3 Units
The number of vulnerable people, particularly individuals with disabilities, aged, newly arrived immigrants, ethnic minorities, has been increasing rapidly. There are different attitudes towards vulnerable groups, leading to different types of social intervention. The understanding of their plight is extremely important for us to develop an effective strategy to facilitate them to become independent and empowered citizens. This course is inter-disciplinary in focus, emphasizing social, cultural, historical, and physical aspects of exclusion and marginalization. Theories of social exclusion, life stage development, social justice, social construction of disability, to name a few, will be introduced in this course. Students will also learn about the related community resources and methods to enhance the social functioning of the disadvantaged groups.