Social Policy Descriptions
Unit outlines will be available through Find a unit outline two weeks before the first day of teaching for 1000-level and 5000-level units, or one week before the first day of teaching for all other units.
Social Policy
Minor
A minor in Social Policy requires 36 credit points from this table including:
(i) 12 credit points of 1000-level selective units
(ii) 6 credit points of 2000-level core unit
(iii) 6 credit points of 2000-level selective units
(iv) 6 credit points of 3000-level core unit
(iv) 6 credit points of 3000-level selective units
1000 level units of study
Selective
SCLG1001 Introduction to Sociology 1
Credit points: 6 Teacher/Coordinator: Please refer to the unit of study outline for individual sessions https://www.sydney.edu.au/units Session: Semester 1 Classes: 1x2hr lecture/week, 1x1hr tutorial/week Assessment: 1x500wd review exercise (10%), 1x1500wd essay (35%), 1x1500wd take home assessment (35%), 1x1000wd equivalent discussion posts (20%). Please refer to the unit of study outline for individual sessions https://www.sydney.edu.au/units Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
How does society shape the world we live in? What influences interactions between people in everyday life? Why is society structured the way it is, and is change possible? By delving into diverse topics such as discrimination and inequality to family life and friendship, this unit introduces the conceptual tools sociologists use to explain the world.
SCLG1002 Introduction to Sociology 2
Credit points: 6 Teacher/Coordinator: Please refer to the unit of study outline for individual sessions https://www.sydney.edu.au/units Session: Semester 2 Classes: 1x2hr lecture/week, 1x1hr tutorial/week Assessment: 1x1000wd annotated bibliography (20%), 1x1750wd take-home exercise (35%), 1x1750wd research essay (35%), participation (10%). Please refer to the unit of study outline for individual sessions https://www.sydney.edu.au/units Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
In a rapidly changing world, how do we make sense of current social and political problems effectively? By exploring sociological concepts in creative ways, this unit gives students the tools to analyse, research and respond to real world issues such as globalisation, crime, social justice, community breakdown, and racial, sexual and indigenous inequality.
SLSS1001 Introduction to Law, Policy and Society
Credit points: 6 Teacher/Coordinator: Please refer to the unit of study outline for individual sessions https://www.sydney.edu.au/units Session: Semester 1 Classes: 2x1hr lectures/week, 1x1hr tutorial/week Assessment: 1x500wd short writing task (10%), 1x250wd online quiz (5%), 1x1750wd report (35%), 1x2000wd exam (40%), tutorial participation (10%). Please refer to the unit of study outline for individual sessions https://www.sydney.edu.au/units Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
This unit provides students with an introduction tothe understanding of legal ideas, policy formation, institutions and practices in their social and historical contexts. It will provide an historical overview of legal institutions and forms of law in Australia, the place of the idea of the rule of law in state-formation, liberalism, processes of civilisation and colonialism, law, policy and the public/private distinction, changing conceptions of human rights, as well as outlining the central features of the various fields of law and policy.
SLSS1003 Law and Contemporary Society
Credit points: 6 Teacher/Coordinator: Please refer to the unit of study outline for individual sessions https://www.sydney.edu.au/units Session: Semester 2 Classes: 2x1hr lectures/week, 1x1hr tutorial/week Assessment: tutorial participation (10%), 1x500wd short essay (10%), 1x2000wd essay (40%), 1x2hr exam (40%). Please refer to the unit of study outline for individual sessions https://www.sydney.edu.au/units Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
This unit provides an understanding of the central themes and issues in social scientific analyses of the operation of law in society. After briefly outlining the various ways in which social life is organised in terms of law, the unit will examine a range of key concerns in the development of legal ideas, institutions and processes today, including the increasing legal regulation of private life, law and science, human rights, the globalisation of law, terrorism, risk and security, law and social inequality and citizenship.
2000 level units of study
Core
SCPL2601 Australian Social Policy
Credit points: 6 Teacher/Coordinator: Please refer to the unit of study outline for individual sessions https://www.sydney.edu.au/units Session: Semester 1 Classes: 1x2hr lecture/week, 1x1hr tutorial/week Prerequisites: 12 credit points at 1000 level in Sociology or 12 credit points at 1000 level in Social Policy or 12 credit points at 1000 level in Socio-legal Studies Prohibitions: SCPL3001 Assessment: 1x1500wd essay (35%), 1x2000wd take-home exercise (45%), 1x450wd equivalent participation in online discussions (10%), tutorial participation (10%). Please refer to the unit of study outline for individual sessions https://www.sydney.edu.au/units Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
In this unit of study Australian social policy is explored: the legal and administrative framework; relationships between family and the state; employment, unemployment, unpaid work and welfare; the public/private mix; aged care policies, the culture of welfare state provision, indigenous policies, migration, multiculturalism and the formulation and delivery of social welfare services in Australia.
Selective
SCPL2602 Understanding Social Policy
Credit points: 6 Teacher/Coordinator: Please refer to the unit of study outline for individual sessions https://www.sydney.edu.au/units Session: Semester 2 Classes: 1x2hr lecture/week, 1x1hr tutorial/week Prerequisites: 12 credit points at 1000 level in Sociology or 12 credit points at 1000 level in Social Policy Prohibitions: SCPL3002 Assessment: 1x1000wd tutorial reflection (10%), 1x1500wd essay (40%), 1x2000wd take-home exercise (50%). Please refer to the unit of study outline for individual sessions https://www.sydney.edu.au/units Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
This unit is essentially conceptual and theoretical, emphasising the contested principles of social policy - discourse, theories, ideas and ideologies - around which the contemporary welfare state was, is and continues to be organised, discussed and debated. This unit focuses on the application of concepts and theories in practical social policy arenas. In particular, the emphasis will be on the debated, sometimes contested, nature of concepts and theories in social policy discourses in contemporary societies.
SCPL2604 Comparative Social Policy
Credit points: 6 Teacher/Coordinator: Please refer to the unit of study outline for individual sessions https://www.sydney.edu.au/units Session: Semester 1 Classes: 1x2hr lecture/week, 1x1hr tutorial/week Prerequisites: 12 credit points at 1000 level in Social Policy or 12 credit points at 1000 level in Sociology Prohibitions: SCLG2509 or SCLG2611 Assessment: 1x1000wd equivalent presentation (10%), 1x1500wd research essay (40%), 1x2000wd take-home exercise (50%). Please refer to the unit of study outline for individual sessions https://www.sydney.edu.au/units Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
This unit examines how industrialised countries manage social risks and how welfare policies can be meaningfully compared. By exploring theoretical, methodological and practical aspects of social policy, it investigates key principles underpinning social policies in a variety of countries, and how we can best explain differences between them.
CRIM2602 Crime, Punishment and Society
Credit points: 6 Teacher/Coordinator: Please refer to the unit of study outline for individual sessions https://www.sydney.edu.au/units Session: Semester 2 Classes: 2x1hr lectures/week, 1x1hr tutorial/week Prerequisites: 12 credit points at 1000 level in Criminology or 12 credit points at 1000 level in Social Policy or 12 credit points at 1000 level in Socio-legal Studies or 12 credit points at 1000 level in Sociology Prohibitions: SCLG2634 or SCLG2566 Assessment: 1x1000wd reflective essay (20%), 1x2000wd research essay (40%), 1x1500wd take home exercise (30%), tutorial participation (10%). Please refer to the unit of study outline for individual sessions https://www.sydney.edu.au/units Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
This unit explores key features of criminal justice processes and practices, with a critical examination of policing, sentencing, punishment and prison in their historical, social, political and cultural contexts. It considers a range of related concepts and issues, including the expansion of punishment in society and post-release life.
3000 level units of study
Core
SCPL3604 Making Social Policy
Credit points: 6 Teacher/Coordinator: Please refer to the unit of study outline for individual sessions https://www.sydney.edu.au/units Session: Semester 2 Classes: 1x3hr seminar/week Prerequisites: 12 credit points at 2000 level in Social Policy or 12 credit points at 2000 level in Diversity Studies Assessment: 4x15min online quizzes (20%),1x1500wd essay (40%),1x2000wd group work (40%). Please refer to the unit of study outline for individual sessions https://www.sydney.edu.au/units Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
How and why do some ideas about social justice, distribution and inequality get translated into social policy while others do not? This unit explores concepts that feature prominently in the contemporary configuration of welfare states. It examines how key social policy ideas are translated (or not) into policy practice and the conditions under which these ideas become materialised and changed over time. Through the use of case studies, students are given the opportunity to explore the policy dynamics that underpin the emergence, development and demise of social policies.
Selective
SCLG3610 Sociology, Power and Violence
Credit points: 6 Teacher/Coordinator: Please refer to the unit of study outline for individual sessions https://www.sydney.edu.au/units Session: Semester 2 Classes: 1x2hr lecture/week, 1x1hr tutorial/week Prerequisites: 12 credit points at 2000 level in Sociology Prohibitions: SCLG2607 or SCLG2618 or SCLG2621 or SCLG2630 Assessment: tutorial participation (10%), 1x1500wd take home exercise (30%), 1x1800wd major essay (35%), 1x1200wd minor essay (25%). Please refer to the unit of study outline for individual sessions https://www.sydney.edu.au/units Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
Power is a fundamental resource in the organisation and control of society and in disciplining individual behaviour. This unit explores social order and disorder by examining how power is exercised, sometimes violently, through political, legal, economic and cultural processes and structures and how it is concentrated, distributed and resisted.
SCLG3702 Social Inquiry: Quantitative Methods
Credit points: 6 Teacher/Coordinator: Please refer to the unit of study outline for individual sessions https://www.sydney.edu.au/units Session: Semester 2 Classes: 1x2hr lecture/week, 1x1hr lab/week Prerequisites: 12 credit points at 2000 level in Sociology or 12 credit points of (HSBH1003 or OCCP2087 or OCCP2088 or OCCP2085 or OCCP1097 or OCCP1096) Prohibitions: SCLG2632 or SCLG3603 Assessment: 1x2hr final exam (40%), 2x1250wd equivalent research report (60%). Please refer to the unit of study outline for individual sessions https://www.sydney.edu.au/units Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
This unit enables students to acquire skills in a range of quantitative research methods in the social sciences. They learn about censuses and surveys as foundational methods of quantitative research, then move to statistical analyses of quantitative data. No prior university-level mathematical training is assumed, though a basic grasp of simple algebra acquired through upper-level study of maths at high school is expected.
SLSS3603 Social Justice, Law and Society
Credit points: 6 Teacher/Coordinator: Please refer to the unit of study outline for individual sessions https://www.sydney.edu.au/units Session: Semester 1 Classes: 1x2hr lecture/week, 1x1hr tutorial/week Prerequisites: 12 credit points at 2000 level in Socio-Legal Studies or 12 credit points at 2000 level in Social Policy Prohibitions: SCLG2605 or SCLG2017 or SCLG2536 Assessment: 1x1000wd short answer questions (30%), 1x1000wd equivalent presentation (15%), 1x2500wd research paper (55%). Please refer to the unit of study outline for individual sessions https://www.sydney.edu.au/units Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
This unit explores different theoretical perspectives on social justice relating to income and wealth distribution, identity, social recognition, law and rights. It applies these to contemporary examples, including income and wealth disparities, race and gender inequality, disability rights, the environment and treatment of non-human animals.