Overview
The politics of class, gender, and ethnic inequality in New Zealand, with some comparative reference to the US and Europe.
About this paper
| Paper title | Politics and Society |
|---|---|
| Subject | Politics |
| EFTS | 0.25 |
| Points | 30 points |
| Teaching period | Not offered in 2025 (On campus) |
| Domestic Tuition Fees ( NZD ) | $1,972.25 |
| International Tuition Fees | Tuition Fees for international students are elsewhere on this website. |
- Restriction
- POLS 404
- Limited to
- MPols
- Contact
- politics@otago.ac.nz
- More information link
- View more information on the Department's website
- Teaching staff
- Associate Professor Brian Roper
- Paper Structure
Introduction
- Week 1: Introductions and Course Administration
- Week 1: The Sociological Imagination
- Week 2: The Neoliberal Justification of Social Inequality
Section One: Ethnicity
- Week 2: Ethnic Inequality and Racist Politics
- Week 3: White Settler Colonialism
- Week 3: The Political Economy of Ethnic Inequality
Section Two: Gender
- Week 4: Is the Family Anti-Social? Gender Inequality in the Family-Household
- Week 4: Beyond the Barriers? Gender Inequality in Paid Employment
- Week 5: Explaining Gender Inequality: Radical Feminism and Socialist Feminism
- Week 6: The Changing Social Construction and Cultural Practices of Masculinity
- Week 7: The Changing Social Construction and Cultural Practices of Femininity
- Week 7: Gender Politics: The Anti-Feminist Backlash and Rise of Raunch Culture
- Week 8: Gender Politics: Welfare and Paid Parental Leave
- Week 8: Postmodernist Feminism and Contemporary Feminist Theory
Section Three: Class
- Week 9: The Unequal Distribution of Income, Wealth and Life Chances
- Week 9: What is Class? Marx vs. Weber
- Week 10: What is Class? Recent Theories
- Week 11: The Changing Working Class
- Week 11: A New Middle Class?
- Week 12: Class Politics: Labour, National and the Minor Parties
- Week 12: The Upper Propertied or Capitalist Class
- Week 13: Class Politics: Taxation and Social Spending
Conclusion
- Week 13: What Can Be Done to Reduce Inequality?
- Textbooks
- No required coursebook or course reader.
- Graduate Attributes Emphasised
- Communication, Critical thinking, Information literacy, Research, Self-motivation.
View more information about Otago's graduate attributes. - Learning Outcomes
Students who successfully complete this paper will be able to:
- Demonstrate knowledge of the methods in the study of politics, specifically those employed in investigating political problems and phenomena relating to New Zealand society
- Analyse political ideas and assumptions to assess the connections between ideas
- Apply abstractions (general ideas and methods) to new and unfamiliar aspects of New Zealand politics and society
- Articulate ideas, arguments and experiences to others both as a writer and speaker, and carry out self-directed and independent research