ABSTRACT
As has been widely documented by the media, recent years have witnessed protests by students across the world against attempts by national governments to reform various aspects of higher education. Students have also been involved in other political activities, for example, as part of ‘Occupy’, the international movement against social and economic inequality. Such involvement has presented clear evidence that young people are not, as has been previously claimed by politicians and social commentators in many countries of the Global North, politically apathetic. Nevertheless, it has rarely been the focus of academic enquiry, and we know little about the role of higher education institutions in the politicisation of students. Moreover, while students’ unions and student societies have become an increasingly important part of the higher education landscape in some parts of the world, our knowledge about their role, and the extent to which they foster political engagement, is equally limited. Student Politics and Protest: International Perspectives redresses these gaps in our knowledge. By drawing on new research from across the globe, it provides the first book-length analysis of the ways in which contemporary student politics and protests are played out in different national contexts. This introductory chapter situates the 12 chapters that follow by providing an overview of our extant knowledge in relation to young people’s political engagement in general, as well as student protests and politics more specifically, before outlining briefly the structure of the book.
