In, against and beyond the demand: Demand and identity as breakwaters of the content of collective action. The concept of form as the embodiment of emancipatory dimensions of struggle. The experience of the claim for housing at the University of the Aegean.

The University of the Aegean did not remain unaffected by the overall implementation of austerity policies following the economic crisis of 2008. In this paper, we examine the collective action expressed in Mytilene in 2013, following the cutback on funding for student residences. In particular, we explore the meaning, political significance and limits of this collective action, questioning the notions of collective identity and demand. The latter interpret, at first sight, the outbreak of collective action, but fail to signify its emancipatory aspects. The paper's central thesis is that those categories (demand and collective identity) obstruct the development of its context. In contrast, we support that a concept of form that underlines the fragility of social relation can be the starting point of an emancipatory theory. This study is based on fieldnotes, semi-structured interviews, and on the assemblies and the texts of the collective actors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]