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Social Sustainability (SOCI30016)

Undergraduate level 3Points: 12.5On Campus (Parkville)

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Overview

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Semester 2
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This capstone enables students to consolidate and build upon their sociological knowledge specifically in relation to research into how sustainable societies are shaped, maintained, or undermined. Extending their independent critical thinking and capacity for research and further studies, students will co-design a group project or adapt a topic prompt to apply a sociological lens to how societies are sustained.  Group projects will research how sustainable societies are supported and weakened through topics including colonial waste systems, contributions to emissions and climate change, addressing extreme heat and older populations, urban cities, or heat impacts for work futures. Students will also identify possible solutions and build their critical understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of sociological research, concepts, and sociological literature.  Group work supports developing student’s abilities to communicate their research investigations effectively to each other and the broader community and will culminate in students identifying future research questions. 

Intended learning outcomes

Students who successfully complete this subject should be able to:

  • Demonstrate independent critical thinking about sustainability in the topic area chosen
  • Have the ability to apply sociological theory and research to a 'real world' social concern, for examples, people living without housing or climate change and its impacts for people living in cities
  • Have the capacity to review literature (or equivalent) on what supports people living in societies for instance, and how societies can be sustained or undermined by social policy changes, to take another example, and develop a sociological research question
  • Develop the skills required for working with peers and in groups, which build clear communication and extend students self-directed learning
  • Demonstrate and effectively communicate an understanding of social, cultural, local and global elements of their chosen area of research required to support sustainable societies, for instance: poverty, housing shortage, workers' rights and underemployment and climate change.

Generic skills

Students who successfully complete this subject should be able to:

  • Develop critical thinking skills
  • Demonstrate collaborative learning: collegial problem solving
  • Demonstrate communication skills: peer review, a presentation and group project.

Last updated: 6 May 2025