Understanding the Modern World
Unit code: LSS101
| Credit points | 12.5 Credit Points |
| Duration | One Semester |
| Contact hours | 36 hours over the semester, normally 3 hours per week |
| Campus | Hawthorn |
| Prerequisites | NIL |
Related course(s)
Formerly known as LSS200 Difference, Deviance and ConformityEffective 2010
This is a prescribed unit of study in the Social Science Major/s. It may also be undertaken as a unit of study in any other Swinburne degree program, subject to the prerequisite and degree requirements.
Aims and objectives
This unit is designed to enhance students’ understanding of the social worlds in which they live and work. It provides a historical overview of the evolution of societies and examines the variety of cultural and institutional practices evident around the globe. The key features and central dynamics of modern societies are explored, and students are introduced to the sociological perpsective on human beings and their social creations.On completion of this unit students should be able to:
• identify the key features of contemporary societies
• analyse the dynamics transforming social relations
• think critically about the historical forces shaping and reshaping social life
Teaching methods
Units will be taught in a variety of modes including face to face, online, distance and blended modes. Delivery of this unit may be through a mixture of lectures, tutorials, laboratories, seminars and online.Generic skills outcomes
This unit will provide discipline-based knowledge and professional capabilities and experiences contributing to students’ progress in attaining generic skills such as:• Analysis skills developed through essays, reflective journals and film reviews requiring critical thinking
• Communication skills developed through written and oral presentations
• Ability to work independently developed through library research
Content
Topics may include:• types of society and varieties of cultures
• society, culture, subcultures
• modernisation
• industrialisation and urbanisation
• democracy and totalitarianism
• science
• consumption and commodification
• women’s movement
• agency
• rationalisation
• individualisation
• globalisation
• multiple modernities
• sociological diagnoses of the present: alienation, sickness of infinity, the iron cage
