Master of Social Policy

This subject takes a comparative approach to explore key areas of contemporary social policy, in Australia and across the OECD countries. Each week students will engage with a different policy area, including family policy, health policy, employment policy, welfare and ageing policy, through a comparative lens offering insights into how societies promote equity and well-being through their social policies. By comparing social policies across countries and as they evolve over time, students will learn to identify what works, what doesn’t, and why. In addition, students will be encouraged to critically assess, justify and advocate for social policy change.

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This subject examines various social research design and evaluation approaches to the study of social interaction. Students will critically examine the utility of, and theoretical underpinnings behind advanced methods of collecting, analysing and writing up social research. They will also conduct a small-scale research project, giving them practical skills in designing, conducting and writing up policy research. The subject will prepare students for engaging in real-world policy research and give them a practical understanding of the relationship between policy evaluation and social research in the context of debates around evidence-based policy.

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The subject introduces students to social policy and provides a foundation for future inquiry. Students explore historical and contemporary welfare frameworks, concepts of social equity and theories of care. The subject captures different welfare approaches from the global north and south, and actively engages students in the steps of policy making and reform. Students also consider innovative responses to complex disadvantage and exclusion that are more inclusive, deliberative and devolved. These models include social impact bonds, place-based approaches and co-design/co-production. Through a combination of theoretical analysis and practical application, the subject prepares students to contribute to social policy development and implementation.

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This subject involves a supervised thesis of 15,000 words, embodying the results of the student's own research.

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Refer to PPMN90049 Public / Social Policy Thesis Part 1 for details.

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This subject is designed to develop research skills for those students who wish to undertake academic, industry or government-based research projects. Students will explore contemporary research strategies, differing methodological approaches to research and practical issues concerned with designing, conducting and commissioning research projects on or for policy. They will investigate the relationship between research and policy (broadly conceived to include public policy, public management and governance), and develop understanding of the research and policy nexus. The subject gives special attention to setting research questions based on gaps in the literature or real-world policy problems, managing research ethics, and communicating research to policymakers and wider audiences. Students will design and perform independent research of their own, including interrogating theory, methods, and analyses. The subject will assist students to develop skills in research project preparation and development, in the context of wider exploration of the research policy nexus.

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In this subject Master of Social Policy students will be placed in an organisation which either has governmental responsibilities or deals with government, where they will work under the supervision and guidance of a senior manager in the organisation. Students will carry out exercises of relevance to the organisation that will be involved in high-level and complex policy making. Students will study the structure, culture and policy environment of the organisation and develop advanced analytical, research and report-writing skills as well as negotiating and interpersonal skills. Students completing this course should expect to acquire significant insight into the complexities of policy making and management. During the internship an academic supervisor will advise them.

If primary research is carried out during the internship, support is available from the school for students to receive ethics approval, alongside their host organisation.

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The Project-based policy analysis enables students to draw on the expertise developed throughout their social policy studies and apply their theoretical knowledge and practical skills in real time to a contemporary project. The project is team-based to mirror practical experience and will be developed and overseen by both a professional and academic mentor. The project team will work in consultation with their practice and academic mentors to develop a project brief, undertake analysis, and prepare a professional report to the sponsoring organisation. The project team will present their report at the Capstone Presentation Day.

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This subject aims to give students the knowledge and skills to be able to operate as a property professional in the area of development advice and decision making in property development. The subject integrates in the context of development climate change risk, sustainability, social and ethical considerations. The core content and competencies focus on:

• the development process and the major players;
• property market research and analysis;
• the decision to build;
• time value of money;
• appreciation of investment and market valuation methods;
• development appraisal including residual analysis and cash flow modelling;
• price and worth; risk, return and risk analysis.

This subject may involve the following software: ARGUS Estate Master, ARGUS Developer. Details of software availability and pricing are captured at https://msd.unimelb.edu.au/graduate-research/resources/it-support#software.

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This subject explores ways to achieve global housing equity in informal settlements. Urbanisation and densification are the two most powerful processes that impact the quality of life in cities. While cities offer better opportunities through education, healthcare, employment and transport, poorly planned urbanization reinforce the already present challenges of poverty, informality, affordable housing, climate change, and inequity. As one billion urban residents lack access to affordable and secure housing and basic services, urban informality continues to challenge current approaches to urban development.

The Cities Without Slums subject will provide students with intellectual and creative tools to explore and explain the process of urbanization, the importance of housing, policies that give rise to slum formation and the persistence of slums. Specifically, this subject will:

• equip students with a critical mindset to analyse emerging ‘best-practice’ over the years and the roles of institutions in influencing and/or formulating national urbanization, housing and slum upgrading policies.
• engage students in making use of practice-oriented research, to employ case studies from around the globe and explore government-led, community-led, and community/local government partnership approaches to slum upgrading and the delivery of land and provision of basic services in the context of urban governance.
• help prepare students to effectively examine cross-cutting topics that underwrite inclusive and sustainable, well-managed cities, including regulatory frameworks, security of tenure, housing finance, land use and transport interaction and linkages, and affordable house designs.

The widening participation and collaboration that is happening between and across the public and private sectors as well as with civil society and the urban poor communities is an acknowledgment of the diverse roles actors and agencies can play, both in the Global South and the Global North, in shaping better cities for all.

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The emergence of civil society and nongovernmental organisations in China reflects the rise of new social and political issues that have proven challenging for the Chinese state to address effectively. This subject examines the conditions under which certain ideas, organisational forms, and associational practices have taken hold as well as the ways they have been contested, transformed, and adapted. It explores various social problems – like the rise of gender inequality, labour rights, LGBT concerns, environmental problems, and others – that civil society organisations in China have sought to tackle and examines the broader context in which civil society actors work.

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This subject examines the relation between Indigenous peoples, justice and the law, through the lens of sovereignty. It reflects critically on the concept of sovereignty, its powerful propensity to transcend its social origins, and its fortress status in law. Through first examining European law’s relation to Indigenous peoples from 1492, the course explores correlations between Europe’s economic expansion and the development of sovereignty, property, and race as key notions that underpin both individual nation-states and the international order they constitute. In bringing this analysis to bear on contemporary aspirations for structural justice, the course then considers the possibilities and limitations of current legal concepts and mechanisms – in both local and global domains – such as prevailing notions of sovereignty, native title, human rights, crimes against humanity, and transitional justice. Finally, the course presents examples of innovative contemporary interventions in support of structural justice in settler states, promoting new ways to think about their complex pasts and presents, and possible future directions.

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What does it mean for a criminal justice intervention to be effective? Why is it important to know? For whom? How does government emphasis on the impact of criminal justice programs affect the design and funding of programs? And what does this focus on effectiveness mean for research priorities and methods? This subject considers questions such as these in exploring how, why, and for whom criminal justice ‘evidence’ or ‘knowledge’ is produced. In this subject you will be asked to identify a particular criminal justice program or intervention (we will look at a range of examples), and to design an approach to discover whether or not it ‘works’ – thinking about how, why and for whom.

The subject is divided into three broad areas. First we will examine what ‘criminal justice governance’ actually is, what it means for criminal justice policy and practice, and the implications for ‘evidence’ about programs and interventions. In the second section we will explore different approaches to measuring effectiveness and gathering knowledge about criminal justice practices and programs. The last part will focus on different settings (e.g. prisons, policing) and subjects of criminal justice research (e.g. justice-involved young people), and the impact that different kinds of knowledge might have. Throughout, we will examine professional and political issues about the role and application of research in criminal justice, as well as ethical issues about engaging in research with vulnerable and offending populations.

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This subject engages with the common belief that criminal justice systems have become 'the new asylums' for people with disabilities. It will introduce students to the historical, structural and socio-cultural factors contributing to the disproportionate contact of people with disabilities with the criminal justice system, including their current over-representation within prisons. The subject will also evaluate the different ways governments have attempted to reduce the flow of people with disabilities into the criminal justice system, exploring the development of preventative and protective mechanisms within both civil and criminal law, and examine the consequences of these mechanisms on the lives of people with disabilities.

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Cultural, ideological, and political attachment to involuntary detention persists in most societies across the globe. This subject examines carcerality in its numerous incarnations and interrogates our attachment to it. The subject invites students to critically examine things we often overlook or take for granted as ‘natural’ or ‘commonsensical’. Students will learn and employ theoretical tools and empirical data to scrutinise the reasons, justifications, ‘effectiveness’, and consequences of our societal zeal to criminalise and incarcerate individuals and communities.

The subject aims at helping learners to appreciate punishment and detention as a complex social, political, historical, and economic phenomenon, rather than merely a purported crime-control measure. Equipping students with analytical tools, the subject promotes the development of a critical stance on how we as a society define, create, and perpetuate harm and social divisions. The subject offers students an opportunity to grow intellectually, becoming critical about public discourses and government policies concerning crime and punishment, whilst also facilitating checking one's own preconceptions and interrogating personal prejudices.

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This subject forms an advanced overview of theories, methods and ethical issues in qualitative research. The subject will focus on the techniques of field studies, intensive interviewing, and case studies. Students will carry out small-scale qualitative research exercises and will present them orally and in writing.

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Over the course of the last thirty years, an 'associational revolution' has swept the world, as more and more civil society organisations have taken over tasks formerly assigned to states, formed cross-border advocacy campaigns to hold both states and corporations accountable for labour, environmental, and human rights violations, and formulated alternative development policies that run counter to the paradigms espoused by the World Bank and other multilateral lending organizations. While some argue that this associational revolution promises more participatory, expedient, and decentralized forms of transnational governance, others contend that it reflects little more than the ongoing privatisation of the public sphere at the hands of transnational capital. In this course, we evaluate these and alternative perspectives by exploring transformations in the structure of the global political-economy over the past thirty years; looking closely at the roles played by a variety of NGOs and CBOs as part of more multi-layered regimes of 'global governance'; analysing the shifts in state structures that have made these regimes possible; and teasing apart the ongoing tensions between various factions of what some have called, an emerging 'global civil society'. Case studies will be drawn from Africa, South Asia, and Latin America.

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Migration is a powerful driver of social change across the contemporary world. This subject explores the key issues and debates at the intersection of migration and development, drawing on conceptual, theoretical, and empirical work in economics, development studies, gender studies, human geography, anthropology, sociology, demography, and political science. Through class debates and practical exercises, students will engage critically with the conceptual models and theoretical frameworks used to analyse migration and its impacts on development. Core concepts - including transnationalism, neoliberalism, forced migration, global care chains, governmentality, and global householding - will be examined and critiqued. The subject also considers the economic, social, and cultural implications of migration for development processes at both micro and macro levels, assessing its relationship to broader debates on globalisation, poverty, gender, and social change.

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This subject aims to provide a critical overview of ‘Development’ in Latin America. It seeks to engage critical perspectives concerning uneven development, processes of inequality and marginalisation, and patterns of globalisation in Latin America. By grounding theoretical arguments in contemporary empirical contexts (i.e., countries in Latin America), the subject attempts to make sense of current development issues in Latin America. Topics to be explored include the following: histories of development and postcolonial critiques; theories of development from Latin American scholars; urbanisation, poverty, and informality; gender and development; post-development critiques in Latin America; collective mobilisation and social movements; political ecology and environmental vulnerabilities; identity, race, and indigeneity; contemporary governance and state power in development initiatives.

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This subject investigates the linkages between social policy and development within lower-middle income countries. The November availability of this subject is taught as a University of Melbourne Overseas (UMOS) Subject in Indonesia, with a special focus on social policy in Indonesia. By learning 'in-country', the subject draws from the experience of Indonesia to understand the roles played by different actors (government, civil society organisations, international organisations, the private sector, and communities) in responding to complex social policy issues related to poverty, welfare and wellbeing. This includes considerations of environmental change; access to livelihoods, employment, health and education opportunities; and the ways that challenges and opportunities may vary for different social and identity groupings. The subject examines examples of multi-stakeholder approaches to responding to complex social policy challenges in large states like Indonesia, often through collaboration and innovation. The subject also explores debates on the relationship between social and economic development and the implications for social policy in multi-level and decentralised governance structures. Students learn from their experience examining these issues in Indonesia during the teaching period and apply this in their first assessment. The broader readings for the subject also examine similar social policy issues in other countries in the Asia Pacific. Students then use both their Indonesia experience and broader learning from the reading and their own research to investigate similar social policy challenges and responses in other country contexts in the Asia-Pacific for their second assessment.

The November availability of this subject is taught as a University of Melbourne Overseas Subject in Indonesia with our partner institution the University of Gadjah Mada. The subject will involve Masters students from both Melbourne and Masters students and staff from our Indonesian partner university. This provides an exciting opportunity for students from each University to learn with and from each other to gain deeper knowledge on tackling inequalities and understanding real-world development challenges and responses through social policy in lower-middle income countries. The subject also uses teaching mediums that connects students with experts in the field in Indonesia. There is a quota for this subject. For further information and to apply: https://arts.unimelb.edu.au/students/overseas-experience#graduate-subjects.

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This subject examines the relationships between gender, globalisation and development, illustrated principally through case studies, policy documents, and ethnographic texts. It also draws theoretical perspectives and insights from a number of social science and humanities disciplines as well. On completion of the subject students should have an understanding of problems of writing about gender and difference: debates on modernity, globalisation, and development: gender, colonialism and postcolonialism; gender, politics, and the state; masculinities, femininities and sexualities; gender and labour; gender and development agencies; gender, religion and development; gender, sexuality, rights and transnational migration.

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The course introduces students to the economic principles and framework used by economists to consider issues of public policy. The importance of rigorous analysis in problem solving is emphasised. The policy areas likely to be covered will be taken from public finance, industry policy, competition policy, micro-economic reform, taxation and income distribution, as well as health, education and infrastructure provision. The emphasis is on current issues and so the actual policies covered may vary in response to current events.

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This subject develops the skills to understand and assess the social impacts of development, including international development projects, resource management, and proposed infrastructure or new policies. We do this in two ways: by looking at how to assess the impacts of proposed projects, and through evaluation techniques for existing developments or projects. In each case we develop practical skills and interdisciplinary techniques to appraise and evaluate impacts. These techniques draw from anthropology, development studies, and the policy sciences, and move beyond simple summative assessments and financial accounting. We consider the social and environmental contexts in which any form of appraisal is embedded, and the capacities of different actors (from the state to NGOs and community groups) to avert or mitigate negative impacts through learning, negotiation, and citizen participation. Examples, some presented by guest speakers, are drawn from Australia, Europe, the Americas, Africa, and Asia. At the completion of the subject students will have developed the conceptual skills to understand the impacts of development; be familiar with the range of methodologies and techniques used in impact assessment; understand development evaluation; and will be able to apply this in critical evaluation of the impact of projects and programmes.

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This subject introduces and analyses critical concepts and terms central to debates over climate change, including risk and uncertainty, adaptation and mitigation, burden sharing, and problems and issues relating to regimes, strategies and policy instruments for addressing global warming. The subject considers the rise of climate change as a policy problem. It reviews and analyses the history of climate change policy as it has evolved nationally and internationally. It examines the interactions between national and regional climate policy, including in Australia, the United States, the European Union and China. It analyses debates and concerns that have led to the evolution of the Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the Kyoto Protocol, and more recent arrangements. Students will consider a range of policy instruments, including carbon taxes and emissions trading, and technologies that have been proposed or deployed to address this issue. This subject enables students to understand the evolution of a critical global environmental issue. It offers insights into technical, political, ethical and ecological issues that have framed climate change policy, and enables students to think critically about and participate in developing policy in this domain.

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It is perhaps obvious that human behaviour is having a negative impact on our environment. Behavioural change, thus, is pivotal to ensure a more environmentally sustainable future. However the question of behavioural change is vexed. Some argue that humans are ‘naturally’ greedy and selfish, others suggest that we are ‘puppets’ - the victims of the social structures engendered by capitalism, and yet others trust that good behaviour will follow from the ‘truth’; knowledge about environmental problems. These and other views of behaviour set up particular change strategies. The above examples suggest three strategies for changing behaviour: provide people with incentives that will lead them to ‘choose’ different behaviours, or the transformation of social structures such as capitalism and patriarchy, or the provision of environmental education.

This subject examines the question of behavioural change from a number of disciplinary perspectives (psychology, sociology ecology, marketing and economics). Each discipline ‘sees’ the problem differently and this allows us to map insights and gaps in these knowledges. These purported differences can be understood and reconciled; behaviour is show to be a function of the physical, social and psychological aspects of social practices. This allows for a more holistic understanding of behaviour and the strategies that might create behaviour change.

NB: This subject uses a ‘flipped classroom’ mode of delivery. Most weeks require the watching of a vodcast prior to attending a 2 hour seminar. The success of the seminars and student learning is governed by individuals’ preparation and participation. This subject covers a lot of theory and requires active engagement. The consideration of societal behaviour change will likely engender a consideration of your own behaviour, including as a student.

Topics and themes include:

The effect of disciplines: behaviour and behavioural change from the perspectives of psychology, sociology, behavioural economics, ecology and marketing
How insights afforded by the disciplines can be used to create an more holistic and integrated understanding of behaviour change
Critiquing programs for behaviour change

Weekly topics: (1) Defining behaviour, (2) Perspectives: Behavioural Economics, (3) Perspectives: Marketing, (4) Perspectives: Psychology, (5) Perspectives: Sociology, (6) Perspective Ecology, (7) Integration, (8) Strategies: Social Marketing, (9) Strategies: Nudge, (10) Trans-disciplinary Perspectives 1, (11) Trans-disciplinary Perspectives 2

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This subject surveys recent developments in feminist theory and feminist methodology within a cross-cultural context. It explores issues involved in present-day debates about feminist epistemology and knowledge, including debates surrounding the relationship between western and other feminisms, the contributions of postcolonial feminists and queer theorists. The subject will consider the backlash against multiculturalism, framed largely in terms of the toleration of cultural beliefs and practices that contravene and impinge on the sovereign rights of individual members of particular groups, particularly women, sexual minorities and children.

The issues highlighted in these contexts include religious fundamentalism, the veil, honour killings, and arranged marriage to name a few. Importantly, what do those who are situated at the centre of these controversies, the women and men themselves have to say, both to members of their own groups and to the those who consider them victims or perpetrators of unacceptable cultural practices. These controversies are considered in the context of tensions around secularism, religion, sexuality, the law, the individual and the group, individual freedom and cultural constraint, feminist critics of multiculturalism and multicultural critics of feminism.

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This subject examines the nature of strategy and strategy processes in organisations. It explores the role that organisations play in society by exploring their impact on the people who work in them, the communities that surround them, and other stakeholders. In particular, a stakeholder value perspective of strategy formulation is considered.

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This experiential learning subject introduces students to the fundamentals of social entrepreneurship, while equipping students with a practical understanding of social enterprise as a model to tackle social and/or environmental problems through trade. Working in small teams, students are introduced to a range of design thinking and social innovation frameworks. They draw on these frameworks to iteratively conceptualise, ‘pitch’, refine and develop a social enterprise ‘business model’ that appropriately responds to the needs of communities and society. To nurture and support development of ideas, the subject draws on real-world case studies as well as industry guests from the social enterprise ecosystem including social entrepreneurs, people with ‘lived-experience’, social finance and impact investment intermediaries, incubators and accelerators and leading scholars and thinkers in the field. Upon completing this subject, students will develop a critical understanding of the theoretical foundations of social entrepreneurship and how to develop a ‘business model’ for financially sustainable social impact. By doing so, the subject also offers a unique opportunity for students to apply conceptual knowledge and project management and business skills to real-world social and/or environmental challenges.

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Taking a global perspective, this subject explores contemporary relationships between Indigenous people and settler societies from a legal, political and social perspectives. In a comparative perspective, it examines the dynamics of these relations in terms of global, national and regional political orders, exploring the impact and management of the dispossession of Indigenous people. It explores Indigenous social and political movements for land rights and self-determination, as well movements of resurgence and reconciliation. This subject is also concerned with the methodological and ethical complexities of conduction research on Indigenous issues both within settler societies and globally.

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This subject examines the diverse purposes health program evaluations can serve and the wide range of environments in which health program evaluations are conducted. Using Australian and overseas evaluation examples, students gain an overview of conceptual and methodological issues in the key evaluation approaches. The three major stages in the conduct of an evaluation are covered: planning and negotiating the terms and design of the evaluation; data collection and analysis; and the provision of findings. Each stage is considered through example and critique of those examples, with opportunities to apply these skills in the development of an evaluation plan for a real, work-based program.

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Disability inclusion is now a global health and development priority. This includes translating 2030 Agenda and Sustainable Development Goal commitments to disability inclusion, and leaving no one behind, into practice. Without disability inclusion we cannot end poverty for all and achieve universal health coverage. Ensuring the inclusion of people with disability in health and development processes, systems, and programs is increasingly required under law in both lower and higher income settings. An understanding of disability inclusive policy and practice is becoming essential knowledge for researchers, practitioners, and policy makers.

An estimated 16% of the world’s population has a disability, with 80% of people with disability living in resource poor contexts. People with disability are systematically excluded from social, economic, and political participation. In turn, people with disability are more likely to live in poverty, have poorer health outcomes, lower education attainment, and be negatively impacted by climate risk than people without disability. In this short course, you will learn to critically analyse the factors that contribute to these inequities and develop strategies for improving policy and practice.

Drawing on practitioner experience, including from people with disability themselves, this course will provide you with a foundation for critically considering issues of equity, representation, intersectionality, and meaningful participation. We will draw on real world examples from multiple sectors, including health, employment, education, and disaster risk reduction and humanitarian response. If you are working, or considering working, in global health and development, including in government, non-government, or United Nations agencies, this subject provides an essential foundation.

This course can be taken by students in postgraduate courses, including public health, development studies, and social studies, or through the University of Melbourne Community Access Program (CAP).

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The subject explores the policy decisions, usually made by governments, that determine present and future country or regional level objectives relating to health services; programs; and the regulatory, organisational, social, cultural, physical and natural environments that contribute to population health and well-being. The subject explores the nature of health policy, types of policy instruments, and policy making processes including agenda setting and policy influencing frameworks and theories. The role of evidence in policy formation including the significance of the balance between effectiveness, efficiency and equity as objectives of health policy will be debated. In doing so, students will be introduced to the importance and process of policy analysis and explore the relevant legal, political, managerial, sociological, ethical, epidemiological and economic perspectives to instrument selection and policy implementation across a range of health policy contexts. Australian and international country contexts will be used throughout the subject.

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This course explores the interface of policy and practice in the delivery of aged care services. The responses to policy shifts in aged care over time will be explored. The course will then focus on the present day impact of health care, mental health, income security, housing, and employment, educational and recreational policies on the delivery of services to older citizens collectively and as individuals. Case studies will be used to illustrate both the theoretical and practical aspects of designing and delivering services.

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Performance management and measurement have become cornerstones of how modern public sector organisations account for what they do. Yet as states, societies and economies have grown and developed in ever increasing complexity, since the end of the twentieth century new ways of thinking about the relationship between governments and their citizens have emerged. These developments have in part been a reaction to measurement-based managerial approaches, but also partly reflect a deeper concern regarding the apparent decline in citizens’ attachment to and respect for the practice of politics. This subject aims to provoke a wide ranging discussion about the role of ‘publics’ (citizens, users, clients, stakeholders, communities, etc.) in public policy and public services through critical engagement with an emerging paradigm of citizen-centred governance. Sometimes called Government 2.0, this approach to public policy and public administration is typically described as networked, collaborative and flexible, with service delivery arrangements which are personalised, choice-based and delivered through multiple channels.

This subject will equip public sector leaders with a theoretical understanding and practical toolbox of approaches to managing a major change management exercise in government. A range of case studies will be used to provide a step by step analysis of the challenges in driving major change. Understanding the underlying factors which lead to effective policy, process and program innovation in government is central to the capacity of governments to deliver better policy and better outcomes for the whole community. We will also critically examine the theoretical underpinnings of newer tools in policy making such as behavioural techniques (‘nudge’), randomised controlled trials and big data. This subject will seek to explain what drives public sector innovation and the structures, processes and individuals that promote and obstruct it. There is a focus on the role of government in driving large scale innovation and how to build a national innovation system that promotes technology and high wage economic growth for a nation.

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In this subject, students will explore how public policymaking can be enhanced through participatory and deliberative democratic mechanisms, learning from real-life case studies that led to both successes and failures. Students will analyse various theories and techniques for fostering meaningful participation, with a particular emphasis on deliberative democracy, codesign, and the innovative use of digital collaboration tools across different levels of power. The subject provides opportunities to apply theoretical knowledge through practical exercises, including an in-class simulation where students will design, run and participate in a deliberative exercise, showcasing the complexities and rewards of collaborative decision-making.

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This subject enables students to compare the policy developments involved in politically, legally and constitutionally recognising Indigenous rights and sovereignty in Australia, New Zealand and Canada, with a particular focus on the negotiation of treaties. Starting with a focus on the Victorian experience, students will identify the most pertinent issues that should be considered by the Victorian Government in negotiating a treaty or treaties with Aboriginal peoples. Comparative cases will include the Treaty of Waitangi in Aotearoa/New Zealand and the modern treaty process in Canada, specifically in the province of British Columbia. Students will consider how these treaty processes have hindered and/or facilitated effective policy development and Indigenous governance.

With the assistance of public policy academics and practitioners, participants will construct their own case study of citizen-state relationships focusing on debates around rights, sovereignty, decolonisation, self-determination, access to services and economic development and propose some key recommendations for future reforms.

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The respective roles, responsibilities and sources of power characterizing relationships between business and government play a crucial role in shaping public policy and regulation, within and between countries. Because of its productive function, business often enjoys a privileged position with government, while a major goal of policy and regulation at national and international levels is to steer and regulate business activity. Relationships between business and government vary significantly in different countries, economic sectors, and over time, and the conceptual tools for understanding them remain subject to widespread debate. This subject critically reviews contemporary policy debates and scholarly research, and draws on contrasting case examples to explore theoretical, normative and practical implications of business-government relationships. Particular attention is given to debates about government-business relationships associated with processes of public policy formation and implementation, social and environmental regulation, and delivery of public services and infrastructure. On completion of the subject, students should have a strong critical understanding of debates about the character and inter-relationship of business and government, from a comparative and international perspective.

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This subject gives students a comprehensive understanding of how to critically unpack and analyse social issues and social policies. It provides an introduction to contemporary social theories and perspectives such as governmentality theory, critical race theory, feminist approaches, decolonial perspectives, and comparative welfare state theory as these are applied as critical lenses to better understand policymaking. Moving through a series of policy areas, the subject allows students to develop a thorough understanding of how these issues are framed, debated, and resolved in Australia and internationally. The subject also gives students conceptual tools based on current case studies of decision making for NGO sector and governmental organisations.

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This subject will examine the impact of international migration on the states, societies, and individuals. Its first segment will address the questions such as why people move and how societies change because of immigration and emigration. The second segment will examine policies concerning multiculturalism and social cohesion. By reviewing various policy examples and case studies, this subject aims to help students understand the realities of international migration and its policy challenges. The third segment will analyze the global governance of international migration, including the roles of international organizations, non-governmental organizations, and international laws. This subject is offered by Asia Institute, and will use many case studies of Asian countries, while covering the experiences of Australia, the US, Canada, and some major immigration countries in Europe as reference points as well.

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The subject introduces students to social policy and provides a foundation for future inquiry. Students explore historical and contemporary welfare frameworks, concepts of social equity and theories of care. The subject captures different welfare approaches from the global north and south, and actively engages students in the steps of policy making and reform. Students also consider innovative responses to complex disadvantage and exclusion that are more inclusive, deliberative and devolved. These models include social impact bonds, place-based approaches and co-design/co-production. Through a combination of theoretical analysis and practical application, the subject prepares students to contribute to social policy development and implementation.

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This subject is an introduction to contemporary approaches to inclusive social policy through the lens of ageing. Students will specifically explore issues and challenges that have arisen due to population ageing and discuss topics such as paid and unpaid caregiving, retirement and financial inclusion, and social isolation and loneliness. Students will engage with case studies of programs and policies to consider how governments and NGOs have attempted to address these issues. The subject will also draw on students’ own experiences of inclusive policy development and implementation and learn how to defend their practical policy ideas through scholarly arguments and evidence.

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This subject covers the five eras of Indigenous policy and introduces a set of strategies for analysing and evaluating government policy in a range of fields. Applicable in all policy areas, analysis and evaluation skills are often required in government agencies, industry and community organisations in order to identify the impact of policy and provide direction on opportunity for change.

Indigenous affairs is frequently associated with narratives of failure. This subject provides the opportunity to understand the cause of those narratives and work within strengths-based approaches to analyse and evaluate of key policies in Indigenous affairs.

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Special Topic: Rethinking Social Welfare

This subject surveys theories of what it means to be ‘at the margins’ and their uses in critically understanding contemporary social welfare regimes. The subject’s focus includes examining how the Australian social security system has shifted from the principles of ‘fair and reasonable’ economic support to increasingly conditional and punitive practices of ‘protecting’ communities. The subject locates this shift as part of broader socio-political processes of both representation and repression: from the role of the media in perpetuating stigma and dehumanisation to the settler-colonial logics that can operate within social support programs. As part of understanding forms of marginality and their interplays with the concrete practices of social welfare, students are invited to interrogate the intersections of age, class, dis/ability, gender, sexuality, and race. In addition to its critical momentums, students will speculate on the (im)possibilities of improving social welfare for marginalised communities through proposals like a universal basic income.

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Subtitle: Families and Citizenship Through an Intersectional Lens

Feminist Social Policy takes a comparative and critical approach to understanding and evaluating social policy and policy-making at a national and international level. This subject aims to critically explore normative assumptions about what constitutes the family, parenthood, youth, marriage, disability, child and elder care. Students in this subject will be encouraged to broaden and deepen their understanding of how social policy is organised and impacted by these social, cultural, economic and political normativities by drawing on contemporary theories of intersectionality and citizenship. Taking a feminist perspective, this subject will outline key shifts in women’s employment trends, de/familisation, blended and chosen families, global fertility rates, disability rights, and welfare provision. Students will have the opportunity to explore themes of intersectionality and citizenship throughout their engagement with the subject, as well as articulate a comparative analysis of social policy from across the world.

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This subject, which is taught in Indonesia, investigates the fundamental issues around the changing nature of work; what it means for individuals’ working lives, employers, labour market institutions and regulations situating Australia within a comparative context. The subject reviews how digital technologies, automation, offshoring and emerging forms of employment (e.g., gig work, remote work, digital platform jobs) are changing labour market dynamics in Australia, Europe, North America and Asia. The subject also examines the different policy responses that have characterised this trend while highlighting the implications for corporations, organizations and institutions within a comparative perspective. Elements of the subject will be presented in conjunction with Gadjah Mada Universitas in Indonesia.

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The human service and welfare systems are meant to support us through life, from early childhood to old age. Yet they may fail to address our real concerns; placing conditions on who can receive social support or managing our needs rather than enabling us to thrive. How have governments attempted to address various social issues and support social groups that have traditionally been marginalised or disadvantaged? This subject tackles these questions by engaging students in a range of case studies related to social inequality. In this context, students will apply their understanding of gender, age, disability, geographic disadvantage, sexuality, and ethnic-migrant status and analyse the approaches and frameworks governments have designed to address inequality through these axes employing a systems approach. Integrating conceptual and programmatic insights, students will develop critical and practical skills necessary to drive systems change in their own policy work.

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Cities are increasingly where the majority of the global population lives but also where some of the starkest issues of inequality, environmental degradation, and social conflict occurs. This subject uses tools from social policy to address intractable problems related to urban life. It gives students conceptual tools to grapple with social policy issues that are urban in nature, and it deals with city spaces and municipal governance. It offers an introduction to issues such as social problems connected to housing affordability, conflicts over neighbourhood spaces, addiction and recovery, homelessness, workforce mobility and commuting, and non-profit service providers in high density areas, to name a few. Students will enhance both their analytical comprehension of the intersection between urban planning and social policy as well as their practical skills as practitioners in this space within non-profit institutions and local government.

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This subject takes a comparative approach to explore key areas of contemporary social policy, in Australia and across the OECD countries. Each week students will engage with a different policy area, including family policy, health policy, employment policy, welfare and ageing policy, through a comparative lens offering insights into how societies promote equity and well-being through their social policies. By comparing social policies across countries and as they evolve over time, students will learn to identify what works, what doesn’t, and why. In addition, students will be encouraged to critically assess, justify and advocate for social policy change.

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This subject examines various social research design and evaluation approaches to the study of social interaction. Students will critically examine the utility of, and theoretical underpinnings behind advanced methods of collecting, analysing and writing up social research. They will also conduct a small-scale research project, giving them practical skills in designing, conducting and writing up policy research. The subject will prepare students for engaging in real-world policy research and give them a practical understanding of the relationship between policy evaluation and social research in the context of debates around evidence-based policy.

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This subject involves a supervised thesis of 15,000 words, embodying the results of the student's own research.

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Refer to PPMN90049 Public / Social Policy Thesis Part 1 for details.

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This subject is designed to develop research skills for those students who wish to undertake academic, industry or government-based research projects. Students will explore contemporary research strategies, differing methodological approaches to research and practical issues concerned with designing, conducting and commissioning research projects on or for policy. They will investigate the relationship between research and policy (broadly conceived to include public policy, public management and governance), and develop understanding of the research and policy nexus. The subject gives special attention to setting research questions based on gaps in the literature or real-world policy problems, managing research ethics, and communicating research to policymakers and wider audiences. Students will design and perform independent research of their own, including interrogating theory, methods, and analyses. The subject will assist students to develop skills in research project preparation and development, in the context of wider exploration of the research policy nexus.

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In this subject Master of Social Policy students will be placed in an organisation which either has governmental responsibilities or deals with government, where they will work under the supervision and guidance of a senior manager in the organisation. Students will carry out exercises of relevance to the organisation that will be involved in high-level and complex policy making. Students will study the structure, culture and policy environment of the organisation and develop advanced analytical, research and report-writing skills as well as negotiating and interpersonal skills. Students completing this course should expect to acquire significant insight into the complexities of policy making and management. During the internship an academic supervisor will advise them.

If primary research is carried out during the internship, support is available from the school for students to receive ethics approval, alongside their host organisation.

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The Project-based policy analysis enables students to draw on the expertise developed throughout their social policy studies and apply their theoretical knowledge and practical skills in real time to a contemporary project. The project is team-based to mirror practical experience and will be developed and overseen by both a professional and academic mentor. The project team will work in consultation with their practice and academic mentors to develop a project brief, undertake analysis, and prepare a professional report to the sponsoring organisation. The project team will present their report at the Capstone Presentation Day.

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This subject aims to give students the knowledge and skills to be able to operate as a property professional in the area of development advice and decision making in property development. The subject integrates in the context of development climate change risk, sustainability, social and ethical considerations. The core content and competencies focus on:

• the development process and the major players;
• property market research and analysis;
• the decision to build;
• time value of money;
• appreciation of investment and market valuation methods;
• development appraisal including residual analysis and cash flow modelling;
• price and worth; risk, return and risk analysis.

This subject may involve the following software: ARGUS Estate Master, ARGUS Developer. Details of software availability and pricing are captured at https://msd.unimelb.edu.au/graduate-research/resources/it-support#software.

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This subject explores ways to achieve global housing equity in informal settlements. Urbanisation and densification are the two most powerful processes that impact the quality of life in cities. While cities offer better opportunities through education, healthcare, employment and transport, poorly planned urbanization reinforce the already present challenges of poverty, informality, affordable housing, climate change, and inequity. As one billion urban residents lack access to affordable and secure housing and basic services, urban informality continues to challenge current approaches to urban development.

The Cities Without Slums subject will provide students with intellectual and creative tools to explore and explain the process of urbanization, the importance of housing, policies that give rise to slum formation and the persistence of slums. Specifically, this subject will:

• equip students with a critical mindset to analyse emerging ‘best-practice’ over the years and the roles of institutions in influencing and/or formulating national urbanization, housing and slum upgrading policies.
• engage students in making use of practice-oriented research, to employ case studies from around the globe and explore government-led, community-led, and community/local government partnership approaches to slum upgrading and the delivery of land and provision of basic services in the context of urban governance.
• help prepare students to effectively examine cross-cutting topics that underwrite inclusive and sustainable, well-managed cities, including regulatory frameworks, security of tenure, housing finance, land use and transport interaction and linkages, and affordable house designs.

The widening participation and collaboration that is happening between and across the public and private sectors as well as with civil society and the urban poor communities is an acknowledgment of the diverse roles actors and agencies can play, both in the Global South and the Global North, in shaping better cities for all.

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The emergence of civil society and nongovernmental organisations in China reflects the rise of new social and political issues that have proven challenging for the Chinese state to address effectively. This subject examines the conditions under which certain ideas, organisational forms, and associational practices have taken hold as well as the ways they have been contested, transformed, and adapted. It explores various social problems – like the rise of gender inequality, labour rights, LGBT concerns, environmental problems, and others – that civil society organisations in China have sought to tackle and examines the broader context in which civil society actors work.

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This subject examines the relation between Indigenous peoples, justice and the law, through the lens of sovereignty. It reflects critically on the concept of sovereignty, its powerful propensity to transcend its social origins, and its fortress status in law. Through first examining European law’s relation to Indigenous peoples from 1492, the course explores correlations between Europe’s economic expansion and the development of sovereignty, property, and race as key notions that underpin both individual nation-states and the international order they constitute. In bringing this analysis to bear on contemporary aspirations for structural justice, the course then considers the possibilities and limitations of current legal concepts and mechanisms – in both local and global domains – such as prevailing notions of sovereignty, native title, human rights, crimes against humanity, and transitional justice. Finally, the course presents examples of innovative contemporary interventions in support of structural justice in settler states, promoting new ways to think about their complex pasts and presents, and possible future directions.

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What does it mean for a criminal justice intervention to be effective? Why is it important to know? For whom? How does government emphasis on the impact of criminal justice programs affect the design and funding of programs? And what does this focus on effectiveness mean for research priorities and methods? This subject considers questions such as these in exploring how, why, and for whom criminal justice ‘evidence’ or ‘knowledge’ is produced. In this subject you will be asked to identify a particular criminal justice program or intervention (we will look at a range of examples), and to design an approach to discover whether or not it ‘works’ – thinking about how, why and for whom.

The subject is divided into three broad areas. First we will examine what ‘criminal justice governance’ actually is, what it means for criminal justice policy and practice, and the implications for ‘evidence’ about programs and interventions. In the second section we will explore different approaches to measuring effectiveness and gathering knowledge about criminal justice practices and programs. The last part will focus on different settings (e.g. prisons, policing) and subjects of criminal justice research (e.g. justice-involved young people), and the impact that different kinds of knowledge might have. Throughout, we will examine professional and political issues about the role and application of research in criminal justice, as well as ethical issues about engaging in research with vulnerable and offending populations.

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This subject engages with the common belief that criminal justice systems have become 'the new asylums' for people with disabilities. It will introduce students to the historical, structural and socio-cultural factors contributing to the disproportionate contact of people with disabilities with the criminal justice system, including their current over-representation within prisons. The subject will also evaluate the different ways governments have attempted to reduce the flow of people with disabilities into the criminal justice system, exploring the development of preventative and protective mechanisms within both civil and criminal law, and examine the consequences of these mechanisms on the lives of people with disabilities.

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Cultural, ideological, and political attachment to involuntary detention persists in most societies across the globe. This subject examines carcerality in its numerous incarnations and interrogates our attachment to it. The subject invites students to critically examine things we often overlook or take for granted as ‘natural’ or ‘commonsensical’. Students will learn and employ theoretical tools and empirical data to scrutinise the reasons, justifications, ‘effectiveness’, and consequences of our societal zeal to criminalise and incarcerate individuals and communities.

The subject aims at helping learners to appreciate punishment and detention as a complex social, political, historical, and economic phenomenon, rather than merely a purported crime-control measure. Equipping students with analytical tools, the subject promotes the development of a critical stance on how we as a society define, create, and perpetuate harm and social divisions. The subject offers students an opportunity to grow intellectually, becoming critical about public discourses and government policies concerning crime and punishment, whilst also facilitating checking one's own preconceptions and interrogating personal prejudices.

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This subject forms an advanced overview of theories, methods and ethical issues in qualitative research. The subject will focus on the techniques of field studies, intensive interviewing, and case studies. Students will carry out small-scale qualitative research exercises and will present them orally and in writing.

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Over the course of the last thirty years, an 'associational revolution' has swept the world, as more and more civil society organisations have taken over tasks formerly assigned to states, formed cross-border advocacy campaigns to hold both states and corporations accountable for labour, environmental, and human rights violations, and formulated alternative development policies that run counter to the paradigms espoused by the World Bank and other multilateral lending organizations. While some argue that this associational revolution promises more participatory, expedient, and decentralized forms of transnational governance, others contend that it reflects little more than the ongoing privatisation of the public sphere at the hands of transnational capital. In this course, we evaluate these and alternative perspectives by exploring transformations in the structure of the global political-economy over the past thirty years; looking closely at the roles played by a variety of NGOs and CBOs as part of more multi-layered regimes of 'global governance'; analysing the shifts in state structures that have made these regimes possible; and teasing apart the ongoing tensions between various factions of what some have called, an emerging 'global civil society'. Case studies will be drawn from Africa, South Asia, and Latin America.

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Migration is a powerful driver of social change across the contemporary world. This subject explores the key issues and debates at the intersection of migration and development, drawing on conceptual, theoretical, and empirical work in economics, development studies, gender studies, human geography, anthropology, sociology, demography, and political science. Through class debates and practical exercises, students will engage critically with the conceptual models and theoretical frameworks used to analyse migration and its impacts on development. Core concepts - including transnationalism, neoliberalism, forced migration, global care chains, governmentality, and global householding - will be examined and critiqued. The subject also considers the economic, social, and cultural implications of migration for development processes at both micro and macro levels, assessing its relationship to broader debates on globalisation, poverty, gender, and social change.

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This subject aims to provide a critical overview of ‘Development’ in Latin America. It seeks to engage critical perspectives concerning uneven development, processes of inequality and marginalisation, and patterns of globalisation in Latin America. By grounding theoretical arguments in contemporary empirical contexts (i.e., countries in Latin America), the subject attempts to make sense of current development issues in Latin America. Topics to be explored include the following: histories of development and postcolonial critiques; theories of development from Latin American scholars; urbanisation, poverty, and informality; gender and development; post-development critiques in Latin America; collective mobilisation and social movements; political ecology and environmental vulnerabilities; identity, race, and indigeneity; contemporary governance and state power in development initiatives.

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This subject investigates the linkages between social policy and development within lower-middle income countries. The November availability of this subject is taught as a University of Melbourne Overseas (UMOS) Subject in Indonesia, with a special focus on social policy in Indonesia. By learning 'in-country', the subject draws from the experience of Indonesia to understand the roles played by different actors (government, civil society organisations, international organisations, the private sector, and communities) in responding to complex social policy issues related to poverty, welfare and wellbeing. This includes considerations of environmental change; access to livelihoods, employment, health and education opportunities; and the ways that challenges and opportunities may vary for different social and identity groupings. The subject examines examples of multi-stakeholder approaches to responding to complex social policy challenges in large states like Indonesia, often through collaboration and innovation. The subject also explores debates on the relationship between social and economic development and the implications for social policy in multi-level and decentralised governance structures. Students learn from their experience examining these issues in Indonesia during the teaching period and apply this in their first assessment. The broader readings for the subject also examine similar social policy issues in other countries in the Asia Pacific. Students then use both their Indonesia experience and broader learning from the reading and their own research to investigate similar social policy challenges and responses in other country contexts in the Asia-Pacific for their second assessment.

The November availability of this subject is taught as a University of Melbourne Overseas Subject in Indonesia with our partner institution the University of Gadjah Mada. The subject will involve Masters students from both Melbourne and Masters students and staff from our Indonesian partner university. This provides an exciting opportunity for students from each University to learn with and from each other to gain deeper knowledge on tackling inequalities and understanding real-world development challenges and responses through social policy in lower-middle income countries. The subject also uses teaching mediums that connects students with experts in the field in Indonesia. There is a quota for this subject. For further information and to apply: https://arts.unimelb.edu.au/students/overseas-experience#graduate-subjects.

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This subject examines the relationships between gender, globalisation and development, illustrated principally through case studies, policy documents, and ethnographic texts. It also draws theoretical perspectives and insights from a number of social science and humanities disciplines as well. On completion of the subject students should have an understanding of problems of writing about gender and difference: debates on modernity, globalisation, and development: gender, colonialism and postcolonialism; gender, politics, and the state; masculinities, femininities and sexualities; gender and labour; gender and development agencies; gender, religion and development; gender, sexuality, rights and transnational migration.

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The course introduces students to the economic principles and framework used by economists to consider issues of public policy. The importance of rigorous analysis in problem solving is emphasised. The policy areas likely to be covered will be taken from public finance, industry policy, competition policy, micro-economic reform, taxation and income distribution, as well as health, education and infrastructure provision. The emphasis is on current issues and so the actual policies covered may vary in response to current events.

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This subject develops the skills to understand and assess the social impacts of development, including international development projects, resource management, and proposed infrastructure or new policies. We do this in two ways: by looking at how to assess the impacts of proposed projects, and through evaluation techniques for existing developments or projects. In each case we develop practical skills and interdisciplinary techniques to appraise and evaluate impacts. These techniques draw from anthropology, development studies, and the policy sciences, and move beyond simple summative assessments and financial accounting. We consider the social and environmental contexts in which any form of appraisal is embedded, and the capacities of different actors (from the state to NGOs and community groups) to avert or mitigate negative impacts through learning, negotiation, and citizen participation. Examples, some presented by guest speakers, are drawn from Australia, Europe, the Americas, Africa, and Asia. At the completion of the subject students will have developed the conceptual skills to understand the impacts of development; be familiar with the range of methodologies and techniques used in impact assessment; understand development evaluation; and will be able to apply this in critical evaluation of the impact of projects and programmes.

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This subject introduces and analyses critical concepts and terms central to debates over climate change, including risk and uncertainty, adaptation and mitigation, burden sharing, and problems and issues relating to regimes, strategies and policy instruments for addressing global warming. The subject considers the rise of climate change as a policy problem. It reviews and analyses the history of climate change policy as it has evolved nationally and internationally. It examines the interactions between national and regional climate policy, including in Australia, the United States, the European Union and China. It analyses debates and concerns that have led to the evolution of the Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the Kyoto Protocol, and more recent arrangements. Students will consider a range of policy instruments, including carbon taxes and emissions trading, and technologies that have been proposed or deployed to address this issue. This subject enables students to understand the evolution of a critical global environmental issue. It offers insights into technical, political, ethical and ecological issues that have framed climate change policy, and enables students to think critically about and participate in developing policy in this domain.

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It is perhaps obvious that human behaviour is having a negative impact on our environment. Behavioural change, thus, is pivotal to ensure a more environmentally sustainable future. However the question of behavioural change is vexed. Some argue that humans are ‘naturally’ greedy and selfish, others suggest that we are ‘puppets’ - the victims of the social structures engendered by capitalism, and yet others trust that good behaviour will follow from the ‘truth’; knowledge about environmental problems. These and other views of behaviour set up particular change strategies. The above examples suggest three strategies for changing behaviour: provide people with incentives that will lead them to ‘choose’ different behaviours, or the transformation of social structures such as capitalism and patriarchy, or the provision of environmental education.

This subject examines the question of behavioural change from a number of disciplinary perspectives (psychology, sociology ecology, marketing and economics). Each discipline ‘sees’ the problem differently and this allows us to map insights and gaps in these knowledges. These purported differences can be understood and reconciled; behaviour is show to be a function of the physical, social and psychological aspects of social practices. This allows for a more holistic understanding of behaviour and the strategies that might create behaviour change.

NB: This subject uses a ‘flipped classroom’ mode of delivery. Most weeks require the watching of a vodcast prior to attending a 2 hour seminar. The success of the seminars and student learning is governed by individuals’ preparation and participation. This subject covers a lot of theory and requires active engagement. The consideration of societal behaviour change will likely engender a consideration of your own behaviour, including as a student.

Topics and themes include:

The effect of disciplines: behaviour and behavioural change from the perspectives of psychology, sociology, behavioural economics, ecology and marketing
How insights afforded by the disciplines can be used to create an more holistic and integrated understanding of behaviour change
Critiquing programs for behaviour change

Weekly topics: (1) Defining behaviour, (2) Perspectives: Behavioural Economics, (3) Perspectives: Marketing, (4) Perspectives: Psychology, (5) Perspectives: Sociology, (6) Perspective Ecology, (7) Integration, (8) Strategies: Social Marketing, (9) Strategies: Nudge, (10) Trans-disciplinary Perspectives 1, (11) Trans-disciplinary Perspectives 2

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This subject surveys recent developments in feminist theory and feminist methodology within a cross-cultural context. It explores issues involved in present-day debates about feminist epistemology and knowledge, including debates surrounding the relationship between western and other feminisms, the contributions of postcolonial feminists and queer theorists. The subject will consider the backlash against multiculturalism, framed largely in terms of the toleration of cultural beliefs and practices that contravene and impinge on the sovereign rights of individual members of particular groups, particularly women, sexual minorities and children.

The issues highlighted in these contexts include religious fundamentalism, the veil, honour killings, and arranged marriage to name a few. Importantly, what do those who are situated at the centre of these controversies, the women and men themselves have to say, both to members of their own groups and to the those who consider them victims or perpetrators of unacceptable cultural practices. These controversies are considered in the context of tensions around secularism, religion, sexuality, the law, the individual and the group, individual freedom and cultural constraint, feminist critics of multiculturalism and multicultural critics of feminism.

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This subject examines the nature of strategy and strategy processes in organisations. It explores the role that organisations play in society by exploring their impact on the people who work in them, the communities that surround them, and other stakeholders. In particular, a stakeholder value perspective of strategy formulation is considered.

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This experiential learning subject introduces students to the fundamentals of social entrepreneurship, while equipping students with a practical understanding of social enterprise as a model to tackle social and/or environmental problems through trade. Working in small teams, students are introduced to a range of design thinking and social innovation frameworks. They draw on these frameworks to iteratively conceptualise, ‘pitch’, refine and develop a social enterprise ‘business model’ that appropriately responds to the needs of communities and society. To nurture and support development of ideas, the subject draws on real-world case studies as well as industry guests from the social enterprise ecosystem including social entrepreneurs, people with ‘lived-experience’, social finance and impact investment intermediaries, incubators and accelerators and leading scholars and thinkers in the field. Upon completing this subject, students will develop a critical understanding of the theoretical foundations of social entrepreneurship and how to develop a ‘business model’ for financially sustainable social impact. By doing so, the subject also offers a unique opportunity for students to apply conceptual knowledge and project management and business skills to real-world social and/or environmental challenges.

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Taking a global perspective, this subject explores contemporary relationships between Indigenous people and settler societies from a legal, political and social perspectives. In a comparative perspective, it examines the dynamics of these relations in terms of global, national and regional political orders, exploring the impact and management of the dispossession of Indigenous people. It explores Indigenous social and political movements for land rights and self-determination, as well movements of resurgence and reconciliation. This subject is also concerned with the methodological and ethical complexities of conduction research on Indigenous issues both within settler societies and globally.

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This subject examines the diverse purposes health program evaluations can serve and the wide range of environments in which health program evaluations are conducted. Using Australian and overseas evaluation examples, students gain an overview of conceptual and methodological issues in the key evaluation approaches. The three major stages in the conduct of an evaluation are covered: planning and negotiating the terms and design of the evaluation; data collection and analysis; and the provision of findings. Each stage is considered through example and critique of those examples, with opportunities to apply these skills in the development of an evaluation plan for a real, work-based program.

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Disability inclusion is now a global health and development priority. This includes translating 2030 Agenda and Sustainable Development Goal commitments to disability inclusion, and leaving no one behind, into practice. Without disability inclusion we cannot end poverty for all and achieve universal health coverage. Ensuring the inclusion of people with disability in health and development processes, systems, and programs is increasingly required under law in both lower and higher income settings. An understanding of disability inclusive policy and practice is becoming essential knowledge for researchers, practitioners, and policy makers.

An estimated 16% of the world’s population has a disability, with 80% of people with disability living in resource poor contexts. People with disability are systematically excluded from social, economic, and political participation. In turn, people with disability are more likely to live in poverty, have poorer health outcomes, lower education attainment, and be negatively impacted by climate risk than people without disability. In this short course, you will learn to critically analyse the factors that contribute to these inequities and develop strategies for improving policy and practice.

Drawing on practitioner experience, including from people with disability themselves, this course will provide you with a foundation for critically considering issues of equity, representation, intersectionality, and meaningful participation. We will draw on real world examples from multiple sectors, including health, employment, education, and disaster risk reduction and humanitarian response. If you are working, or considering working, in global health and development, including in government, non-government, or United Nations agencies, this subject provides an essential foundation.

This course can be taken by students in postgraduate courses, including public health, development studies, and social studies, or through the University of Melbourne Community Access Program (CAP).

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The subject explores the policy decisions, usually made by governments, that determine present and future country or regional level objectives relating to health services; programs; and the regulatory, organisational, social, cultural, physical and natural environments that contribute to population health and well-being. The subject explores the nature of health policy, types of policy instruments, and policy making processes including agenda setting and policy influencing frameworks and theories. The role of evidence in policy formation including the significance of the balance between effectiveness, efficiency and equity as objectives of health policy will be debated. In doing so, students will be introduced to the importance and process of policy analysis and explore the relevant legal, political, managerial, sociological, ethical, epidemiological and economic perspectives to instrument selection and policy implementation across a range of health policy contexts. Australian and international country contexts will be used throughout the subject.

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This course explores the interface of policy and practice in the delivery of aged care services. The responses to policy shifts in aged care over time will be explored. The course will then focus on the present day impact of health care, mental health, income security, housing, and employment, educational and recreational policies on the delivery of services to older citizens collectively and as individuals. Case studies will be used to illustrate both the theoretical and practical aspects of designing and delivering services.

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Performance management and measurement have become cornerstones of how modern public sector organisations account for what they do. Yet as states, societies and economies have grown and developed in ever increasing complexity, since the end of the twentieth century new ways of thinking about the relationship between governments and their citizens have emerged. These developments have in part been a reaction to measurement-based managerial approaches, but also partly reflect a deeper concern regarding the apparent decline in citizens’ attachment to and respect for the practice of politics. This subject aims to provoke a wide ranging discussion about the role of ‘publics’ (citizens, users, clients, stakeholders, communities, etc.) in public policy and public services through critical engagement with an emerging paradigm of citizen-centred governance. Sometimes called Government 2.0, this approach to public policy and public administration is typically described as networked, collaborative and flexible, with service delivery arrangements which are personalised, choice-based and delivered through multiple channels.

This subject will equip public sector leaders with a theoretical understanding and practical toolbox of approaches to managing a major change management exercise in government. A range of case studies will be used to provide a step by step analysis of the challenges in driving major change. Understanding the underlying factors which lead to effective policy, process and program innovation in government is central to the capacity of governments to deliver better policy and better outcomes for the whole community. We will also critically examine the theoretical underpinnings of newer tools in policy making such as behavioural techniques (‘nudge’), randomised controlled trials and big data. This subject will seek to explain what drives public sector innovation and the structures, processes and individuals that promote and obstruct it. There is a focus on the role of government in driving large scale innovation and how to build a national innovation system that promotes technology and high wage economic growth for a nation.

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In this subject, students will explore how public policymaking can be enhanced through participatory and deliberative democratic mechanisms, learning from real-life case studies that led to both successes and failures. Students will analyse various theories and techniques for fostering meaningful participation, with a particular emphasis on deliberative democracy, codesign, and the innovative use of digital collaboration tools across different levels of power. The subject provides opportunities to apply theoretical knowledge through practical exercises, including an in-class simulation where students will design, run and participate in a deliberative exercise, showcasing the complexities and rewards of collaborative decision-making.

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This subject enables students to compare the policy developments involved in politically, legally and constitutionally recognising Indigenous rights and sovereignty in Australia, New Zealand and Canada, with a particular focus on the negotiation of treaties. Starting with a focus on the Victorian experience, students will identify the most pertinent issues that should be considered by the Victorian Government in negotiating a treaty or treaties with Aboriginal peoples. Comparative cases will include the Treaty of Waitangi in Aotearoa/New Zealand and the modern treaty process in Canada, specifically in the province of British Columbia. Students will consider how these treaty processes have hindered and/or facilitated effective policy development and Indigenous governance.

With the assistance of public policy academics and practitioners, participants will construct their own case study of citizen-state relationships focusing on debates around rights, sovereignty, decolonisation, self-determination, access to services and economic development and propose some key recommendations for future reforms.

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The respective roles, responsibilities and sources of power characterizing relationships between business and government play a crucial role in shaping public policy and regulation, within and between countries. Because of its productive function, business often enjoys a privileged position with government, while a major goal of policy and regulation at national and international levels is to steer and regulate business activity. Relationships between business and government vary significantly in different countries, economic sectors, and over time, and the conceptual tools for understanding them remain subject to widespread debate. This subject critically reviews contemporary policy debates and scholarly research, and draws on contrasting case examples to explore theoretical, normative and practical implications of business-government relationships. Particular attention is given to debates about government-business relationships associated with processes of public policy formation and implementation, social and environmental regulation, and delivery of public services and infrastructure. On completion of the subject, students should have a strong critical understanding of debates about the character and inter-relationship of business and government, from a comparative and international perspective.

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This subject gives students a comprehensive understanding of how to critically unpack and analyse social issues and social policies. It provides an introduction to contemporary social theories and perspectives such as governmentality theory, critical race theory, feminist approaches, decolonial perspectives, and comparative welfare state theory as these are applied as critical lenses to better understand policymaking. Moving through a series of policy areas, the subject allows students to develop a thorough understanding of how these issues are framed, debated, and resolved in Australia and internationally. The subject also gives students conceptual tools based on current case studies of decision making for NGO sector and governmental organisations.

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This subject will examine the impact of international migration on the states, societies, and individuals. Its first segment will address the questions such as why people move and how societies change because of immigration and emigration. The second segment will examine policies concerning multiculturalism and social cohesion. By reviewing various policy examples and case studies, this subject aims to help students understand the realities of international migration and its policy challenges. The third segment will analyze the global governance of international migration, including the roles of international organizations, non-governmental organizations, and international laws. This subject is offered by Asia Institute, and will use many case studies of Asian countries, while covering the experiences of Australia, the US, Canada, and some major immigration countries in Europe as reference points as well.

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The subject introduces students to social policy and provides a foundation for future inquiry. Students explore historical and contemporary welfare frameworks, concepts of social equity and theories of care. The subject captures different welfare approaches from the global north and south, and actively engages students in the steps of policy making and reform. Students also consider innovative responses to complex disadvantage and exclusion that are more inclusive, deliberative and devolved. These models include social impact bonds, place-based approaches and co-design/co-production. Through a combination of theoretical analysis and practical application, the subject prepares students to contribute to social policy development and implementation.

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This subject is an introduction to contemporary approaches to inclusive social policy through the lens of ageing. Students will specifically explore issues and challenges that have arisen due to population ageing and discuss topics such as paid and unpaid caregiving, retirement and financial inclusion, and social isolation and loneliness. Students will engage with case studies of programs and policies to consider how governments and NGOs have attempted to address these issues. The subject will also draw on students’ own experiences of inclusive policy development and implementation and learn how to defend their practical policy ideas through scholarly arguments and evidence.

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This subject covers the five eras of Indigenous policy and introduces a set of strategies for analysing and evaluating government policy in a range of fields. Applicable in all policy areas, analysis and evaluation skills are often required in government agencies, industry and community organisations in order to identify the impact of policy and provide direction on opportunity for change.

Indigenous affairs is frequently associated with narratives of failure. This subject provides the opportunity to understand the cause of those narratives and work within strengths-based approaches to analyse and evaluate of key policies in Indigenous affairs.

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Special Topic: Rethinking Social Welfare

This subject surveys theories of what it means to be ‘at the margins’ and their uses in critically understanding contemporary social welfare regimes. The subject’s focus includes examining how the Australian social security system has shifted from the principles of ‘fair and reasonable’ economic support to increasingly conditional and punitive practices of ‘protecting’ communities. The subject locates this shift as part of broader socio-political processes of both representation and repression: from the role of the media in perpetuating stigma and dehumanisation to the settler-colonial logics that can operate within social support programs. As part of understanding forms of marginality and their interplays with the concrete practices of social welfare, students are invited to interrogate the intersections of age, class, dis/ability, gender, sexuality, and race. In addition to its critical momentums, students will speculate on the (im)possibilities of improving social welfare for marginalised communities through proposals like a universal basic income.

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Subtitle: Families and Citizenship Through an Intersectional Lens

Feminist Social Policy takes a comparative and critical approach to understanding and evaluating social policy and policy-making at a national and international level. This subject aims to critically explore normative assumptions about what constitutes the family, parenthood, youth, marriage, disability, child and elder care. Students in this subject will be encouraged to broaden and deepen their understanding of how social policy is organised and impacted by these social, cultural, economic and political normativities by drawing on contemporary theories of intersectionality and citizenship. Taking a feminist perspective, this subject will outline key shifts in women’s employment trends, de/familisation, blended and chosen families, global fertility rates, disability rights, and welfare provision. Students will have the opportunity to explore themes of intersectionality and citizenship throughout their engagement with the subject, as well as articulate a comparative analysis of social policy from across the world.

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This subject, which is taught in Indonesia, investigates the fundamental issues around the changing nature of work; what it means for individuals’ working lives, employers, labour market institutions and regulations situating Australia within a comparative context. The subject reviews how digital technologies, automation, offshoring and emerging forms of employment (e.g., gig work, remote work, digital platform jobs) are changing labour market dynamics in Australia, Europe, North America and Asia. The subject also examines the different policy responses that have characterised this trend while highlighting the implications for corporations, organizations and institutions within a comparative perspective. Elements of the subject will be presented in conjunction with Gadjah Mada Universitas in Indonesia.

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The human service and welfare systems are meant to support us through life, from early childhood to old age. Yet they may fail to address our real concerns; placing conditions on who can receive social support or managing our needs rather than enabling us to thrive. How have governments attempted to address various social issues and support social groups that have traditionally been marginalised or disadvantaged? This subject tackles these questions by engaging students in a range of case studies related to social inequality. In this context, students will apply their understanding of gender, age, disability, geographic disadvantage, sexuality, and ethnic-migrant status and analyse the approaches and frameworks governments have designed to address inequality through these axes employing a systems approach. Integrating conceptual and programmatic insights, students will develop critical and practical skills necessary to drive systems change in their own policy work.

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Cities are increasingly where the majority of the global population lives but also where some of the starkest issues of inequality, environmental degradation, and social conflict occurs. This subject uses tools from social policy to address intractable problems related to urban life. It gives students conceptual tools to grapple with social policy issues that are urban in nature, and it deals with city spaces and municipal governance. It offers an introduction to issues such as social problems connected to housing affordability, conflicts over neighbourhood spaces, addiction and recovery, homelessness, workforce mobility and commuting, and non-profit service providers in high density areas, to name a few. Students will enhance both their analytical comprehension of the intersection between urban planning and social policy as well as their practical skills as practitioners in this space within non-profit institutions and local government.

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This subject takes a comparative approach to explore key areas of contemporary social policy, in Australia and across the OECD countries. Each week students will engage with a different policy area, including family policy, health policy, employment policy, welfare and ageing policy, through a comparative lens offering insights into how societies promote equity and well-being through their social policies. By comparing social policies across countries and as they evolve over time, students will learn to identify what works, what doesn’t, and why. In addition, students will be encouraged to critically assess, justify and advocate for social policy change.

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This subject examines various social research design and evaluation approaches to the study of social interaction. Students will critically examine the utility of, and theoretical underpinnings behind advanced methods of collecting, analysing and writing up social research. They will also conduct a small-scale research project, giving them practical skills in designing, conducting and writing up policy research. The subject will prepare students for engaging in real-world policy research and give them a practical understanding of the relationship between policy evaluation and social research in the context of debates around evidence-based policy.

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This subject involves a supervised thesis of 15,000 words, embodying the results of the student's own research.

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Refer to PPMN90049 Public / Social Policy Thesis Part 1 for details.

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This subject is designed to develop research skills for those students who wish to undertake academic, industry or government-based research projects. Students will explore contemporary research strategies, differing methodological approaches to research and practical issues concerned with designing, conducting and commissioning research projects on or for policy. They will investigate the relationship between research and policy (broadly conceived to include public policy, public management and governance), and develop understanding of the research and policy nexus. The subject gives special attention to setting research questions based on gaps in the literature or real-world policy problems, managing research ethics, and communicating research to policymakers and wider audiences. Students will design and perform independent research of their own, including interrogating theory, methods, and analyses. The subject will assist students to develop skills in research project preparation and development, in the context of wider exploration of the research policy nexus.

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In this subject Master of Social Policy students will be placed in an organisation which either has governmental responsibilities or deals with government, where they will work under the supervision and guidance of a senior manager in the organisation. Students will carry out exercises of relevance to the organisation that will be involved in high-level and complex policy making. Students will study the structure, culture and policy environment of the organisation and develop advanced analytical, research and report-writing skills as well as negotiating and interpersonal skills. Students completing this course should expect to acquire significant insight into the complexities of policy making and management. During the internship an academic supervisor will advise them.

If primary research is carried out during the internship, support is available from the school for students to receive ethics approval, alongside their host organisation.

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The Project-based policy analysis enables students to draw on the expertise developed throughout their social policy studies and apply their theoretical knowledge and practical skills in real time to a contemporary project. The project is team-based to mirror practical experience and will be developed and overseen by both a professional and academic mentor. The project team will work in consultation with their practice and academic mentors to develop a project brief, undertake analysis, and prepare a professional report to the sponsoring organisation. The project team will present their report at the Capstone Presentation Day.

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This subject aims to give students the knowledge and skills to be able to operate as a property professional in the area of development advice and decision making in property development. The subject integrates in the context of development climate change risk, sustainability, social and ethical considerations. The core content and competencies focus on:

• the development process and the major players;
• property market research and analysis;
• the decision to build;
• time value of money;
• appreciation of investment and market valuation methods;
• development appraisal including residual analysis and cash flow modelling;
• price and worth; risk, return and risk analysis.

This subject may involve the following software: ARGUS Estate Master, ARGUS Developer. Details of software availability and pricing are captured at https://msd.unimelb.edu.au/graduate-research/resources/it-support#software.

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This subject explores ways to achieve global housing equity in informal settlements. Urbanisation and densification are the two most powerful processes that impact the quality of life in cities. While cities offer better opportunities through education, healthcare, employment and transport, poorly planned urbanization reinforce the already present challenges of poverty, informality, affordable housing, climate change, and inequity. As one billion urban residents lack access to affordable and secure housing and basic services, urban informality continues to challenge current approaches to urban development.

The Cities Without Slums subject will provide students with intellectual and creative tools to explore and explain the process of urbanization, the importance of housing, policies that give rise to slum formation and the persistence of slums. Specifically, this subject will:

• equip students with a critical mindset to analyse emerging ‘best-practice’ over the years and the roles of institutions in influencing and/or formulating national urbanization, housing and slum upgrading policies.
• engage students in making use of practice-oriented research, to employ case studies from around the globe and explore government-led, community-led, and community/local government partnership approaches to slum upgrading and the delivery of land and provision of basic services in the context of urban governance.
• help prepare students to effectively examine cross-cutting topics that underwrite inclusive and sustainable, well-managed cities, including regulatory frameworks, security of tenure, housing finance, land use and transport interaction and linkages, and affordable house designs.

The widening participation and collaboration that is happening between and across the public and private sectors as well as with civil society and the urban poor communities is an acknowledgment of the diverse roles actors and agencies can play, both in the Global South and the Global North, in shaping better cities for all.

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The emergence of civil society and nongovernmental organisations in China reflects the rise of new social and political issues that have proven challenging for the Chinese state to address effectively. This subject examines the conditions under which certain ideas, organisational forms, and associational practices have taken hold as well as the ways they have been contested, transformed, and adapted. It explores various social problems – like the rise of gender inequality, labour rights, LGBT concerns, environmental problems, and others – that civil society organisations in China have sought to tackle and examines the broader context in which civil society actors work.

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This subject examines the relation between Indigenous peoples, justice and the law, through the lens of sovereignty. It reflects critically on the concept of sovereignty, its powerful propensity to transcend its social origins, and its fortress status in law. Through first examining European law’s relation to Indigenous peoples from 1492, the course explores correlations between Europe’s economic expansion and the development of sovereignty, property, and race as key notions that underpin both individual nation-states and the international order they constitute. In bringing this analysis to bear on contemporary aspirations for structural justice, the course then considers the possibilities and limitations of current legal concepts and mechanisms – in both local and global domains – such as prevailing notions of sovereignty, native title, human rights, crimes against humanity, and transitional justice. Finally, the course presents examples of innovative contemporary interventions in support of structural justice in settler states, promoting new ways to think about their complex pasts and presents, and possible future directions.

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What does it mean for a criminal justice intervention to be effective? Why is it important to know? For whom? How does government emphasis on the impact of criminal justice programs affect the design and funding of programs? And what does this focus on effectiveness mean for research priorities and methods? This subject considers questions such as these in exploring how, why, and for whom criminal justice ‘evidence’ or ‘knowledge’ is produced. In this subject you will be asked to identify a particular criminal justice program or intervention (we will look at a range of examples), and to design an approach to discover whether or not it ‘works’ – thinking about how, why and for whom.

The subject is divided into three broad areas. First we will examine what ‘criminal justice governance’ actually is, what it means for criminal justice policy and practice, and the implications for ‘evidence’ about programs and interventions. In the second section we will explore different approaches to measuring effectiveness and gathering knowledge about criminal justice practices and programs. The last part will focus on different settings (e.g. prisons, policing) and subjects of criminal justice research (e.g. justice-involved young people), and the impact that different kinds of knowledge might have. Throughout, we will examine professional and political issues about the role and application of research in criminal justice, as well as ethical issues about engaging in research with vulnerable and offending populations.

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This subject engages with the common belief that criminal justice systems have become 'the new asylums' for people with disabilities. It will introduce students to the historical, structural and socio-cultural factors contributing to the disproportionate contact of people with disabilities with the criminal justice system, including their current over-representation within prisons. The subject will also evaluate the different ways governments have attempted to reduce the flow of people with disabilities into the criminal justice system, exploring the development of preventative and protective mechanisms within both civil and criminal law, and examine the consequences of these mechanisms on the lives of people with disabilities.

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Cultural, ideological, and political attachment to involuntary detention persists in most societies across the globe. This subject examines carcerality in its numerous incarnations and interrogates our attachment to it. The subject invites students to critically examine things we often overlook or take for granted as ‘natural’ or ‘commonsensical’. Students will learn and employ theoretical tools and empirical data to scrutinise the reasons, justifications, ‘effectiveness’, and consequences of our societal zeal to criminalise and incarcerate individuals and communities.

The subject aims at helping learners to appreciate punishment and detention as a complex social, political, historical, and economic phenomenon, rather than merely a purported crime-control measure. Equipping students with analytical tools, the subject promotes the development of a critical stance on how we as a society define, create, and perpetuate harm and social divisions. The subject offers students an opportunity to grow intellectually, becoming critical about public discourses and government policies concerning crime and punishment, whilst also facilitating checking one's own preconceptions and interrogating personal prejudices.

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This subject forms an advanced overview of theories, methods and ethical issues in qualitative research. The subject will focus on the techniques of field studies, intensive interviewing, and case studies. Students will carry out small-scale qualitative research exercises and will present them orally and in writing.

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Over the course of the last thirty years, an 'associational revolution' has swept the world, as more and more civil society organisations have taken over tasks formerly assigned to states, formed cross-border advocacy campaigns to hold both states and corporations accountable for labour, environmental, and human rights violations, and formulated alternative development policies that run counter to the paradigms espoused by the World Bank and other multilateral lending organizations. While some argue that this associational revolution promises more participatory, expedient, and decentralized forms of transnational governance, others contend that it reflects little more than the ongoing privatisation of the public sphere at the hands of transnational capital. In this course, we evaluate these and alternative perspectives by exploring transformations in the structure of the global political-economy over the past thirty years; looking closely at the roles played by a variety of NGOs and CBOs as part of more multi-layered regimes of 'global governance'; analysing the shifts in state structures that have made these regimes possible; and teasing apart the ongoing tensions between various factions of what some have called, an emerging 'global civil society'. Case studies will be drawn from Africa, South Asia, and Latin America.

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Migration is a powerful driver of social change across the contemporary world. This subject explores the key issues and debates at the intersection of migration and development, drawing on conceptual, theoretical, and empirical work in economics, development studies, gender studies, human geography, anthropology, sociology, demography, and political science. Through class debates and practical exercises, students will engage critically with the conceptual models and theoretical frameworks used to analyse migration and its impacts on development. Core concepts - including transnationalism, neoliberalism, forced migration, global care chains, governmentality, and global householding - will be examined and critiqued. The subject also considers the economic, social, and cultural implications of migration for development processes at both micro and macro levels, assessing its relationship to broader debates on globalisation, poverty, gender, and social change.

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This subject aims to provide a critical overview of ‘Development’ in Latin America. It seeks to engage critical perspectives concerning uneven development, processes of inequality and marginalisation, and patterns of globalisation in Latin America. By grounding theoretical arguments in contemporary empirical contexts (i.e., countries in Latin America), the subject attempts to make sense of current development issues in Latin America. Topics to be explored include the following: histories of development and postcolonial critiques; theories of development from Latin American scholars; urbanisation, poverty, and informality; gender and development; post-development critiques in Latin America; collective mobilisation and social movements; political ecology and environmental vulnerabilities; identity, race, and indigeneity; contemporary governance and state power in development initiatives.

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This subject investigates the linkages between social policy and development within lower-middle income countries. The November availability of this subject is taught as a University of Melbourne Overseas (UMOS) Subject in Indonesia, with a special focus on social policy in Indonesia. By learning 'in-country', the subject draws from the experience of Indonesia to understand the roles played by different actors (government, civil society organisations, international organisations, the private sector, and communities) in responding to complex social policy issues related to poverty, welfare and wellbeing. This includes considerations of environmental change; access to livelihoods, employment, health and education opportunities; and the ways that challenges and opportunities may vary for different social and identity groupings. The subject examines examples of multi-stakeholder approaches to responding to complex social policy challenges in large states like Indonesia, often through collaboration and innovation. The subject also explores debates on the relationship between social and economic development and the implications for social policy in multi-level and decentralised governance structures. Students learn from their experience examining these issues in Indonesia during the teaching period and apply this in their first assessment. The broader readings for the subject also examine similar social policy issues in other countries in the Asia Pacific. Students then use both their Indonesia experience and broader learning from the reading and their own research to investigate similar social policy challenges and responses in other country contexts in the Asia-Pacific for their second assessment.

The November availability of this subject is taught as a University of Melbourne Overseas Subject in Indonesia with our partner institution the University of Gadjah Mada. The subject will involve Masters students from both Melbourne and Masters students and staff from our Indonesian partner university. This provides an exciting opportunity for students from each University to learn with and from each other to gain deeper knowledge on tackling inequalities and understanding real-world development challenges and responses through social policy in lower-middle income countries. The subject also uses teaching mediums that connects students with experts in the field in Indonesia. There is a quota for this subject. For further information and to apply: https://arts.unimelb.edu.au/students/overseas-experience#graduate-subjects.

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This subject examines the relationships between gender, globalisation and development, illustrated principally through case studies, policy documents, and ethnographic texts. It also draws theoretical perspectives and insights from a number of social science and humanities disciplines as well. On completion of the subject students should have an understanding of problems of writing about gender and difference: debates on modernity, globalisation, and development: gender, colonialism and postcolonialism; gender, politics, and the state; masculinities, femininities and sexualities; gender and labour; gender and development agencies; gender, religion and development; gender, sexuality, rights and transnational migration.

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The course introduces students to the economic principles and framework used by economists to consider issues of public policy. The importance of rigorous analysis in problem solving is emphasised. The policy areas likely to be covered will be taken from public finance, industry policy, competition policy, micro-economic reform, taxation and income distribution, as well as health, education and infrastructure provision. The emphasis is on current issues and so the actual policies covered may vary in response to current events.

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This subject develops the skills to understand and assess the social impacts of development, including international development projects, resource management, and proposed infrastructure or new policies. We do this in two ways: by looking at how to assess the impacts of proposed projects, and through evaluation techniques for existing developments or projects. In each case we develop practical skills and interdisciplinary techniques to appraise and evaluate impacts. These techniques draw from anthropology, development studies, and the policy sciences, and move beyond simple summative assessments and financial accounting. We consider the social and environmental contexts in which any form of appraisal is embedded, and the capacities of different actors (from the state to NGOs and community groups) to avert or mitigate negative impacts through learning, negotiation, and citizen participation. Examples, some presented by guest speakers, are drawn from Australia, Europe, the Americas, Africa, and Asia. At the completion of the subject students will have developed the conceptual skills to understand the impacts of development; be familiar with the range of methodologies and techniques used in impact assessment; understand development evaluation; and will be able to apply this in critical evaluation of the impact of projects and programmes.

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This subject introduces and analyses critical concepts and terms central to debates over climate change, including risk and uncertainty, adaptation and mitigation, burden sharing, and problems and issues relating to regimes, strategies and policy instruments for addressing global warming. The subject considers the rise of climate change as a policy problem. It reviews and analyses the history of climate change policy as it has evolved nationally and internationally. It examines the interactions between national and regional climate policy, including in Australia, the United States, the European Union and China. It analyses debates and concerns that have led to the evolution of the Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the Kyoto Protocol, and more recent arrangements. Students will consider a range of policy instruments, including carbon taxes and emissions trading, and technologies that have been proposed or deployed to address this issue. This subject enables students to understand the evolution of a critical global environmental issue. It offers insights into technical, political, ethical and ecological issues that have framed climate change policy, and enables students to think critically about and participate in developing policy in this domain.

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It is perhaps obvious that human behaviour is having a negative impact on our environment. Behavioural change, thus, is pivotal to ensure a more environmentally sustainable future. However the question of behavioural change is vexed. Some argue that humans are ‘naturally’ greedy and selfish, others suggest that we are ‘puppets’ - the victims of the social structures engendered by capitalism, and yet others trust that good behaviour will follow from the ‘truth’; knowledge about environmental problems. These and other views of behaviour set up particular change strategies. The above examples suggest three strategies for changing behaviour: provide people with incentives that will lead them to ‘choose’ different behaviours, or the transformation of social structures such as capitalism and patriarchy, or the provision of environmental education.

This subject examines the question of behavioural change from a number of disciplinary perspectives (psychology, sociology ecology, marketing and economics). Each discipline ‘sees’ the problem differently and this allows us to map insights and gaps in these knowledges. These purported differences can be understood and reconciled; behaviour is show to be a function of the physical, social and psychological aspects of social practices. This allows for a more holistic understanding of behaviour and the strategies that might create behaviour change.

NB: This subject uses a ‘flipped classroom’ mode of delivery. Most weeks require the watching of a vodcast prior to attending a 2 hour seminar. The success of the seminars and student learning is governed by individuals’ preparation and participation. This subject covers a lot of theory and requires active engagement. The consideration of societal behaviour change will likely engender a consideration of your own behaviour, including as a student.

Topics and themes include:

The effect of disciplines: behaviour and behavioural change from the perspectives of psychology, sociology, behavioural economics, ecology and marketing
How insights afforded by the disciplines can be used to create an more holistic and integrated understanding of behaviour change
Critiquing programs for behaviour change

Weekly topics: (1) Defining behaviour, (2) Perspectives: Behavioural Economics, (3) Perspectives: Marketing, (4) Perspectives: Psychology, (5) Perspectives: Sociology, (6) Perspective Ecology, (7) Integration, (8) Strategies: Social Marketing, (9) Strategies: Nudge, (10) Trans-disciplinary Perspectives 1, (11) Trans-disciplinary Perspectives 2

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This subject surveys recent developments in feminist theory and feminist methodology within a cross-cultural context. It explores issues involved in present-day debates about feminist epistemology and knowledge, including debates surrounding the relationship between western and other feminisms, the contributions of postcolonial feminists and queer theorists. The subject will consider the backlash against multiculturalism, framed largely in terms of the toleration of cultural beliefs and practices that contravene and impinge on the sovereign rights of individual members of particular groups, particularly women, sexual minorities and children.

The issues highlighted in these contexts include religious fundamentalism, the veil, honour killings, and arranged marriage to name a few. Importantly, what do those who are situated at the centre of these controversies, the women and men themselves have to say, both to members of their own groups and to the those who consider them victims or perpetrators of unacceptable cultural practices. These controversies are considered in the context of tensions around secularism, religion, sexuality, the law, the individual and the group, individual freedom and cultural constraint, feminist critics of multiculturalism and multicultural critics of feminism.

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This subject examines the nature of strategy and strategy processes in organisations. It explores the role that organisations play in society by exploring their impact on the people who work in them, the communities that surround them, and other stakeholders. In particular, a stakeholder value perspective of strategy formulation is considered.

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This experiential learning subject introduces students to the fundamentals of social entrepreneurship, while equipping students with a practical understanding of social enterprise as a model to tackle social and/or environmental problems through trade. Working in small teams, students are introduced to a range of design thinking and social innovation frameworks. They draw on these frameworks to iteratively conceptualise, ‘pitch’, refine and develop a social enterprise ‘business model’ that appropriately responds to the needs of communities and society. To nurture and support development of ideas, the subject draws on real-world case studies as well as industry guests from the social enterprise ecosystem including social entrepreneurs, people with ‘lived-experience’, social finance and impact investment intermediaries, incubators and accelerators and leading scholars and thinkers in the field. Upon completing this subject, students will develop a critical understanding of the theoretical foundations of social entrepreneurship and how to develop a ‘business model’ for financially sustainable social impact. By doing so, the subject also offers a unique opportunity for students to apply conceptual knowledge and project management and business skills to real-world social and/or environmental challenges.

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Taking a global perspective, this subject explores contemporary relationships between Indigenous people and settler societies from a legal, political and social perspectives. In a comparative perspective, it examines the dynamics of these relations in terms of global, national and regional political orders, exploring the impact and management of the dispossession of Indigenous people. It explores Indigenous social and political movements for land rights and self-determination, as well movements of resurgence and reconciliation. This subject is also concerned with the methodological and ethical complexities of conduction research on Indigenous issues both within settler societies and globally.

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This subject examines the diverse purposes health program evaluations can serve and the wide range of environments in which health program evaluations are conducted. Using Australian and overseas evaluation examples, students gain an overview of conceptual and methodological issues in the key evaluation approaches. The three major stages in the conduct of an evaluation are covered: planning and negotiating the terms and design of the evaluation; data collection and analysis; and the provision of findings. Each stage is considered through example and critique of those examples, with opportunities to apply these skills in the development of an evaluation plan for a real, work-based program.

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Disability inclusion is now a global health and development priority. This includes translating 2030 Agenda and Sustainable Development Goal commitments to disability inclusion, and leaving no one behind, into practice. Without disability inclusion we cannot end poverty for all and achieve universal health coverage. Ensuring the inclusion of people with disability in health and development processes, systems, and programs is increasingly required under law in both lower and higher income settings. An understanding of disability inclusive policy and practice is becoming essential knowledge for researchers, practitioners, and policy makers.

An estimated 16% of the world’s population has a disability, with 80% of people with disability living in resource poor contexts. People with disability are systematically excluded from social, economic, and political participation. In turn, people with disability are more likely to live in poverty, have poorer health outcomes, lower education attainment, and be negatively impacted by climate risk than people without disability. In this short course, you will learn to critically analyse the factors that contribute to these inequities and develop strategies for improving policy and practice.

Drawing on practitioner experience, including from people with disability themselves, this course will provide you with a foundation for critically considering issues of equity, representation, intersectionality, and meaningful participation. We will draw on real world examples from multiple sectors, including health, employment, education, and disaster risk reduction and humanitarian response. If you are working, or considering working, in global health and development, including in government, non-government, or United Nations agencies, this subject provides an essential foundation.

This course can be taken by students in postgraduate courses, including public health, development studies, and social studies, or through the University of Melbourne Community Access Program (CAP).

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The subject explores the policy decisions, usually made by governments, that determine present and future country or regional level objectives relating to health services; programs; and the regulatory, organisational, social, cultural, physical and natural environments that contribute to population health and well-being. The subject explores the nature of health policy, types of policy instruments, and policy making processes including agenda setting and policy influencing frameworks and theories. The role of evidence in policy formation including the significance of the balance between effectiveness, efficiency and equity as objectives of health policy will be debated. In doing so, students will be introduced to the importance and process of policy analysis and explore the relevant legal, political, managerial, sociological, ethical, epidemiological and economic perspectives to instrument selection and policy implementation across a range of health policy contexts. Australian and international country contexts will be used throughout the subject.

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This course explores the interface of policy and practice in the delivery of aged care services. The responses to policy shifts in aged care over time will be explored. The course will then focus on the present day impact of health care, mental health, income security, housing, and employment, educational and recreational policies on the delivery of services to older citizens collectively and as individuals. Case studies will be used to illustrate both the theoretical and practical aspects of designing and delivering services.

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Performance management and measurement have become cornerstones of how modern public sector organisations account for what they do. Yet as states, societies and economies have grown and developed in ever increasing complexity, since the end of the twentieth century new ways of thinking about the relationship between governments and their citizens have emerged. These developments have in part been a reaction to measurement-based managerial approaches, but also partly reflect a deeper concern regarding the apparent decline in citizens’ attachment to and respect for the practice of politics. This subject aims to provoke a wide ranging discussion about the role of ‘publics’ (citizens, users, clients, stakeholders, communities, etc.) in public policy and public services through critical engagement with an emerging paradigm of citizen-centred governance. Sometimes called Government 2.0, this approach to public policy and public administration is typically described as networked, collaborative and flexible, with service delivery arrangements which are personalised, choice-based and delivered through multiple channels.

This subject will equip public sector leaders with a theoretical understanding and practical toolbox of approaches to managing a major change management exercise in government. A range of case studies will be used to provide a step by step analysis of the challenges in driving major change. Understanding the underlying factors which lead to effective policy, process and program innovation in government is central to the capacity of governments to deliver better policy and better outcomes for the whole community. We will also critically examine the theoretical underpinnings of newer tools in policy making such as behavioural techniques (‘nudge’), randomised controlled trials and big data. This subject will seek to explain what drives public sector innovation and the structures, processes and individuals that promote and obstruct it. There is a focus on the role of government in driving large scale innovation and how to build a national innovation system that promotes technology and high wage economic growth for a nation.

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In this subject, students will explore how public policymaking can be enhanced through participatory and deliberative democratic mechanisms, learning from real-life case studies that led to both successes and failures. Students will analyse various theories and techniques for fostering meaningful participation, with a particular emphasis on deliberative democracy, codesign, and the innovative use of digital collaboration tools across different levels of power. The subject provides opportunities to apply theoretical knowledge through practical exercises, including an in-class simulation where students will design, run and participate in a deliberative exercise, showcasing the complexities and rewards of collaborative decision-making.

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This subject enables students to compare the policy developments involved in politically, legally and constitutionally recognising Indigenous rights and sovereignty in Australia, New Zealand and Canada, with a particular focus on the negotiation of treaties. Starting with a focus on the Victorian experience, students will identify the most pertinent issues that should be considered by the Victorian Government in negotiating a treaty or treaties with Aboriginal peoples. Comparative cases will include the Treaty of Waitangi in Aotearoa/New Zealand and the modern treaty process in Canada, specifically in the province of British Columbia. Students will consider how these treaty processes have hindered and/or facilitated effective policy development and Indigenous governance.

With the assistance of public policy academics and practitioners, participants will construct their own case study of citizen-state relationships focusing on debates around rights, sovereignty, decolonisation, self-determination, access to services and economic development and propose some key recommendations for future reforms.

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The respective roles, responsibilities and sources of power characterizing relationships between business and government play a crucial role in shaping public policy and regulation, within and between countries. Because of its productive function, business often enjoys a privileged position with government, while a major goal of policy and regulation at national and international levels is to steer and regulate business activity. Relationships between business and government vary significantly in different countries, economic sectors, and over time, and the conceptual tools for understanding them remain subject to widespread debate. This subject critically reviews contemporary policy debates and scholarly research, and draws on contrasting case examples to explore theoretical, normative and practical implications of business-government relationships. Particular attention is given to debates about government-business relationships associated with processes of public policy formation and implementation, social and environmental regulation, and delivery of public services and infrastructure. On completion of the subject, students should have a strong critical understanding of debates about the character and inter-relationship of business and government, from a comparative and international perspective.

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This subject gives students a comprehensive understanding of how to critically unpack and analyse social issues and social policies. It provides an introduction to contemporary social theories and perspectives such as governmentality theory, critical race theory, feminist approaches, decolonial perspectives, and comparative welfare state theory as these are applied as critical lenses to better understand policymaking. Moving through a series of policy areas, the subject allows students to develop a thorough understanding of how these issues are framed, debated, and resolved in Australia and internationally. The subject also gives students conceptual tools based on current case studies of decision making for NGO sector and governmental organisations.

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This subject will examine the impact of international migration on the states, societies, and individuals. Its first segment will address the questions such as why people move and how societies change because of immigration and emigration. The second segment will examine policies concerning multiculturalism and social cohesion. By reviewing various policy examples and case studies, this subject aims to help students understand the realities of international migration and its policy challenges. The third segment will analyze the global governance of international migration, including the roles of international organizations, non-governmental organizations, and international laws. This subject is offered by Asia Institute, and will use many case studies of Asian countries, while covering the experiences of Australia, the US, Canada, and some major immigration countries in Europe as reference points as well.

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The subject introduces students to social policy and provides a foundation for future inquiry. Students explore historical and contemporary welfare frameworks, concepts of social equity and theories of care. The subject captures different welfare approaches from the global north and south, and actively engages students in the steps of policy making and reform. Students also consider innovative responses to complex disadvantage and exclusion that are more inclusive, deliberative and devolved. These models include social impact bonds, place-based approaches and co-design/co-production. Through a combination of theoretical analysis and practical application, the subject prepares students to contribute to social policy development and implementation.

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This subject is an introduction to contemporary approaches to inclusive social policy through the lens of ageing. Students will specifically explore issues and challenges that have arisen due to population ageing and discuss topics such as paid and unpaid caregiving, retirement and financial inclusion, and social isolation and loneliness. Students will engage with case studies of programs and policies to consider how governments and NGOs have attempted to address these issues. The subject will also draw on students’ own experiences of inclusive policy development and implementation and learn how to defend their practical policy ideas through scholarly arguments and evidence.

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This subject covers the five eras of Indigenous policy and introduces a set of strategies for analysing and evaluating government policy in a range of fields. Applicable in all policy areas, analysis and evaluation skills are often required in government agencies, industry and community organisations in order to identify the impact of policy and provide direction on opportunity for change.

Indigenous affairs is frequently associated with narratives of failure. This subject provides the opportunity to understand the cause of those narratives and work within strengths-based approaches to analyse and evaluate of key policies in Indigenous affairs.

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Special Topic: Rethinking Social Welfare

This subject surveys theories of what it means to be ‘at the margins’ and their uses in critically understanding contemporary social welfare regimes. The subject’s focus includes examining how the Australian social security system has shifted from the principles of ‘fair and reasonable’ economic support to increasingly conditional and punitive practices of ‘protecting’ communities. The subject locates this shift as part of broader socio-political processes of both representation and repression: from the role of the media in perpetuating stigma and dehumanisation to the settler-colonial logics that can operate within social support programs. As part of understanding forms of marginality and their interplays with the concrete practices of social welfare, students are invited to interrogate the intersections of age, class, dis/ability, gender, sexuality, and race. In addition to its critical momentums, students will speculate on the (im)possibilities of improving social welfare for marginalised communities through proposals like a universal basic income.

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Subtitle: Families and Citizenship Through an Intersectional Lens

Feminist Social Policy takes a comparative and critical approach to understanding and evaluating social policy and policy-making at a national and international level. This subject aims to critically explore normative assumptions about what constitutes the family, parenthood, youth, marriage, disability, child and elder care. Students in this subject will be encouraged to broaden and deepen their understanding of how social policy is organised and impacted by these social, cultural, economic and political normativities by drawing on contemporary theories of intersectionality and citizenship. Taking a feminist perspective, this subject will outline key shifts in women’s employment trends, de/familisation, blended and chosen families, global fertility rates, disability rights, and welfare provision. Students will have the opportunity to explore themes of intersectionality and citizenship throughout their engagement with the subject, as well as articulate a comparative analysis of social policy from across the world.

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This subject, which is taught in Indonesia, investigates the fundamental issues around the changing nature of work; what it means for individuals’ working lives, employers, labour market institutions and regulations situating Australia within a comparative context. The subject reviews how digital technologies, automation, offshoring and emerging forms of employment (e.g., gig work, remote work, digital platform jobs) are changing labour market dynamics in Australia, Europe, North America and Asia. The subject also examines the different policy responses that have characterised this trend while highlighting the implications for corporations, organizations and institutions within a comparative perspective. Elements of the subject will be presented in conjunction with Gadjah Mada Universitas in Indonesia.

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The human service and welfare systems are meant to support us through life, from early childhood to old age. Yet they may fail to address our real concerns; placing conditions on who can receive social support or managing our needs rather than enabling us to thrive. How have governments attempted to address various social issues and support social groups that have traditionally been marginalised or disadvantaged? This subject tackles these questions by engaging students in a range of case studies related to social inequality. In this context, students will apply their understanding of gender, age, disability, geographic disadvantage, sexuality, and ethnic-migrant status and analyse the approaches and frameworks governments have designed to address inequality through these axes employing a systems approach. Integrating conceptual and programmatic insights, students will develop critical and practical skills necessary to drive systems change in their own policy work.

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Cities are increasingly where the majority of the global population lives but also where some of the starkest issues of inequality, environmental degradation, and social conflict occurs. This subject uses tools from social policy to address intractable problems related to urban life. It gives students conceptual tools to grapple with social policy issues that are urban in nature, and it deals with city spaces and municipal governance. It offers an introduction to issues such as social problems connected to housing affordability, conflicts over neighbourhood spaces, addiction and recovery, homelessness, workforce mobility and commuting, and non-profit service providers in high density areas, to name a few. Students will enhance both their analytical comprehension of the intersection between urban planning and social policy as well as their practical skills as practitioners in this space within non-profit institutions and local government.

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