Search

This article offers a transatlantic student perspective on the theory-practice debate at the center of Theodor Adorno and Herbert Marcuse's 1969 correspondence, famously bookended by the occupation of the Institute for Social Research in January and Adorno's death in August. Noting that there were not one but two student occupations that occurred during this period, with Marcuse supporting the second led by Black and Chicanx students at the University of California, San Diego, it undertakes a comparative reading of the insights and activities of the self-named Spartacus Department in Frankfurt and Lumumba-Zapata College in San Diego. It first recovers a multidimensional critique of the role of the postwar university in advancing capital accumulation and entrenching racial segregation—twinned processes that students recognized as posing an existential threat to the exercise of critical thinking within the university. It then argues that the Spartacus Department's and Lumumba-Zapata College's mutual attempts to occupy and refigure corners of the accredited university as sites of horizontal teaching and learning encode the missing theory of organization in the Frankfurt School's corpus. By recentering the insights and motivations of these two campaigns and two of the students who led them, Angela Davis and Hans-Jürgen Krahl, this article illuminates a path for a more political iteration of Critical Theory after 1969. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractThis article demonstrates an important case of transnational activist influence from the Global South to both Global North and other Global South contexts. While protests, slogans, strategies and demands are expressions of a specific context-bound protest culture, they have the potential to resonate globally. In this way, specific protests become a model for other social movements, although not without tension or reconfigurations of activism. In this article, we explore the transnational flow of the ideas around ‘Must Fall’, developed initially by the South African student movement. From 2015, several university-based protests in South Africa coalesced under the slogan ‘Must Fall’, most prominently #RhodesMustFall and #FeesMustFall. This ‘Must Fall’ idea resonated transnationally in multiple contexts. However, protests using ‘Must Fall’ also drew from other resources and held different meanings across the different contexts, creating a complex transnational flow of partially connected protests across Africa, Europe, and the US. Nevertheless, the ‘Must Fall’ protests were similar in expressing a need for a radical change to rupture and overcome structures of oppression, especially those shaped by colonialism. This article analyses the Global South genesis and meaning of the ‘Must Fall’ protests and how they travelled, resonating differently in both Southern and Northern contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

South African students have since 2015 returned to the forefront of the country's social movement struggles. Central to this wave of contention was the #RhodesMustFall (#RMF) movement at the University of Cape Town (UCT), which coalesced with uprisings at universities across the country under the banner of #FeesMustFall, focusing demands on abolishing tuition fees, decolonizing education and society, and ending campus worker exploitation. In the process, students imagined how education and society could be different. In this paper, we discuss the relationship between social movements, occupations, and imagination, by examining a crucial event in the #RMF movement: the student occupation of an administrative building at UCT. Because social movement theory has an underdeveloped conception of the imagination, we draw on Sartre's and Fanon's understanding of the imagination and apply it to students' activism. Based on original qualitative research we demonstrate how imagined futures guide movement activity, while their prefigurative practices in the occupation enacted these in the present. The #RMF occupation was seen as a break from reality that catalysed students' imaginations, honing their critiques of society and shaping two central imaginaries of alternative futures, decolonization and intersectionality. The #RMF movement's imaginaries and enactments were influential in reshaping the South African higher education landscape and even inspired movements internationally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Istorija 20. Veka is the property of Institute for Contemporary History and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Background: The rich tapestry of student politics and movements in Bangladesh is marked by a history of significant contributions to the country's sociopolitical landscape. This study was prompted by a keen interest in exploring the dynamics of contemporary student movements at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Science and Technology University (BSMRSTU), Gopalganj, and their interplay with the broader sociopolitical climate of Bangladesh. A critical examination of these movements reveals a complex web of motivations, strategies, and outcomes that both mirror and influence national sociopolitical dialogues. Methods: Employing qualitative research methods, including in-depth interviews (IDI) with 26 individuals directly affected by the culture and mechanics of these movements, this study uncovers the nuanced ways in which student activism at BSMRSTU mobilizes cultural ideologies toward societal change. Purposive and snowball sampling techniques were utilized to select participants, revealing that the rhetoric of movements--framed around justice, rights, equality, and reform--plays a crucial role in recruiting and energizing participants. Results: However, this investigation also highlights a darker facet of these movements: the destructive consequences of specific actions, such as property damage, which not only impact the immediate community but also fuel further unrest. The prevalence of movements centered on themes of injustice underscores the urgent need for both governmental and academic institutions to engage more constructively with student concerns. Addressing this gap requires a nuanced understanding of the motivations behind student movements and a commitment to implementing policies that nurture a culture of dialogue and reform. Conclusion: This study, therefore, problematizes the contemporary student movements at BSMRSTU by questioning the balance between activism and the potential for unintended consequences, urging a reevaluation of how such movements are perceived and managed in the context of Bangladesh's evolving sociopolitical milieu. For harmful movement culture in academia to be prevented, government and university authorities must take student movements seriously and implement policies and strong norms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the experiences of participation in the strike carried out by students of Unit 071 of the National Pedagogical University of Tuxtla Gutierrez, Chiapas, Mexico. From a reflective approach, the historical memory of the process is recovered from documentary analysis, records of assemblies and marches, as well interviews with students and leaders of the movement. The information was grouped into two blocks: From the pandemic to the student strike. Subjectivation and existential plot; in which the vicissitudes of organization and actions carried out are exposed; and, The word must be worth, which discusses the network of actions, synergies, meetings and disagreements between students to undertake negotiations with educational and governmental authorities. The confluence of other social movements, the mobilization and taking of the streets, contributed to the strike's resolution, which inaugurated an unprecedented experience of struggle and resistance for these students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BackgroundThe rich tapestry of student politics and movements in Bangladesh is marked by a history of significant contributions to the country's sociopolitical landscape. This study was prompted by a keen interest in exploring the dynamics of contemporary student movements at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Science and Technology University (BSMRSTU), Gopalganj, and their interplay with the broader sociopolitical climate of Bangladesh. A critical examination of these movements reveals a complex web of motivations, strategies, and outcomes that both mirror and influence national sociopolitical dialogues.MethodsEmploying qualitative research methods, including in-depth interviews (IDI) with 26 individuals directly affected by the culture and mechanics of these movements, this study uncovers the nuanced ways in which student activism at BSMRSTU mobilizes cultural ideologies toward societal change. Purposive and snowball sampling techniques were utilized to select participants, revealing that the rhetoric of movements—framed around justice, rights, equality, and reform—plays a crucial role in recruiting and energizing participants.ResultsHowever, this investigation also highlights a darker facet of these movements: the destructive consequences of specific actions, such as property damage, which not only impact the immediate community but also fuel further unrest. The prevalence of movements centered on themes of injustice underscores the urgent need for both governmental and academic institutions to engage more constructively with student concerns. Addressing this gap requires a nuanced understanding of the motivations behind student movements and a commitment to implementing policies that nurture a culture of dialogue and reform.ConclusionThis study, therefore, problematizes the contemporary student movements at BSMRSTU by questioning the balance between activism and the potential for unintended consequences, urging a reevaluation of how such movements are perceived and managed in the context of Bangladesh's evolving sociopolitical milieu. For harmful movement culture in academia to be prevented, government and university authorities must take student movements seriously and implement policies and strong norms.