There are 5 assessments in this unit. Taken together, the tasks are designed to aid your learning, test your understanding of the unit material, and give you core skills that are applicable to your current or future work life. 

The four case studies must be submitted via Turnitin.

Students should be aware of the following policies in regard to assignments:

Academic Honesty Policy: http://www.mq.edu.au/policy/docs/academic_honesty/policy.html. The university takes plagiarism very seriously and there are penalties for using other people's work as your own. This includes directly quoting other people's work without quotation marks and/or acknowledgement. Please check this unit's iLearn site for resources on how to cite your sources properly and avoid plagiarism.

Special Consideration Policy: https://staff.mq.edu.au/work/strategy-planning-and-governance/university-policies-and-procedures/policies/special-consideration

Assessment Policy: https://staff.mq.edu.au/work/strategy-planning-and-governance/university-policies-and-procedures/policies/assessment. For specifics on Grading Policy, click on the "Schedule 1" tab.

Requests for Extensions

To request an extension for a period up to and including 5 working days, please email teaching staff

To apply for an extension of more than 5 working days please complete a Special Consideration request and submit it online through AskMQ. For more information see the Special Consideration Policy above and find further details here: https://students.mq.edu.au/study/my-study-program/special-consideration/disruption-to-studies. 

Late Assessment Penalty

Unless a Special Consideration request has been submitted and approved, (a) a penalty for lateness will apply—two (2) marks out of 100 will be deducted per day for assignments submitted after the due date—and (b) no assignment will be accepted more than seven (7) days (incl. weekends) after the original submission deadline. No late submissions will be accepted for timed assessments—e.g. quizzes, online tests.

All written assignments should be submitted through Turnitin. The links will be provided closer to the due dates. 

If you are finding it difficult to meet the set due dates please contact your teaching staff as soon as possible. 

Delivery

This unit is taught in four modules which wrap around the on-campus teaching sessions in on the dates set out on I-learn. Students engage in three separate but related activities to get the most out of their learning. 

Those activities are preparation, participation and reflection.

Preparation tasks consist mainly of engaging with the set and extended readings. It is better to start preparing early as we the list of readings is quite extensive (often in excess of 10 readings).

Participation tasks consist of online activities such as watching lectures, participating in discussion and exercises, and listening to podcasts. Your assessment for participation depends entirely on participation in weekly discussions. Assessment is more than participation -- it involves active contribution: responding to questions, raising points of discussion with others, and adding new material (news and ideas). 

Reflection tasks predominantly take place after the on-campus sessions and predominantly consist of assignments. These assignments align closely with the lecture and reading material and it is therefore not advised to attempt the assignments without engaging in the previous two forms of activities.   

Resources

Readings are available through Leganto which you can access via link on the right hand side of Ilearn. 

There is no textbook in SOCX 8075.  

This unit is taught in FOUR modules. Each module includes three related topics. 

MODULE ONE: Introduction to the concepts, focusing on neo-liberalism and new public management

In this first module, we start by map different types of ideas. Such ideas include ‘big ideas’, such as Keynesianism or neo-liberalism, but also second tier ideas such as prevention, new social risks, social exclusion, activation, new public management, or the three ideas that we explore in more detail in this unit, user choice, mutual obligation and social investment. We begin by establishing what we mean by idea before exploring where ideas come from, who helps to spread them and how they spread across time, space and policy areas. To ground the conversation, we finish this module by exploring the shift from Keynesianism to neo-liberalism.  

MODULE 2: User choice

In this second module, we focus on user choice. Choice is framed differently depending on whether choice is imagined within liberal/economic framework or within a human rights framework, for example. In both frames, choice is seen to be an inherent good. But the operationalisation of the concept varies immensely. Within a liberal framework, the policy response to more user choice is outsourcing, personal budgets and similar, while choice within a human rights framework is used to call for removal of barriers to participation and more support. To get a grip on how the framing matters for policy outcomes, we mostly focus on aged care and disability care to investigate how choice has influenced how care is now organised and carried out.

MODULE 3: Social Investment

Since the late 1990s, new ideas and strategies concerning the role and shape of the Welfare State have been formulated. Policy developments point towards a similar policy logic based on ‘social investment’. In fact, the idea of social investment has been central to recent social policy debates in several OECD countries. In this module, we explore this new perspective. First, we ask what a social investment approach is. That entails exploring the concept at the ideational level. Later in the module we explore how the idea has been operationalised in terms of the policies implemented; when and where can social investment paradigms be applied. A related question is about where and where it should be applied. We also focus on how this particular idea has spread across countries and investigate the achievements as well as the shortcomings.

MODULE 4: Welfare-to-work

In this last module, we closely consider the 'welfare-to-work' paradigm that has influenced work and social policy in countries like Australia and the US. We investigate how this paradigm emerged as central to an emerging policy monopoly in social policy that emphasised tough -- even harsh -- policies to compel working-age people to participate in low-wage labour markets. Has 'welfare-to-work' reduced 'welfare dependence' and encouraged employment? What problems persist? We take a look at the ongoing impact of tougher welfare-to-work policies on poor communities in a cross-national perspective and consider alternative policies.