This report, which grew out of the 2001 Wingspread in Racine, Wisconsin, describes student political and civic engagement as defined by students at the Summit. One of the few available publications to give voice to students themselves, The New Student Politics examines contemporary conceptions of civic engagement, politics, and service and provides specific suggestions as to how campuses can improve their commitment to student civic engagement through service-learning, increased support for student political activity, and attentiveness to student voice.
Students have periodically played an important role in campus political life as well as in societal politics. Students were active in the anti-slavery movement; they rebelled against military service in the Civil War; they staged demonstrations during the Depression; and they were vocal during the 1960s. While activism has subsided somewhat in the past three decades, students continue to be involved in significant political issues. Student Politics in America is the first book to chronicle the entire history of student political activism in America--dealing not only with the periods when students were dramatically involved in politics, but also focusing on less active periods. This book provides a sense of the entire history of political involvement and the evolution of student organizations and attitudes toward politics. Student religious organizations that have been involved in social activism are discussed, as are student government organizations, which are generally ignored in analyses of campus life. Altbach shows that, at least since the 1930s, there is an ideological trend toward liberal and radical activism, yet at the same time conservative student organizations have also been influential. Politics on the campus is a multifaceted phenomenon, and Altbach handles the complexity of student political life in a carefully nuanced manner. In a new preface, the author discusses his reasons and motivation for originally writing Student Politics in America. In his new introduction, he brings the history of student activism, and the lack thereof, up to date. Student Politics in America provides a unique historical perspective on the political activities of college and university students in the United States and will be an important contribution to the personal libraries of educators, university administrators, students, political scientists, and historians.
An eye-opening analysis of collegiate activism and its effects on the divisions in contemporary American politics. The past six years have been marked by a contentious political atmosphere that has touched every arena of public life, including higher education. Though most college campuses are considered ideologically progressive, how can it be that the right has been so successful in mobilizing young people even in these environments? As Amy J. Binder and Jeffrey L. Kidder show in this surprising analysis of the relationship between political activism on college campuses and the broader US political landscape, while liberal students often outnumber conservatives on college campuses, liberal campus organizing remains removed from national institutions that effectively engage students after graduation. And though they are usually in the minority, conservative student groups have strong ties to national right-leaning organizations, which provide funds and expertise, as well as job opportunities and avenues for involvement after graduation. Though the left is more prominent on campus, the right has built a much more effective system for mobilizing ongoing engagement. What’s more, the conservative college ecosystem has worked to increase the number of political provocations on campus and lower the public’s trust in higher education. In analyzing collegiate activism from the left, right, and center, The Channels of Student Activism shows exactly how politically engaged college students are channeled into two distinct forms of mobilization and why that has profound consequences for the future of American politics.
The second volume of the African Higher Education Dynamics Series brings together the research of an international network of higher education scholars with interest in higher education and student politics in Africa. Most authors are early career academics who teach and conduct research in universities across the continent, and who came together for a research project and related workshops and a symposium on student representation in African higher education governance. The book includes theoretical chapters on student organising, student activism and representation; chapters on historical and current developments in student politics in Anglophone and Francophone Africa; and in-depth case studies on student representation and activism in a cross-section of universities and countries. The book provides a unique resource for academics, university leaders and student affairs professionals as well as student leaders and policy-makers in Africa and elsewhere.
Student Activism, Politics, and Campus Climate in Higher Education presents a comprehensive, contemporary portrait of political engagement and student activism at postsecondary institutions in the United States. This resource explores how colleges and universities are experiencing unrest and in what ways broader sociopolitical conflicts are evident on-campus, ultimately unpacking the political dimensions of student engagement within campus climates. Chapter authors in this book critically synthesize relevant research, illuminate interdisciplinary perspectives, and interrogate how current issues of power and oppression shape participatory democracy and higher education at large. A go-to resource for researchers, faculty, administrators, and student affairs professionals, this text addresses the most intractable challenges facing society and its institutions of higher education.
Despite allegations of political disengagement and apathy on the part of the young, the last ten years have witnessed a considerable degree of political activity by young people – much of it led by students or directed at changes to the higher education system. Such activity has been evident across the globe. Nevertheless, to date, no book has brought together contributions from a wide variety of national contexts to explore such trends in a rigorous manner. Student Politics and Protest: International Perspectives offers a unique contribution to the disciplines of education, sociology, social policy, politics and youth studies. It provides the first book-length analysis of student politics within contemporary higher education comprising contributions from a variety of different countries and addressing questions such as: What roles do students’ unions play in politics today? How successful are students in bringing about change? In what ways are students engaged in politics and protest in contemporary society? How does such engagement differ by national context? Student Politics and Protest: International Perspectives explores a number of common themes, including: the focus and nature of student politics and protest; whether students are engaging in fundamentally new forms of political activity; the characteristics of politically engaged students; the extent to which such activity can be considered to be ‘globalised’; and societal responses to political activity on the part of students. Student Politics and Protest: International Perspectives does not seek to develop a coherent argument across all its chapters but, instead, illustrate the variety of empirical foci, theoretical resources and substantive arguments that are being made in relation to student politics and protest. International in scope, with all chapters dealing with recent developments concerning student politics and protest, this book will be an invaluable guide for Higher Education professionals, masters and postgraduate students in education, sociology, social policy, politics and youth studies.
Student Politics in Communist Poland tackles the topic of student political activity under a communist regime during the Cold War. It discusses both the communist student organizations as well as oppositional, independent, and apolitical student activism during the forty-five-year period of Poland's existence as a Soviet satellite state. The book focuses on consecutive generations of students who felt compelled to act on behalf of their milieu or for what they saw as the greater national good. The dynamics between moderates and radicals, between conformists and non-conformists are analyzed from the points of view of the protagonists themselves. The book traces ideological evolutions, but also counter-cultural trends and transnational influences in Poland's student community as they emerged, developed, and disappeared over more than four decades. It elaborates on the importance of the Catholic Church and its role in politicizing students. The regime's higher education policies are discussed in relation to its attempts to control the student body, which in effect constituted an ever growing group of young people who were destined to become the regime's future elite in the political, economic, social, and cultural spheres and thus provide it with the necessary legitimacy for its survival. The pivotal crises in the history of Communist Poland, those of 1956, 1968, 1980-1981, are treated with a special emphasis on the students and their respective role in these upheavals. The book shows that student activism played its part in the political trajectory of the country, at times challenging the legitimacy of the regime, and contributed in no small degree to the demise of communism in Poland in 1989. Student Politics in Communist Poland not only presents a chronological narrative of student activism, but it sheds light on lesser known aspects of modern Polish history while telling part of the life stories of prominent figures in Poland's communist establishment as well as its dissident and opposition milieux. Ultimately, it also provides insights into modern-day Poland and its elite, many of whose members laid the groundwork for their later careers as student activists during the communist period.
Black Student Politics, Higher Education and Apartheid examines two black national student political organisations - the South African National Students' Congress (SANSCO) and the South African Students' Organisation (SASO), popularly associated with Black Consciousness. It analyses the ideologies, politics and organisation of SASO and SANSCO and their intellectual, political and social determinants. It also analyses their role in the educational, political and social spheres, and the factors that shaped their activities. Finally, it assesses their contributions to the popular struggle against apartheid education as well as against race, class and gender oppression.
This introduction to politics is designed for first-year students in social sciences and for the general reader interested in the basics of contemporary politic. The text's various sections and lecture summaries deal with the important areas of political science, different systems of democratic government, the fall of communism and post-communist politics, as well as issues in Caribbean politics such as globalization, constitutional reform and regional integration.
