POLI 3001 Activism, Engagement and Social Change

This is an archived copy of the 2021-2022 catalog. To access the most recent version of the catalog, please visit https://hbook.westernsydney.edu.au.

Credit Points 10

Legacy Code 101981

Coordinator David Tait Opens in new window

Description This unit is designed for students interested in the politics, processes and ethics of social change. It covers the topics of Internet activism, NGO politics and ethics, identity politics, legal lobbying, revolutions and regime changes, and the role of art in consciousness raising. We will explore the efficacy of different social change strategies, the ethics of various modes of activism, the role that national and transnational politics plays in campaigning, the importance of identity for engagement with social change processes, and the ideologies informing theories of change.

School Humanities & Comm Arts

Discipline Political Science

Student Contribution Band HECS Band 4 10cp

Check your HECS Band contribution amount via the Fees page.

Level Undergraduate Level 3 subject

Restrictions Successful completion of 60 credit points of study in currently enrolled program.

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this subject, students should be able to:
  1. Explore policy and political problems and their solutions.
  2. Analyse the operations of power inside and outside of formal institutions.
  3. Critique policies.
  4. Develop useable strategies for change that recognise current practical and political constraints.
  5. Demonstrate basic advocacy and activist skills including competence in planning strategies for policy lobbying in the context of the stakeholders/players and potential barriers.
  6. Explain the broader theoretical debates on questions of power, ideologies, the role of the state and civil society and other factors which influence the capacity to make or change policies.

Subject Content

- social change, engagement and activism: An introduction (definitions, Semantics, key concepts)
- Citizenship: history and context
- theoretical Developments in social change and Advocacy (Models, organisational context, processes, effects, rhetoric, culture and Critical thinking)
- Understanding policy and Advocacy (sources, Ethical Issues, political environment, Campaigns, news content analysis)
- government and Governance
- media relations: strategies and tactics
- research and evaluation: methods and techniques
- Building A campaign to achieve change
- case studies: from The suffragettes to Mabo
- Issues and Crisis management

Prescribed Texts

  • Learning resources will be provided on vUWS

Teaching Periods

Structures that include subject