It aims to acquaint students with significant debates, structural developments and institutional agreements in the study of Australian federal politics. Our society is subject to rapid social change. Many traditional forms of social organisation are unable to provide for some people's needs, others chooseto remain outside them. These are the unemployed, underemployed, retired, the disabled, displaced young people and the homeless. This subject examines a rangeof social formations that could meet the needs of such people.
Students gain a critical understanding of community building, innovation, maintenance and failure.
Topics include traditional communities, utopian communities, some theories of social organisations, cooperatives, religious communities, self-sufficient communities, innovative community networks, sects and service clubs. This subject examines China and Japan from the middle of the nineteenth century to the present, comparing their historical development within the general themes of modernisation and socio-political continuity and change. This subject examines the region of the Southeast Asia during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It considers the impact of colonisation, the development of nationalism and independence movements and the quest for modernisation during the post colonial period. The subject takes as its focus the nations of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam.