SY2020:04
Self and Identity in Contemporary Society
Townsville, Cairns
HECS Band 1
26 hours lectures, 24 hours tutorials. Semester 2.
Staff: Professor S Crook (Townsville campus); Dr M Bendle (Cairns campus).
Advanced societies such as Australia have become markedly more ‘individualistic’ over recent decades. Individuals are encouraged to develop their own identity-defining tastes and preferences, to define and pursue their individual career and life goals, to take more responsibility for their individual health and security. While some of us embrace these new freedoms and responsibilities, others experience them as a burden and are increasingly stressed by their isolation from traditional forms of community support. The subject explores the social origins, dimensions and consequences of contemporary forms of individualism.
Learning Objectives:
- identify major models of selfhood and identity current in contemporary culture;
- recognise the ways these models inform the experiences of real people;
- identify and distinguish perspectives on self and identity drawn from sociological theory;
- apply those theoretical perspectives in the analysis of specific cases of identity formation, maintenance and display.
Assessment by case study presentation in tutorial (20%); essay (30%); final examination (50%).