Core courses – 66 ECTS

Goals of the course: This course aims at sharpening students’ perception of diversity by identifying all kinds of cultural signs, signals and artefacts, such as shops, restaurants, cultural spaces, characteristic /symbolic places, organizations, neighbourhoods, etc. – in a way this is ethnographic fieldwork in an urban setting. Diversity will be approached in different ways: readings, enquiries, personal observation, art production.

Content of the course: Students will explore concept of diversity and Super-diversity and its corollaries, such as equality of chances, non-discrimination, etc. through readings, class discussions and ethnographic fieldwork observations. The basic theoretical developments around the core concepts (Super-diversity and intercultural communication) will be introduced in the first half of the course. After that, students will prepare a mini-ethnographic fieldwork. The group will resume in a final session to discuss about the findings of the mini-ethnographic fieldwork and their relevance and relationship to the theories presented and discussed in the frame of the course.

Goals of the course: The aim of the course is to introduce the basics of academic research and help students acquire a selection of research methods which can later be used in both establishing and running a social enterprise as well as in academic research, i.e. when writing their master thesis.

Content of the course: Common vs scientific knowledge and social dimensions of scientific knowledge. Research paradigms. Inductive, deductive and abductive reasoning. Academic and applied research. Functions of theory. Method and methodology. Research problems, questions and designs. Sources of statistical data. Basics of creating a survey. Interviews and secondary sources for qualitative research. Simpler methods for statistical analysis. Qualitative textual analysis methods (e.g. content analysis, discourse analysis). Advanced designs (e.g. process tracing, process tracing, social network analysis). Writing up.
The choice of methods introduced in the course depends on the expertise of the lecturer and the focus of interest and previous knowledge base of the students.

Goals of the course: The objective of the course is to provide students the knowledge on co-creation social innovation and living labs as platforms to support it. Students will be able to develop their competences in innovative development of social services and social enterprises.

Content of the course: Social innovation as an opportunity to shape the sustainable development of societies. Public value co-creation. Responsible governance. Dilemmas in network governance. The role of stakeholders collaboration in designing and implementing innovative and responsible solutions. Co-ceation. Social innovation ecosystem. The students will submit their analysis of a social innovation ecosystem in the framework of their projects.

Goals of the course: The aim of the course is to discover ways in which civil society enables us to tackle issues in contemporary societies. The course introduces the main functions, actors and dynamics of the civil society both in theory and in practice. Altogether it will lay a foundation for understanding how the civil society operates and relates to government and the markets, what are the behavioural logics of a democratic and open society, and encourages a critical debate over how and to what extent can the ideals of civil society be implemented in practice.

Content of the course: What is civil society? Civil society and intersectoral relations.  What makes a civil society? Institutional, behavioural and cultural determinants of civil society development.  From stamp collectors to global social movements: the different actors and modus operandi in the civil society. Civil Society interventions and social innovation. Social innovation and theory of change.  ethics in social interventions.  Innovation models. Measuring social impact.

Goal of the course: The course is aimed at students acquiring knowledge and terminology related to management and funding of projects and practical skills for planning, implementing and evaluating projects and writing funding applications.

Content of the course: During the course the student acquires the knowledge and skills and terminology related to management and funding of projects and skills for planning and development projects. Students get to know EU policies and their implementation possibilities, EU and other international cooperation programmes, programme documents and guidelines that are the basis for implementing EU structural funds, also project cycle methodology and procedures and requirements necessary for carrying out the project. During the course the students learn to analyse and form strategic objectives for projects, plan project activities, write project budget and assemble a project team. The course provides an overview of project communication and financial management and how to carry out reporting and evaluation. During the course several practical exercises are completed in order to plan projects and develop funding applications.

Goal of the course: The course aims to provide an opportunity to develop a sound and complete business plan in the context of the lean business model while working in teams. It aims to provide a broad overview of skills and tools necessary for creating a product or a service that is economically viable and has startup potential.

Content of the course: The course covers all the critical aspects concerning the project life cycle and addresses skills required for project delivery and further development.
Topics include: ideation and working with new ideas, lean startup method & CANVAS, customer development, startup financials, startup ecosystems, pitch training, demo day.
Project teams are formed and roles/tasks are distributed by team members. Teams work together on the project in and outside the classroom.

Goals of the course: 

• provide a systematic overview of contemporary social problems in global and local perspective;
• introduce main social risks and social policy target groups;
• develop understanding of policy process and it effect on social problems;
• provide skills to evaluate policy instruments from perspectives of social inclusion and civic involvement.

Content of the course: Contemporary concept of social risks: old and new social risks, life-course approach to social policies. Global social problems related to climate change, human development and migration. Economic inequality as global, regional and local policy problem. Changing family patterns as cause for social problems. Traditional and modern perception of health and policy responses. Adjusting societies to population ageing. Social problems in multicultural societies. Politics of social problems. Policy process and intervention options for advocacy groups. Public-private partnership in tackling social problems. Civil society as employee and advocate. Evaluation of efficiency and adequacy of social services.

Goal of the course: The objective of the course is to introduce social entrepreneurship to students as a possibility to create positive change in the society. Students will be guided to notice societal needs around them and creatively design effective solutions in entrepreneurial ways.

Content of the course: The course gives a profound overview of the social enterprises and their operational models in Estonia and in the world. The students practice designing a theory of change and a business model of a social enterprise. The lectures include a combination of lecturing and practical tasks for students.

Goal of the course: The objective of the course is to introduce social entrepreneurship to students as a possibility to create positive change in the society. Students will be guided to notice societal needs around them and creatively design effective solutions in entrepreneurial ways.

Content of the course: The course gives a profound overview of the social enterprises and their operational models in Estonia and in the world. The students practice designing a theory of change and a business model of a social enterprise. The lectures include a combination of lecturing and practical tasks for students.

The course covers the following topics: 

• the essence of societal challenges, the source reasons, the possibilities for intervention;
• the concept of social entrepreneurship, examples from Estonia and in the world;
• various operational models of social enterprises;
• designing the theory of change and societal impact; indicators for impact measurement;
• the legal environment of social enterprises.
• the interlinkages between the impact and business models of a social enterprise;
• analysing societal needs and intervention possibilities by a social entrepreneur;
• designing a theory of change for a social enterprise;
• selecting and using research methods in the practice of social entrepreneurs;
• design thinking as an approach to support impact management of a social enterprise.

Goals of the course: The aim of the course is to introduce students to the nature of social capital, its impact on society and the components of social capital. Analyze the emergence of social capital, developments and the role of social capital in terms of different actors in society. The course is also designed to introduce students to social impact concept, logic model  and try to identify measurement indicators.

Content of the course: The course provides a more comprehensive overview of the formation of social capital, theories of social capital and its role in the different contexts. The analysis of the well-known theorists (Bourdieu, Coleman, Putnam) discusses the nature of social capital. Moreover, Social impact and it’s measurement and management processes are discussed.

The following topics are covered: 

• social capital theories;
• the nature of social capital, its study in the world;
• the impact and benefits of social capital in society;
• social capital components, their nature and roll;
• measuring and assessing the impact of social capital;
• social impact concept;
• measurement and planning of social impact;
• logic model framework (Theory of change concept).

Outcomes: the student:

• can explain the essence of social capital and compare the treatment of different social capital from theorists;
• can analyze the impact, needs and opportunities of social capital in society;
• knows different approaches to measuring social capital;
• can describe  their social enterprises’ social impact;
• can plan impact management processes  in their organization.