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Unit of study_
INTS3003: Southern Social Movements and Theories
2025 unit information
This unit examines social movements in the Global South, moving beyond mere geography to engage terrains of theoretical and socio-political action. The South spans sites of resistance and knowledge production on decoloniality, racial, environmental, and gender justice, anti-violence activism, territorial autonomy and sovereignty. Drawing on interdisciplinary research, the unit engages concepts from movements in Latin America, Southwest Asia, and Africa. Through critical examination of activist rhetorics and practices, the agency of social actors in often difficult political and geopolitical settings, across nations, borders, and regions, is foregrounded.
Unit details and rules
Managing faculty or University school:
Arts and Social Sciences
| Study level | Undergraduate |
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| Academic unit | Languages and Cultures |
| Credit points | 6 |
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Prerequisites:
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12 credit points at 2000 level in International Studies |
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Corequisites:
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None |
| Prohibitions:
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INGS3602 |
| Assumed knowledge:
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None |
At the completion of this unit, you should be able to:
- LO1. demonstrate a deeper understanding of the local-global interface in social activism and the transnational architecture of power and knowledge, as developed in units such as Transnational Spaces and Networks, with specific reference to civil society actors in the Global South
- LO2. assess the usefulness and limitations of the frameworks, Global South/Global North, in reference to the regions under study in the unit and in the context of interdisciplinary knowledge on contemporary culture, society, politics and economy
- LO3. evaluate trends in the emergence of social movements in the Global South, their chief shared characteristics and differences, how they interact with and diverge from those of the Global North
- LO4. identify and apply key analytical frameworks for examining social movements in particular national, regional and geopolitical sites, in both physical and virtual spaces
- LO5. critically engage with secondary literature on selected instances of social movement action and coordination on local, national and transnational scales
- LO6. apply interdisciplinary knowledge and self-reflection both to individual and collaborative research
- LO7. demonstrate sensitivity to the role of language in hegemonic and counterhegemonic discourses used in political arena by contending actors and in media sources
- LO8. show understanding of the way that culturally specific histories of nation, state formation, democratization, (neo)colonialism, neoliberalism, and factors like religion, gender, ethnicity, race and sexuality can corroborate and/or militate against pan-social movement and transnational activism.
Unit availability
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Modes of attendance (MoA)
This refers to the Mode of attendance (MoA) for the unit as it appears when you’re selecting your units in Sydney Student. Find more information about modes of attendance on our website.
