Social Policy and Community Action
UndergraduateMUR-COD2142025
Course information for 2025 intake View information for 2024 course intake
Wrestle with social policy and how it shapes social and community work. Sift through concepts including social justice, welfare and reciprocity. Track recent trends in Australia's social policies. Familiarise yourself with the policy analysis process.
Enrol today with instant approval and no entry requirements
- Study method
- 100% online
- Assessments
- 100% online
- Enrol by
- 16 Feb 2025
- Entry requirements
- No ATAR needed, No prior study
- Duration
- 13 weeks
- Price from
- $2,125
- Upfront cost
- $0
- Loan available
- HECS-HELP and FEE-HELP available
Social Policy and Community Action
About this subject
On successful completion of the subject you should be able to:
- describe the ways in which social policy ideas have changed over time
- identify recent trends in Australian social policy, and the issues influencing social policy formation
- discuss the ways in which concepts of 'community' shape social policy
- analyse the role language plays in social policy discourse
- analyse social policies
- conduct research and identify solutions to problems
- communicate clearly and effectively, orally and in writing.
- Social Policy: what do they say it is?
- Change and controversy over time
- Who, what and when?
- Policy actors and the policy cycle
- "Problem making" and causality
- "Don't think of an elephant": Language and rhetoric in social policy
- Metaphor and social policy
- Who is my neighbour? Community and values in social policy
- Sorting through the evidence
- Bringing ideas together: Making a start of policy analysis
This subject was previously known as COD355A Community and Social Policy.
This subject aims to equip you with an understanding of social policy, and how the policy context shapes community‐based work. The unit focuses on the intersection between social policy and community ‐ exploring ideas about the way political philosophies and concepts of community influence social policy formation and implementation, the attributes and limitations of the way policy is made, as well as the key role played by language in the social policy discourse.
Please Note: All students studying at Murdoch University will need to complete the compulsory unit, Murdoch Academic Passport (MAP100), which only takes 2-3 hours to complete online. Find out more: http://goto.murdoch.edu.au/MurdochAcademicPassport.
Students are asked to prepare written assignments that examine particular fields of interest in the social policy field, the influence of language in social policy and to explore how theory and practice intersect. The assessments are designed to build student skills in research, social policy analysis and community-based policy development.
- Policy Case Study (30%)
- Briefing Paper and Presentation (40%)
- Engagement and participation (10%)
- Final Project (20%)
For textbook details check your university's handbook, website or learning management system (LMS).
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- Times Higher Education Ranking 2024:
- 26
Entry requirements
No entry requirements
Equivalent subjects
You should not enrol in this subject if you have successfully completed any of the following subject(s) because they are considered academically equivalent:
MUR-COD355A (Not currently available)
MUR-COD355 (Not currently available)
Study load
- 0.125 EFTSL
- This is in the range of 10 to 12 hours of study each week.
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What to study next?
Once you’ve completed this subject it can be credited towards one of the following courses
Bachelor of Arts (Community Development)
UndergraduateMUR-CDV-DEG
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