, high impact entrepreneurial enterprises that offer bold solutions to complex contemporary problems. It highlights unique models of social enterprise from strictly non-profit, through those developing products or services that produce revenue in support of a social goal, to socially responsible for-profit companies. It emphasizes how enterprises are created and sustained. Enrollment limited to 50. Not open to students who have taken ENGN 1930Q.
Policy Analysis and Program Evaluation - PPAI 1200
Andrew Pennock, 8:30 am - 9:50 am MW
Broad overview of public policy analysis and program evaluation with emphasis on methodological issues involved in the analysis and assessment of government programs. Illustrations are drawn from a variety of substantive policy areas. Prerequisite: PPAI 0100, and POLS 1600 or EDUC 1110 or SOC 1100 or ECON 1620, or written permission of instructor.
Economics and Public Policy - PPAI 1700F
Theresa J. Devine, 9:30 am - 11:50 am T
An economic analysis of major social programs in the United States. Topics include the possibility of market failure in the private sector, the redistribution of income, and incentive effects created by the programs. Specific policy issues to be examined are welfare reform, Medicaid, school finance reform, and the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC).
GIS and Public Policy - PPAI 1700J
Jack D. Combs, 8:30 am - 9:50 am MW
An introduction to the theory and practice of social science Geographic Information Systems (GIS) as applied to public policy analysis. Topics include: the geographical basis of policy issues, spatial mapping, and the use of ArcView software to study policy problems. This course requires special approval: Instructor Override Required
Health Policy Challenges - PPAI 1700K
Patrick Tigue, 3:00 pm - 5:20 pm F
Introduces students to the U.S. health care system. Focuses on how the organization, financing, and market structure of the system affect the key issues of access, cost, quality, and equity of care. Specific issues include minority and vulnerable populations, technology, risk adjustment, managed care, long-term care, ethics, and public health. Enrollment limited to 20 juniors and seniors.
State and Local Government - PPAI 1700Z - S01
Richard I. Kerbel, 6:00 pm - 8:20 pm W
Examines state and local politics and government in the United States. The first part of the course examines the historical underpinning and division of power of the major political actors, institutions, and processes through both institutionalist perspectives. The second part focuses on the role of states in shaping significant policy areas including civil unions, education, healthcare, welfare, and the environment.
Policy Implementation - PPAI 1701J
Susan L. Moffitt, 3:00 pm - 5:20 pm
Why do well-intentioned policies sometimes produce unfortunate results? This course will examine how policies designed by elected officials, bureaucrats, and courts are translated into practice through implementation, how and why public policies succeed or fail to produce changes in practice, and how policy implementation bears on democratic governance. The course will consider policy implementation across policy domains, with recurring attention to k-12 education policy. Enrollment limited to 20.
Governance in the Academy: A University at Work in the 21st Century? - PPAI 1701K
Russell C. Carey, 3:00 pm - 5:20 pm M
Focuses on understanding and evaluating the governance of the modern university. Brown will be used as one example to illustrate and illuminate various aspects of university governance. Themes of leadership, effective decision-making, priority-setting, planning, conflict and crisis management, and optimal organizational structure and behavior will be discussed. Students will be well-versed in the language, structure, roles of actors, and general operations of university governance and equipped to analyze and asses the strengths and weaknesses of various models. Students with an interest in pursuing a career in academia or other non-proft organizations will benefit from this course. Enrollment limited to 20 juniors and seniors.
Labor Market Policy - PPAI 1701O
Theresa J. Devine, 9:30 am - 11:50 am R
Students will learn how to use basic economics models to analyze important labor market policy questions. Topics will include minimum wages, payroll tax cuts, training subsidies, unemployment insurance, negative income taxes, and others. Students will also learn how to find and interpret important labor market data (for example, unemployment rates, payroll employment numbers, and wages) which are used by policy analysts to evaluate local and national labor markets. Prerequisite: ECON 1110, ECON 1130, or EDUC 1130; or instructor permission.