166-015 Transforming Australian Culture

Note

Credit Points

HECS Band

Coordinator

Prerequisites

Usually 25 points of first year politics or first year Australian studies, see Prerequisites.

Semester

Subject Description

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. Students will examine the state sponsorship and development of the social and political arrangements of the Settlement, as they generated not only a set of institutions but a way of life, a culture. This theme of a 'state-sponsored' culture will be discussed in light of contemporary Australian society, examining questions such as What are the effects of the dismantling of the Settlement institutions since the 1980s? Is the state attempting to generate new institutional arrangements in place of the old? In what ways has globalisation impacted on Australian political culture? Students who complete this subject should have acquired a critical understanding of the major transformations in social and political life in Australia since Federation and have the skills to evaluate differing interpretations of these transformations and their contemporary significance.