SOCI204 to SOCI610
SOCI204 Sociology of Culture
10 cp
Prerequisites SOCI100 Introduction to Sociology and SOCI107 Sociological Research Methods: Qualitative Methods
Teaching Organisation A variety of formats will be used, including lectures, workshops, analysis of audio-visual materials, group work, site visits, guest speakers.
This unit critically examines a range of historical and contemporary approaches to the study of culture. It considers the impact on culture/s of global information technologies and global media/marketing. Classical theorists, Marxist and neo-Marxist, critical theoretical, feminist and post-foundationalist approaches will be covered. The ‘cultural turn’ in recent social theory, and the ways in which power and other social relations are intertwined with culture are explored.
SOCI206 Globalisation and Social Movements
10 cp
Prerequisites SOCI100 Introduction to Sociology and SOCI107 Sociological Research Methods: Qualitative Methods
Teaching Organisation Lectures, tutorials and/or workshops.
This unit explores the processes of globalisation and its various effects on communities around the world. It will examine the sovereignty of national governments in relation to policies and actions of multinational corporations and international institutions such as the United Nations, IMF, World Bank, WTO. Taking a human rights perspective, this unit also explores a number of social movements which have tried to influence and change the direction of local and world events.
SOCI209 Sociology of Race and Ethnicity in Australia
10cp
Prerequisites SOCI100 Introduction to Sociology and SOCI107 Sociological Research Methods: Qualitative Methods
Teaching Organisation Lectures, tutorials and/or workshops.
This unit examines the concepts of race and ethnicity and how they have influenced nations, including Australia. In this context, the unit will explore a number of issues such as racism, culture/ ethnicity, multiculturalism, refugees/ immigration in an international and local context. The unit will also look at social policy aspects, and at relevant legislation such as international conventions and the Australian Racial Discrimination Act.
SOCI217 Sociology of Ageing
10 cp
Prerequisites SOCI100 Introduction to Sociology and SOCI107 Sociological Research Methods: Qualitative Methods
Teaching Organisation 3 hours per week of lectures and workshops.
Since the mid nineteenth century, children, young people and more recently the elderly have been the objects of unrelenting scientific and regulatory practices. This unit explores the historical, theoretical and socio-political development of ideas, practices and policies relating to children, young people and older people.
It explores these accounts focusing on the concepts used to demarcate boundaries between ‘stages’ in the ‘life-cycle’, the variety of scientific techniques used to describe those ages cohorts and the attempts to construct normative ideas about ‘roles’, ‘appropriate behaviours’ and capacities. We consider also how these ideas help shape experiences of being young or old. This includes a detailed examination of the role of constitute metaphors around ideas like, ‘infant’, ‘teenagers’, and ‘frail aged’. In this part of the unit, the student will be encouraged to identify and reflect on the underlying assumptions as well as the social, economic and political context in which theses accounts are framed.
Students are introduced to a governmentality framework. Policies and the evolution of key institutions are also explored (i.e. kindergarten, school, aged care agencies), along with practices (i.e. education, health care, psychometrics) and knowledge (i.e. demography, geriatrics, epidemiology, psychology of individual differences). Within this framework, alternative approaches to current issues such as the education-employment nexus, population policy (i.e. fertility rates, immigration policy) and taxation/superannuation are explored.
SOCI222 Sociology of Religion
10 cp
Prerequisites SOCI100 Introduction to Sociology and SOCI107 Sociological Research Methods: Qualitative Methods
Teaching Organisation A variety of approaches will be used, including lectures, workshops, group work, development of student presentations, analysis of audio-visual materials, site visits and visiting speakers.
This unit aims to explore the role of religion in the social world: past, present and future, and to examine religious value systems, movements and organisations as social and cultural phenomena. It is designed to introduce students to sociological concepts and methodologies which differ from and complement other disciplinary approaches to the study of religion.
SOCI226 Australian Youth Cultures
10 cp
Prerequisites SOCI100 Introduction to Sociology and SOCI107 Sociological Research Methods: Qualitative Methods
Teaching Organisation 3 hours per week of lectures, field work, workshops and tutorials. There will be special workshops on interpreting social theory texts and a series of workshops on ethnographic techniques and issues to enable students to critically assess the literature of youth cultures.
This unit offers both sociological and anthropological insights into the collective actions of young people in Australia. This unit explores historical, theoretical and the lived experience of youth cultures.
SOCI234 Sociological Theory and Practice
10 cp
Prerequisites SOCI100 Introduction to Sociology and SOCI107 Sociological Research Methods: Qualitative Methods
Teaching Organisation A variety of teaching formats will be used including lectures, workshops, and seminars.
This unit aims to introduce students to a comprehensive range of theories and methodologies in the social sciences, and to enhance the students’ understanding of the relationships between theory, methodologies and methods in the social research process.
This unit focuses on the major theoretical traditions in sociology, which can be grouped or classified in several different ways: classical/contemporary, macro/ micro- sociological; action/systems; interpretive/structural; power/ meaning.
These perspectives will be considered in relation to their historical and social contexts. They will also be considered in relation to their use in grounding different research approaches. Different theoretical approaches lend themselves to different methodologies and methods. In contemporary sociological practice, a variety of theoretical perspectives and methodologies may be combined.
SOCI235 Sociology of Health and Illness
10 cp
Prerequisites SOCI100 Introduction to Sociology and SOCI107 Sociological Research Methods: Qualitative Methods
Teaching Organisation A variety of formats will be used, including lectures, workshops, seminars, film analysis, visual analysis, group work, and outside visits where appropriate.
This unit critically examines how the medical profession, medical knowledge, medical technology and the individual’s experience of health and illness are socially constructed and organised. The unit begins with a critical insight into the ideas of the ‘body’; the links between those theories espousing the body as an important location of self determination and identify those that focus on the management and regulation of the body. Central to this understanding is Foucault’s explicit discussion of the body as central to social control, especially self-control and self-surveillance. The unit then continues with an analysis of the medical profession followed by a consideration of the social experience of health and illness. Finally, the social, political and cultural implications of technological and scientific developments in medicine will be examined.
SOCI236 Sociology of Childhood and Family
10 cp
Prerequisites Sociology sequence: SOCI100 Introduction to Sociology and SOCI107 Sociological Research Methods: Qualitative Methods, Family Studies sequence: SOCG102 Introduction to Family Studies and SOCG103 Historical Perspectives on the Family
Teaching Organisation A variety of formats will be used, including lectures, workshops and seminars.
This unit critically examines classical and contemporary theories of the family and the child. Focusing on social change and the socio-cultural context, the family as an institution is debated. The unit also explores a range of non-normative arrangements regarding family and sexuality. The experience of being young is central to these discussions and debates. Such experiences are influenced by gender, class and ethnicity. Throughout this study the family and the child are presented as social constructs.
SOCI237 Sociological Research Methods: Quantitative Methods
10 cp
Prerequisites SOCI100 Introduction to Sociology and SOCI107 Sociological Research Methods: Qualitative Methods
Teaching Organisation A variety of teaching formats will be used including lectures, workshops, and seminars.
This unit introduces students to the research questions, research design and research methods for quantitative data collection and analysis. The unit will also introduce students to hypotheses and hypothesis testing, elementary descriptive and inferential statistics, their nature and aims, populations and samples, sampling error, measures of level and spread, comparison of means, correlation, simple regression, and contingency tables.
SOCI238 Sociology of the Environment
10 cp
Prerequisites SOCI100 Introduction to Sociology and SOCI107 Sociological Research Methods: Qualitative Methods
Teaching Organisation In order to maximise students’ learning opportunities, a variety of teaching formats will be employed. These include lectures, tutorials, workshops, and seminars.
This subject will provide students with an understanding of the way sociologists study environmental matters. Specific attention is given to the way people’s concerns for the environment grew over the last quarter of the 20th century. This concern was most clearly expressed through the environmental movement, as well as the actions taken by national governments and international organisations. Special attention is given to the social construction of environmental problems: the way people come to identify and define these problems.
SOCI239 Sociology of Gender
10 cp
Prerequisites SOCI100 Introduction to Sociology and SOCI107 Sociological Research Methods: Qualitative Methods
Teaching Organisation A variety of formats will be used throughout the course of the unit including lectures, workshops, seminars, film analysis, visual analysis, and group work.
This subject will provide students with the opportunity to examine gender from a sociological perspective. They will examine how and to what extent women’s and men’s lives are different through an examination of gender in families, friendships, work and major social institutions, taking into account social class and ethnic differences. The complex interplay of sex, sexuality and gender, in both historical and cross-cultural contexts, will be examined. Particular attention will be given to the changing nature of western gender constructions over the last century and this, in turn, will provide the backdrop against which to explore contemporary feminist reform agendas. An over-view of the major theoretical approaches to feminism, masculinity and gender will be provided.
SOCI240 Sociology of Poverty
10 cp
Prerequisites SOCI100 Introduction to Sociology and SOCI107 Sociological Research Methods: Qualitative Methods
Teaching Organisation Lectures, tutorials and/or workshops.
This unit looks at poverty, wealth and inequality in relation to international trends and Australian society. It will explore a number of socio-economic developments that have led to absolute poverty in developing nations, and to relative poverty in the developed world, including Australia. The unit will also look at how people are affected by poverty and the possibility for social and structural change.
SOCI241 Sociology of Work
10 cp
Prerequisites SOCI100 Introduction to Sociology and SOCI107 Sociological Research Methods: Qualitative Methods
Teaching Organisation A variety of teaching formats will be employed. These include lectures, tutorials, workshops, and seminars.
This subject is designed to give students a clear understanding of ‘work’ – in its widest meaning - as an integral part of social life. The subject will focus on the changing meaning and context of work across time and space, from European pre-industrial households to the formal, informal and domestic economies of modern capitalist societies. Particular attention will be paid to the nature and ramifications of the radical restructuring of work that is currently occurring around the world, particularly from economic globalisation. An understanding of this restructuring is vitally important, for it is poised to profoundly change the nature of social life and has the potential to exacerbate existing levels of social inequality.
- Social impacts of the restructuring of work and labour market changes.
- The future of work, extrapolating from contemporary trends in order to assess the future direction that work and society will take. Consideration of the notion that we are seeing ‘the end of work’.
SOCI404 Issues in the Methodology of the Social Sciences
10 cp
Prerequisites Entry into the BA (Honours) or BSocSc (Honours) courses
Teaching Organisation Lectures, seminars, workshops and group work.
The focus of this unit is on various theoretical perspectives, critiques and ethical issues in qualitative social research. It is designed to familiarise students with qualitative and quantitative research methods and strategies used in sociology including participant observation, interviewing, ethnography, surveys, questionnaires and the analysis of document texts and social policy. It will examine the methodological issues involved in positivism, phenomenology, symbolic interactionism and ethnomethodology.
SOCI406 Advanced Studies in Sociology A
10 cp
Prerequisites Entry into the BA (Honours) or BSocSc (Honours) courses
Teaching Organisation Lectures, workshops, seminars and group work.
This unit will provide students with the opportunity to develop their knowledge of economic, social and political issues significant to contemporary modern society. In any particular year students will undertake specialised studies in sociology, social research, social policy or youth studies. Students will develop skills in the use of methodologies relevant to the area of sociology studied.
SOCI407 Advanced Studies in Sociology B
10 cp
Prerequisites Entry into the BA (Honours) or BSocSc (Honours) courses
Teaching Organisation Lectures, workshops, seminars and group work.
This unit will provide students with the opportunity to develop an awareness of the diversity of sociological research and theory. In any particular year students will undertake specialised studies in one of three streams - labour market, social policy or youth studies. Within each stream, students will develop skills in the use of methodologies and theories relevant to their stream.
SOCI606 Social and Cultural Theory
10 cp
Prerequisites Nil
Teaching Organisation 2 hours per week for 12 weeks or equivalent of lectures, tutorials and seminars.
This unit seeks to enhance students’ understanding of the critical importance of social and cultural theory in guiding analysis, facilitating explanation and, ultimately, in strengthening understanding of human behaviour. The unit focuses initially upon the work of the key classical social theorists, namely Karl Marx, Emile Durkheim and Max Weber.
The focus on classical theory, and especially on the distinctive ways in which the classical theorists grappled with the idea of modernity, is intended to provide a backdrop against which to consider, in the latter part of the unit, the work of more contemporary theorists. In focusing upon contemporary theoretical developments, particular attention will be given to work that seeks to comprehend the nature, and consequences, of the massive social changes that have taken place over recent years. Various levels of impact are considered, ranging from the world-scale changes commonly linked to globalisation through to associated changes in the nature of family life, everyday living, and notions of personal identity. In examining these changes, students will be expected to engage critically with contemporary debates concerning the nature of modernity and postmodernity. As part of this process, they will also be encouraged to reflect upon the nature of feminist and postmodern critiques of classical social theory.
SOCI607 Managing the Research Process
10 cp
Prerequisites Nil
Teaching Organisation Students will participate in the equivalent of 24 hours class time in a semester in a range of face-to-face and flexible-delivery approaches.
The aim of this unit is to provide students with the critical and practical framework for undertaking and managing research in a community agency or public sector organisation setting. It will build on student's existing knowledge of research methodology to enhance their insight into, and their capacity to identify and manage key aspects of the practice and best use of research in human service organisations.
SOCI608 Contemporary Human Service Management
10 cp
Prerequisites Nil
Teaching Organisation Students will participate in the equivalent of 24 hours class time in a semester in a range of face-to-face and flexible-delivery approaches.
This unit will examine a range of central issues in contemporary human service agencies arising from major changes in the role of the state and the redrawing of boundaries between the public sector, the for-profit sector and the not-for-profit or community sector since the early 1980s. An understanding of these changes provides the basis for an exploration of the character and role of human service organisations around such issues as changing goals of human service organisation, new roles for managers and new organisational structures. The unit will explore issues like contracting out, relations with government, managing budgets and the funding cycle, human resource management, employment contracts, new technologies in the work place, evaluation and managing change.
SOCI609 Social Theory and Social Policy
10 cp
Pre-requisites Nil
Teaching Organisation Teaching and learning strategies will include lectures and workshops, directed reading, experiential learning in workshops, independent learning group strategies, and reflective practice on the part of participants.
This unit offers a critical introduction to ‘classical’ and recent social theories with a focus on changing contexts for social policy development. Key approaches for understanding the broad social trends which have affected individuals, families and communities over the past 200 years are examined. In particular, the unit examines the impact of changing relations between governments, economic markets and civil society during this time.
Today, globalisation, ‘post-modernity’, and urgent environmental challenges are our context. Within this, there are new ways of conceiving the role of national government in social provision and economic intervention, new ideas about social and personal identity around gender, race and ethnicity, and about citizenship, social inclusion and participation. These form the context for the development of social policy across a broad range of areas, from welfare, to education, immigration, indigenous issues, health, employment and industrial relations.
SOCI610 Social Justice and Advocacy
10 cp
Prerequisites Nil
Teaching Organisation Lectures, workshops, directed reading, experiential learning in workshops, independent learning group strategies, and reflective practice on the part of participants.
This unit is designed to enable students to develop an advanced understanding of the nature of advocacy and social action. It is grounded in an exploration of the way in which ethical ideas and principles of social justice inform social advocacy. The first part of the unit focuses on key ethical ideas and principles of social justice. It then considers the theory and practice of social movements in the nineteenth century (including the suffrage and labour movements) and twentieth century (including. the peace, women's, green and civil rights movements). Some attention is paid to analysing the social, economic and political context of social movements and advocacy. Finally, the key features of practical social advocacy are identified. These include strategies, tactics and skills and the core principles of effective social movements. Attention will also be given to new forms of political space and advocacy (that is, political mobilisation through electronic space).
Page last updated: 2017-06-29
Short url: https://handbook.acu.edu.au/61634
Page last updated: 2017-06-29
Short url: https://handbook.acu.edu.au/61634