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Study online with Macquarie University through Open Universities Australia. Explore all degrees, subjects and short courses now.

The Bachelor of Arts (OUA) at Macquarie University is a distinctive course that equips its graduates with knowledge and skills that can be applied in any career or in further study. No other course offers as much flexibility and a wide range of study options as the Bachelor of Arts. You will be given the opportunity to turn your passion into a career while developing a strong set of core transferable skills valued by industry and the society. In consultation with industry, the Bachelor of Arts (OUA) places a strong emphasis on skills for success in the 21st century workplace. You will be taught by active researchers, leading academics and award winning teachers.

Make your degree unique and study what interests you. Analyse critically, think creatively and problem-solve at work or in everyday life. Complete foundational studies then tailor your degree with a major. Create a portfolio and build your connections.

Bachelor of Arts

Introduction to Sociology: Understanding Everyday Life

Freedom Dreams: Foundations in Gender Studies

Introduction to Sociology: Understanding contemporary society

This subject was previously known as SGYX222, SOCX222 Sociological Theories of Modernity.Sociological theorising is about understanding and explaining the meaning of social phenomena. Usually that evolves drawing on existing concepts, or constructing our own, as prisms through which we interpret the range of human actions, behaviours and attitudes. In this unit we will discuss the role of sociological theory today. We will explore how major social thinkers have attempted to understand and explain social change, especially in the context of the deep uncertainties that characterise modernity. We will discuss original texts by Marx, Weber, Durkheim, Simmel and other more recent theorists whose works are examples of ‘the sociological imagination’ and its usefulness to thinking about social change.

Identify key characteristics of modern societies. See how capitalism, industrialism and individualism instruct social development. Get to know the writings of thinkers like Marx, Foucault and Nietzsche. Consider their insights and their shortcomings

Theorising Societies

This subject was previously known as SGY110 Australian and Global Societies and SOCX175 Australian Society.Life in the 21st century is politically, economically and culturally fast-changing, increasingly diverse and technology-driven. In this unit, you will discover how sociologists understand society through topics such as culture and the economy, power and politics, gender and sexuality, self and identity, family and generations, social inequality and class, religion and race. It provides you with new and exciting ways to understand the contemporary world and your place within it. The skills and perspectives you learn will help you communicate complex ideas effectively and provide you with the analytical skills and perspectives you need to successfully navigate the politics, labour markets and diverse cultures in our rapidly changing world.

Spot patterns in Australia's social structures. Look at the media, family, religion and class. Take advantage of sociological research methods such as observations and interviews. Begin to examine Australian society through a sociological lens.

This subject was previously known as SGY370, SOCX325 Understanding Contemporary Societies.Change, some people say, is the only constant in life. This unit provides essential skills and knowledge that enable you to understand trends, patterns and puzzles in contemporary societies. You will explore a variety of topics such as work, identity, relationship, politics, diversity and the private sphere. The unit has a strong focus on practical applications and prepares students to make sense of major social developments, which shape our lives and the world we live in.

Extend your studies while learning about advanced theoretical and empirical approaches to the sociology field. Unfurl the complex nature of society. Fold in policy and economy information. Build a foundation to pursue even more sociology studies.

Self and Society

This subject was previously known as <ul><li>SOCX315 The Intimate Sphere: Love, Friendship and Family</li><li>SOCX3025 Sex, Love and Friendship</li></ul>A rich sociological tradition as well as contemporary research highlight the extraordinariness of ‘ordinary’ life and culture. In all that we do social norms and cultural attitudes are entwined with structural conditions. But we are more than workers, economic actors, or citizens. We are also lovers and friends, children, siblings and parents. We spend time pursuing leisure activities, inhabit a range of private and public spaces, engage with a variety of media, find pleasure in eating and consuming. So, how do we negotiate our freedoms and constraints, individual agency and its limits, the tension between tradition and the new, the boundaries of self and other? This unit explores the extraordinary social accomplishment of ordinary life.

Become familiar with the sociology of intimacy. Unveil how people carve out space in their lives for friends, family and lovers. Touch on the real-world complexities that can sometimes affect these relationships. Explore the darker side of intimacy.

Exploring Everyday Life and Culture

This unit explores how sociologists understand the collective challenges of a global world. Research into global issues includes international migration, global cities, the rise of information &amp; surveillance capitalism, global value chains and transnational financial flows, global interconnections of everyday actors and elites and the global consequences of climate change. Students explore the role of local communities and cultures in reshaping and regulating global forces and power structures underpinning globalism, nationalism and cosmopolitanism. We will examine the changing roles of civil society and local community in creating alternatives to the twin powers of states and markets, from successes and failures to future opportunities and emerging risks. By exploring the relationships between space, place and people through contemporary case studies (for example, global cities and social infrastructures, the sociology of risk and crisis, resilience and disasters; global migration, border politics and citizenship rights) students will build on and extend previous learning in theory and methods, with the option of a fieldwork project focused on a case study.

The Urban Century: Movement, Cities and Space

We engage in economic activities on a daily basis. We work to earn money, buy groceries, pay rent or mortgages, save for a holiday. In often invisible ways, these everyday activities of production and consumption are underpinned by social structures, cultures and ideologies. You will learn about the workings of the economy, labour markets and finance, and how economic activity is embedded in social relationships. You will be able to understand and address important issues of our time, such as the increasing gap between the rich and the poor, and unequal access to power and resources based on intersecting questions of gender, race and class.

Economic Life, Inequality and Society

In this subject you are introduced to the analysis of everyday situations such as the home, the street, work, shopping, community, neighbourhoods, and various sites of leisure and entertainment. We also reveal and scrutinise the many tools and props that we use to negotiate these everyday activities (e.g., clothes, mobile phones, automobiles, computers, furnishings etc) and explore the hidden social forces that shape our lives

Put everyday life's social interactions under a microscope. Take your studies to shopping centres and family homes. Theorise about the meaning of everyday life. Scrutinise how people’s actions can reveal who they are and highlight social forces at play.

This subject was previously known as GENX310 Gender, Crime and Violence.
A growing body of research from criminology, psychology, sociology, media studies and gender studies focuses on gender in relation to crime. How are the social constructions of masculinity and femininity, within and across cultures, implicated in the conduct and character of crime? The unit explores this central question across a range of topics such as domestic violence and terrorism. We also consider intersecting identities, including race and ethnicity, class, sexuality, and religion, in the construction of both perpetrators and victims of crime. The unit&#39;s focus on conflicts and displacements allows it to move from the personal to the transnational, from the intimate sphere to global geopolitics.

Study gender in relation to crime. Look at masculinity and femininity – alongside race, ethnicity, class and religion – and the parts they play. Learn about feminist approaches to criminology and gendered accounts of crime.

Gender, Crime and Violence

This subject is an introduction to Gender Studies, an interdisciplinary field that analyses gender and how it intersects with sexuality, race, class, different abilities, and other identities. We establish foundational knowledge of and key concepts in how gender has been theorised and debated through exploring grassroots gender liberation activism including feminism, gay liberation, and the trans and intersex movements.

Unearth new ways of thinking about femininity and masculinity. Read up on male and female representation throughout the literary canon. Address abortion and reproductive rights. Highlight historical and contemporary examples of sexism in the media.

This unit introduces psychological anthropology, including emotional, cognitive, developmental, and perceptual dynamics across cultures. Psychological anthropology studies the relation between individual psychology and sociocultural diversity, for example, between psychopathology and social structure, between personality differences and childrearing practices, or between perceptual experience and a society&#39;s ideologies about the senses. A wide range of perspectives will be explored, from evolutionary psychology to neuroanthropology, and address such topics as consciousness including spirit possession, and cultural variation in insanity and impairment.

Examine how an individual's psychological development is shaped by social ideologies and structures. Ask how notions of 'self' differ between cultures. Address childhood, faith and emotions. Utilise anthropological research and investigation methods.

Course results for Macquarie University Sociology Short courses

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