Introduction to special sub-section : student activism in global perspective : issues, dynamics and interactions

The relationship between students and activism has long interested sociologists, especially since the wave of social unrest of 1968 (Barker, 2008). However, the works that have looked at the topic can hardly be identified as a coherent, clearly identifiable strand of the literature. Furthermore, scholarly attention has fluctuated over time, with researchers reacting to the course of events and especially to the waves of student protests. Attention waned after the 1970s as governments proposed higher education reforms that succeeded in pacifying campuses, especially in Europe and the US (Daalder and Shils, 1982); and has risen again over the last decade or so as students seem to have made a comeback (Altbach and Klemencic, 2014). I suggest that the relevance of student protests for sociological thinking can be summarized around three main issues: (a) the potential political role of students in national politics; (b) the role of the university, and more broadly of educational institutions, in the economy and society; and (c) the political socialization of young people and its consequences. Furthermore, these issues overlap to a certain degree with the three main approaches adopted by scholars of student protests: social movements, sociology of education, and sociology of generations/youth. These issues and approaches are not mutually exclusive, but should rather be seen as sets that overlap with each other, creating subsets.