ATS1053 Strategic reasoning in politics, philosophy and economics
Faculty of Arts
ATS1053 Strategic reasoning in politics, philosophy and economics is a level 1, 6-credit-point, undergraduate unit from the Faculty of Arts, offered in 2026 in Semester 2 at Clayton. It has no prerequisites.
- Credit points
- 6
- Offered in 2026
- Semester 2
- Clayton
- Assessment
- No exam
- 3 tasks
- Workload
- 144 hours
- per semester
This is the 2026 handbook entry. See the 2027 entry.
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Requisites
Before ATS1053
Prohibitions
You can't enrol if you have passed any of these.
After ATS1053
No unit lists ATS1053 as a prerequisite in the 2026 handbook.
Enrolment rules
Must be enrolled in the Bachelor of politics, philosophy and economics.
Overview
In this unit you will be introduced to strategic reasoning and game theory as tools for understanding social, political, and economic interactions. You will learn to analyse situations where your outcomes depend not just on your own choices, but on the choices of others—from international negotiations and market competition to everyday social cooperation and conflict.
Through a combination of theoretical analysis and practical applications, you will develop skills in modelling strategic situations, predicting outcomes, and understanding why well-intentioned policies sometimes produce unintended consequences. This analytical toolkit will be valuable whether you pursue careers in public policy, business, or civic engagement—or simply seek to better understand the strategic dynamics shaping our social world
Offerings in 2026
| Teaching period | Campus | Mode |
|---|---|---|
| Second semester | Clayton | On campus |
Assessment
- Online quizzesQuiz / Test10%
- In-class testQuiz / Test40%
- In-class testQuiz / Test50%
Assessment details may change. Please refer to the assessment information in Moodle closer to the start of the teaching period.
Learning outcomes
When you finish this unit, you should be able to:
- 1
demonstrate understanding of strategic interactions using game theory concepts such as Nash equilibrium, dominant strategies, and backward induction to analyse decision-making scenarios;
- 2
analyse cooperation problems and explain factors that can facilitate or hinder collaborative outcomes;
- 3
apply strategic reasoning to real-world phenomena such as political competition, market behaviour, social norms, and policy implementation, identifying why seemingly rational individual choices can produce suboptimal collective outcomes;
- 4
evaluate policy interventions by predicting how actors might respond to incentives, rules, or information.
Workload and teaching
- Tutorials12 hours
- Workshops24 hours
- Teaching approachActive learning
Minimum total expected workload to achieve the learning outcomes for this unit is 144 hours per semester typically comprising a mixture of scheduled learning activities and independent study. Scheduled activities may include a combination of teacher directed learning, peer directed learning and online engagement.
This unit engages you in actively applying your knowledge, skills and attributes in interactive, collaborative and reflective activities.
Learning resources
Required resources
Prescribed textbook available in the Bookshop.
There are required texts for this unit. Required texts are usually available for purchase through the University Bookstore (https://www.monash.edu/retail/books-and-merchandise-store/Textbooks) and are sometimes available for short-term loan or as eBooks through the library (https://www.monash.edu/library).
Contacts
- Chief Examiners
- Professor Toby Handfield
- Unit Coordinators
- Professor Toby Handfield
Common questions
What are the prerequisites for ATS1053?
ATS1053 has no prerequisites, but enrolment rules apply.
When is ATS1053 offered?
In 2026, ATS1053 runs in Semester 2 at Clayton.
How much work is ATS1053?
The handbook expects about 144 hours of study across the semester. No students have rated its difficulty yet.
Does ATS1053 have an exam?
No. ATS1053 has 3 assessment tasks and no exam.