Social Security and Service Design

Yukari ITO (Center for International Education and Exchange)

Capacity
   30

Course Objective
   To develop an understanding of social security systems.
   To encourage an understanding of basic theory of welfare economics.
   To overview a problem, develop user-centered concepts, create a large number of prototypes and share ideas with team members.
   To utilize design thinking in order to develop a solution to meet the needs of society.

Requirement / Prerequisite
   Participating in team-based work, collaborative skills and multi-disciplinary discussion are essential in practice. This class is for intermediate students.

Course Content
   In this course, we will explore the process of design thinking approach and create new solutions by dealing with the topics of social security. We will not find a single solution for big problems. We will create multiple prototypes of social services and encourage participants to work with trial and error approach in team work.

Class Plan

• Week 1-2: Orientation and Getting to Know Each Other
  By using "elevator pitch", every participant should introduce himself or herself.
  In terms of building a team in this class, we will get to know each other at early stage.
• Week 3-8: Social Security topics and Public Economics
  We move to topics about Social Security, including the basic knowledge about Pubic economics. We will compare social security systems in the world as well as Japanese case.
• Week 9-14: Group Work (Design for service in Osaka city)
  We will make a plan regarding social services for Osaka city by group work.
  Before making a plan, we go on a field trip or consider a case study with a guest speaker.
  We will have a mid-term presentation and get a feedback before the final presentation.
• Week 15: Final Presentation (Open Presentation in Campus)
  We will have an open presentation event inside the university.
  We will invite guests to the class and have comments regarding group's proposals in the class.

Textbooks
   No assigned textbook.
   Various reading materials and references will be distributed in each class.

Grading Policy
   Evaluation will be based on class contributions: attendance and activities (40%), oral presentation (30%), and written assignments (30%).