Course Overview

Course Title: Poverty & Mental Health

Relevant SDGs: SDG 1, SDG 2, SDG 3, SDG 10

Credit(s): 2 credits

Course Description:

Does poverty only mean shortage of food and material possessions? How does it associate with the mental health of different populations, such as females, working class, and sexual minority? Is the widespread gig economy, labelled with freedom, autonomy, and self-determination, a cure or a toxicant for poverty? And, what can technologies do in combating poverty and protecting the mental health of poverty population?

Drawing on cases in different countries, this course will lead students to explore the answers to these interesting and significant questions. Instructors will introduce some baseline frameworks, utilizing insights from psychology, sociology, and social policy. Based on these frameworks, students with different academic backgrounds are supposed to form several seminar topics that relate with Sustainable Development Goals (i.e., No.1, No.2, No.3, and No.10) set by United Nations. After taking the course, students are expected to get a fuller picture of poverty problem in the world as well as how it is dealt with by governments.

This course encourages meaningful intra- and inter-group interactions. Students of different academic perspectives form study group, and each study group will explore solutions to one specific poverty problem.

What skills will students get?

1. Intercultural communication competence enhancement;
2. Basic facts of poverty and how it is dealt with by governments in contemporary world;
3. The associations between poverty and mental health among different populations, such as females, working class;
4. Classic analysis perspectives of the problem from Sociology, Psychology, and Social Policy;
5. A rare opportunity to use your own academic perspective to form a solution to one specific poverty problem. 

Mode of Teaching

Lecture, tutorial, and seminar.

Grading

1. Attendance & in-class discussion: 30%
2. Group presentation: 60%
3. Final program summary: 10%

Course-specific Restrictions

None.

Class Schedule

Instructors

Fan Yang

Dr. Fan Yang is an associate professor in the School of International & Public Affairs, Shanghai Jiao Tong University. His research interests are mainly on social welfare policies and practices in China. In the past five years, with the supports from National Science Foundation of China and Shanghai Municipal Government, he conducted fieldwork in urban Shanghai on its social assistance policies, in rural areas of Central China and border areas of Western China on the development of left-behind children, and in urban and rural areas of Central and Eastern China on the long-term care system. These research experiences have transformed into more than 40 academic and media publications.

Bingqin Li

Professor of social policy at the University of New South Wales in Australia. Her research is on social policy and governance. Her current projects include governance of age-friendly community, local government motivation in delivering complex social programs, social inclusion and integration, urban governance, and social spending.

Jinyu Liu

Dr. Liu works to improve quality of life among older adults and their family caregivers. She studies what determinants affect stress of family caregivers and mental health in later life, particularly among Asian older adults.

Course Contact

Dr. Fan Yang: fan_yang86@sjtu.edu.cn