Handbook

How do individuals and groups participate in politics, and how can we as individuals position ourselves in relation to processes of change at the community, state and international levels? What models of deliberation and participation are privileged in grassroots, state and global politics, and how is self-determination enacted and contested through them? This unit uses a series of case studies to explore these issues, with a particular view to making sense of the relationship between grassroots and elite politics in processes of social and political change. The course will examine the history and role of colonialism and capitalism in shaping nation states, while exploring how grass roots movements, attached to those groups disenfranchised by the state, have attempted to enact change. Case studies will include the women's movement, movements fighting for the rights of Indigenous peoples such as in Australia and Palestine, liberation movements, Occupy, and the queer movement, amongst others.