50006 Sydney Social and Cultural Field Study

Sydney is a complex, multicultural, global city, a metropolis that is both a gateway to Asia, and a centre of western culture in the region. Its vibrant cultural life, fascinating history, extraordinary environment and rich pattern of diverse sub-cultures means that is can serve as an engrossing laboratory for students from many different disciplinary and professional backgrounds. This subject offers structured fieldwork in the key nodes in this diversity, based on urban studies and studies of cosmopolitanism in a globalising world.

The nodes may encompass Indigenous Sydney both before and after the arrival of Europeans, historical parts of the old city, the range of different cultures brought by immigration and the communities they have created, centres of economic and business life, political institutions such as parliament, key media centres, cultural precincts, and cultural events including film, music and theatrical presentations and festivals. Students undertake fieldwork, document their responses, research background material and prepare a final report.