SY2021:04
Change in Modern Societies
Townsville, Cairns
HECS Band 1
26 hours lectures, 24 hours tutorials. Semester 1.
Staff: Professor S Crook and other staff.
Australia and other advanced societies are undergoing far reaching changes that touch all aspects of social life, from work and politics to family and consumption patterns. An understanding of these changes is important to anyone who wants to make sense of contemporary Australian society. The subject traces the most significant changes from the 19th to the 21st centuries in the following areas: work and social inequality; the state and economic and social policy; urbanism, suburbanism and family life; culture and consumption. Contemporary change processes are compared to earlier stages of development and discussed in relation to prominent sociological concepts and models such as Fordism – postFordism, globalisation, industrialism – postindustrialism, modernisation – postmodernisation, reflexivity and risk society.
Learning Objectives:
- identify the major symptoms and dimensions of change in Australia and other advanced societies;
- identify and distinguish between sociological models of change;
- apply sociological models of change in the analysis of specific institutions and practices.
Assessment by tutorial work (20%); major assignment (30%); final examination (50%).