ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on students’ political agency as it gets expressed and enacted through public action, which is sudden, and which can but does not have to converge with representative student organs such as unions, associations and clubs. The chapter traces the motives for student activism through history, including independence movements as part of colonial breakdowns, 1960s student uprising and present-day activism. By doing so, the chapter demonstrates how student activism and protest are always situational and shaped by wider societal events and forces. The historic context helps us understand the present-day opportunities and characteristics for students to practise their activist agency. The chapter starts by unpacking the key characteristics associated with student activism, and it then discusses historic examples related to the 19th- and early 20th-century independence movements, 1960s global student unrest and more recent activist outbursts from 2010 to 2015. The chapter will conclude by exploring the issues related to present-day student activism and the new modes it may take.
