"Our Generation, Our Choice": Student political activism and the development of political citizenship in higher education

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

Since the expression of the concept of 'civic virtue' inearly doctrines of republican democracy, the role of theuniversity campus as a site of citizenship has beenprominent in discourses of the civic role of highereducation in Britain. Although existing literature onpolitical socialisation has focused on school-agechildren, evidence suggests that student activism atuniversity plays a key role in developing future politicalvalues and behaviours. However, recent literature alsosuggests that students are less radical and politicallyactive than even ten years ago. This presents not onlya gap in the scholarly literature on the topic but also aclear societal and educational problematic: if arelationship between student engagement with politicsand the development of political citizenship is asdescribed, and students have indeed become 'lessactivist' in recent years, what does this mean forpolitical values and behaviours in the current and futuregraduate populations? The proposed study aims toinvestigate the development of students' 'active'political citizenship behaviours and values in thecontext of student political activism through a form ofPrzybylski's (2021) 'hybrid ethnography', blendingonline and offline comparative ethnographic study ofgrassroots student activist groups at Britishuniversities. In doing so, this research aims toconceptualise and theorise the roles, motivations,perceptions and relationships lying behind studentactivism at British universities, and consider therelationship these have with the development ofpolitical citizenship and, ultimately, the civic role of theuniversity in the contemporary HE setting.