Human Development and Social Policy

Course content

This course explores the concept and practice of Human Development as a sociological analysis tool with emphasis on national and social development policy building. The course will examine the multifarious social and economic development debates offered by the global Human Development Reports (HDR) or UNDP, published annually since 1990. Particular emphasis will be given to analysis and discussion of Turkey´s human development performance in the context of the construction of the Human Development Index (HDI) and in the time period of 1990-2005 while comparative perspective maintained with those of selected UN member states, EU and OECD countries. Controversial human development issues will be discussed with the aim of shifting analysis towards the adoption of the Human Development perspective in policy making and development priority setting for socio-economic development and formulation of related action programmes/projects.