Core: Social and Cultural Continuity and Change

8 dot points across 8 inquiry questions. Click any dot point for a focused answer with worked past exam questions where available.

How do cooperation and conflict act together as engines of social and cultural continuity and change?

Analyse cooperation and conflict as interacting forces that produce continuity and change within and between societies and cultures

A focused answer on cooperation and conflict in the HSC Society and Culture core, showing how the two interact to produce continuity and change, with consensus and resolution processes and real Australian examples such as native title, reconciliation and industrial relations.

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How do the fundamental and additional concepts give Society and Culture its shared language for analysis?

Apply the fundamental concepts of persons, society, culture, environment, time, power, authority, gender, technology and globalisation across the course

A focused answer on the fundamental and additional concepts that underpin every part of the HSC Society and Culture course, showing how persons, society, culture, environment and time, plus power, authority, gender, technology and globalisation, work as a shared analytical toolkit with real Australian examples.

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How and why do societies and cultures experience continuity and change over time?

Examine the nature of continuity and change, and the dialectical relationship between persistence and transformation in a chosen country

A focused answer on the HSC Society and Culture core: the nature of continuity and change, the dialectical relationship between persistence and transformation, and how to analyse a chosen country such as Japan or Indonesia using fundamental concepts and real Australian comparisons.

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How do social and cultural researchers choose, combine and evaluate methods to investigate the social world?

Select, justify and evaluate qualitative and quantitative social research methods and apply ethical principles to investigation

A focused answer on the social and cultural research methods underpinning HSC Society and Culture, covering qualitative and quantitative methods, primary and secondary data, sampling, triangulation, reliability, validity and the ethics that govern all research including the PIP.

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How do major social theories explain why societies stay the same and why they change?

Apply functionalist, conflict, interactionist, feminist and postmodern perspectives to explain social and cultural continuity and change

A focused answer on the social theories used in HSC Society and Culture, explaining functionalism, conflict theory, symbolic interactionism, feminism and postmodernism, when each is useful, and how to apply them to continuity and change with Australian examples.

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How do I study one country other than Australia in depth to reveal continuity and change?

Conduct an in-depth study of one selected country other than Australia, examining continuity and change across its institutions, groups and everyday life

A focused answer on the country study at the heart of the HSC Society and Culture core, showing how to investigate one country other than Australia in depth across family, gender, work, politics and technology, identify its forces of change, and compare it with Australia using real evidence.

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How do power, authority and globalisation drive and resist social and cultural change?

Analyse the impact of power, authority, technology and globalisation as agents of continuity and change in a studied country

A focused answer on power, authority, technology and globalisation as agents of continuity and change in the HSC Society and Culture core, with Australian and international examples and the distinction between political, social and cultural power.

6 min answer →

How do tradition, modernisation and Westernisation interact in a society undergoing change?

Distinguish tradition, modernisation and Westernisation and analyse their interaction in a studied country and in Australia

A focused answer on tradition, modernisation and Westernisation in the HSC Society and Culture core, distinguishing the three contested concepts and showing how they interact in a studied country and in Australia, with real examples of hybrid and selective change.

6 min answer →