Social Theory and Policy Analysis
Write an academic research essay on a topic selected from below. In your essay, you should select one specific policy area for analysis (employment, education, trade, economy, social welfare, etc.) and explain the role of ideology, the institutional process, structural and situational context and the role of civil society.

The aim is to further your understanding and capacity to use key concepts introduced in this course. You should be able to respond creatively and critically. Your answers should include a clear presentation, critical assessment of the theoretical debates and a specific standpoint that provide possible alternatives towards a better society.

Topics:

1. Explain how under neo-liberal globalization, the transformation of the state reflect specific class formations and contestations and how this relates to specific articulations of social policy.

2. Discuss the ways in which gender relationships in Australia are shaped by specific policies and the ways they are challenged by women in their personal and collective lives.

3. Discuss how competition in global markets is intertwined with nationalism and the ways in which nationhood constructed by state policies reproduce or transform structures of white privilege in the Australian context.

4. Discuss how neo-liberal globalisation approach nature, and the ways in which the commodification of nature (including the human body) impact on notions of social justice and dignity in everyday life.