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

What this dot point is asking

The core asks you to explain how power, authority, technology and globalisation act as agents that both drive and resist social and cultural change in your studied country. NESA wants you to move beyond describing change to analysing who controls it, who benefits, and who resists. The HSC extended response rewards a sustained argument that links these agents to real, current examples and weighs their relative influence.

The answer

Power and authority defined

Power is the capacity to influence or control the behaviour of others and the direction of social change. Authority is power that is regarded as legitimate, accepted by those subject to it. A government has authority because citizens broadly accept its right to govern; a social media influencer has power without formal authority. Distinguishing the two is central to a strong response.

Power operates at every level. Political power sits with governments and the state. Economic power sits with corporations and markets. Social and cultural power sits with the media, religious institutions, social movements and everyday gatekeepers who decide what is normal. A high-band answer maps how these forms of power interact in the studied country.

Power as an agent of continuity

Those who hold power often use it to preserve the status quo. Institutions resist change to protect established interests. In many societies, religious or political elites maintain traditional family structures, gender roles or class hierarchies because change would weaken their position. Continuity, in other words, is frequently an active choice by the powerful, not simply inertia.

Power as an agent of change

Power also drives change. Social movements mobilise collective power from below to transform attitudes and laws. In Australia, the union movement, the women's movement, the land rights and reconciliation movements, and the marriage equality campaign all show grassroots power producing lasting change. Governments use legislative power to accelerate change, as with anti-discrimination law and native title following Mabo v Queensland (No 2) in 1992.

Technology as an agent

Technology is one of the most powerful contemporary agents of change. It reshapes work, communication, identity and the distribution of power itself. Social media has decentralised who can broadcast ideas, fuelling movements but also misinformation. In Australia, smartphones and platforms have transformed how young people form identity and community, while also raising concern about wellbeing, leading to debate over restricting social media access for under-16s. Technology can entrench continuity too, by amplifying dominant cultural messages globally.

Globalisation as an agent

Globalisation spreads ideas, goods, capital and people across borders, accelerating change while provoking resistance. It can homogenise culture, as global brands and media flatten local difference, but it can also strengthen local identity as communities push back. In Indonesia and Japan, global economic integration sits alongside deliberate preservation of language, religion and tradition. In Australia, globalisation drives a diverse, trade-dependent economy and a multicultural society, while debates over national identity, sovereignty and local jobs show the resistance it generates.

Weighing the agents

The strongest responses do not list these agents but weigh them. Which has been most decisive in your studied country, and why? Often they reinforce one another: globalisation spreads a technology, which empowers a movement, which pressures a government to change the law. Showing these interactions, with current evidence, is what separates a Band 6 answer.