166-209/309 Transforming Australian Culture: State, Society and the Australian Way of Life

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This subject explores the proposition that a unique Australian Way of Life emerged in the first decades of this century with the establishment of the Federation Settlement. Implicit in this proposition is the idea that through its sponsorship and development of the various social and political arrangements of the Settlement, the State generated more than a set of institutions but a whole way of life, a culture. This theme of a 'state-sponsored' culture will be brought to bear on contemporary Australian society. Key questions to be examined include: what are the implications of the dismantling of the Settlement institutions during the 1980s for (the notion of) the Australian Way of Life? Is the State attempting to generate new institutional arrangements in place of the old? If so, what kinds of cultural visions do they entail? In what ways has globalisation impacted on the reshaping of Australian political culture?

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