21223 Social Analysis and Indigenous Community Organisations

Subject level: Undergraduate

Handbook description

This subject introduces a conceptual framework for examining the historical and current social context of policy development in regards to Indigenous people in Australia. It explores the role of Indigenous organisations in responding to social policy.

Subject objectives/outcomes

On completion of this subject students should be able to:

1. outline the history of social policy development in relation to indigenous people including the underlying value roles and assumptions, which characterise social policy in regard to indigenous people
2. discuss the various claims of competing theories about the cause, manifestation and solutions to key issues facing indigenous people
3. discuss the historical connections between the values and policy development of the day and the experience of indigenous people
4. analyse the social, economic and political context in which indigenous community organisations operate.

Contribution to graduate profile

In this subject, students are introduced to key social theories and examine how they explain disadvantage as experienced by indigenous people. Students are encouraged to explore the social, political, economic and cultural context of indigenous organisations and their response to social disadvantage.

Teaching and learning strategies

Students will learn through a combination of set readings, lectures, workshop exercises, case studies and written assignments requiring them to apply concepts to their own work environment. Where appropriate, students will also be expected to conduct their own research in order to complete set assessment tasks.

Students will be encouraged to be active rather than passive learners. Each subject will feature three block sessions through the semester, which may include a selection of the following teaching and learning strategies:

• full lectures or mini lectures (possibly including guest speakers)
• large group discussion
• practical group exercises
• small group discussion
• student presentations (individual or group projects)
• workshops on specific practical skills
• role play

Students are also required to maintain a regular reading schedule which may include a textbook, a prescribed set of readings and/or some selected key references. In some subjects there will also be an expectation that students will pursue their own research in areas relevant to their assessment tasks.

Central to the teaching and learning philosophy of this subject, is the integration of work based learning through assessment tasks that require students to apply theory to practice and reflect on this process in the context of their own communities and community organisations.

Specific details of teaching and learning strategies to be used in this subject will be provided during the relevant block sessions.

Content

The following topics are covered in this subject:

• Introduction to social theory (functionalism, structural and post structural theory) and how they explain the indigenous experience
• Introduction to social analysis including its purpose, and key skills and techniques
• Historical approach to social policy development in relation to indigenous people from first contact to present
• History of indigenous community organisations, the values, roles and relationships with their community and government policy
• Current policy response and implementation in regard to indigenous organisations
• Responses of indigenous organisations to current policies, examples of specific organisational responses — Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, Office of Indigenous Policy Coordination, Department of Aboriginal Affairs (NSW), Aboriginal Legal Services, Land Councils, Aboriginal Medical Services, Women's Organisations, Men's Groups.

Assessment

Assessment item 1: Report

Assessment item 2: Family Biography

Assessment item 3: Seminar Participation

Required text(s)

There is no prescribed textbook for this subject. Because of the nature of the subject, no single book is suitable as a text. However, students should be able to draw on materials used in other subjects to assist with work in this subject; as well as reading and references to be provided to students in the class.

Indicative references

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commission: Report, Australian Government Publishing Service, and Canberra.

Ed. Bain Attwood with Andrew Markus, (1999) The Struggle for Aboriginal rights: A Documentary History, Allen and Unwin

Ed. Bain Attwood with Andrew Markus, (2003) Rights for Aborigines, Allen and Unwin

Bain Attwood (2005) Telling the truth about Aboriginal History, Allen and Unwin

Bird, C. (1998) The Stolen Children and Their Stories, Griffin Press, Sydney.

Broome, R. (1992) Aboriginal Australians: The Australian Experience Black Responses to White Dominance Sydney Black Books

Brock Peggy, (2001) Words and Silences: Aboriginal women, politics and land. Allen and Unwin

Bryson, L. (1992) 'Directions and Development in the Australian Welfare State' in Interlogue, October, pp 33-42

Burgmann, V. (1993) Power and Protest: Movements for Change in Australian Society, Nth Sydney, Allen and Unwin

Butcher Glen, Henderson, Smith (1993) Community and Public Policy, Picton Press, London

Chesterman, J., Galligan, R (1997) Citizens Without Rights Cambridge University Press

Connell, R. W., Ashenden, S., Kessler, S. and Dowsett, G (1989) Making the Difference: Schools, Families and Social Division, Nth Sydney, Allen and Unwin

Dickey, B. (1987) No Charity There: A Short Story of Social Welfare in Australia, Sydney, Allen and Unwin

Edgar, D., Keane, D. and McDonald, P. (Eds) (1989) Child Poverty, Nth Sydney, Allen and Unwin

Elder, D. (1988) Blood on the Wattle, Sydney Black Books

Frankel, B. and Offe, C. (1987) 'Changing the terms: Green, post-modern, social democrat' in Arena, 80, pp 115-121

Graycar, A. and Jamrozik, A. (1993) How Australians Live: Social Policy in Theory and Practice, Melbourne, McMillan

Hazelhurst, C. (1994) A Healing Place – Indigenous Visions for Personal Empowerment and Community Recovery, Central Queensland University Press, Rockhampton

HREOC (1997) The CDEP Scheme and Racial Discrimination, Sydney HREOC

Kemp, P and Wall, D. (1990) A Green Manifesto for the 1990's, London, Penguin

Lang, J. (1991) 'Provision of social infrastructure in urban developments in three Australian cities' in Urban Policy and Research, Vol 3, No.8 September, pp 91-104

McGregor, (1997) R. Imagined Destinies – Aboriginal Australia and the Doomed Race, 1880-1939, Melbourne University Press

Nyland, J. (1994) Organising Options – Community Management Revisited, NCOSS, Sydney

O'Leary, J, Sharp R and Heinmann, W (Eds) (1991) Inequality in Australia: Slicing the Cake, Port Melbourne

Rees, S., Rodley, G. And Stilwell, F. (Eds) (1993) Beyond the Market: Alternatives to Economic Rationalism, Sydney, Pluto Press

Reynolds, H (1988) Frontier, Sydney Black Books

Reynolds, H (1996) Aboriginal Sovereignty, Sydney Black Books

Stilwell, F. (1993) Economic Inequality: Who gets what in Australia, Sydney, Pluto Press

Thompson, E. (1994) Fair Enough: Egalitarianism in Australia, Sydney, UNSW Press.