(iPoster) Anti-Systemic Networks: Student Resistance and Solidarity in the University

• In Event: Poster Session: Political Economy; Civic Engagement; & Comparative Politics, Political Economy, and Participation
  In Poster Session: Poster Session: Civic Engagement

Abstract

Habermas called the student body the “backbone” of the university. The university is a site of a contesting, dual purpose – to create a professional class as the bedrock of industrial society, as well as cultivate critical thinking and problem solving in citizens. In this paper, I theoretically examine the political consciousness of the student body, particularly as they form networks to challenge the structures and ideologies of their academic institutions. I use as case studies, recent global student protests against the bombardment of Gaza, as well as historical student actions like the post-war German student protests in 1968. A salient feature of the student body is that it is transient – students come from and graduate into heterogeneous social and economic conditions – and the relationships of collaboration and conflict that they form with other students, teachers, and administration, function entirely as fleeting networks of outrage or solidarity that continue to change form. In this paper, I critically explore the student body as being comprised of temporary solidarities networked on what E. P. Thompson referred to as a “moral economy,” wherein a group of disenfranchised people experience collective consciousness based on a moral sense of rights and justice that seems to have been violated by an authority figure in times of crisis.

Central to this analysis is studying the notion of the student movement as “anti-systemic,” characterized by a necessary opposition to established hierarchies of power and order, ranging from university administrations to external state actors, like politicians and the police. Yet, as the student body is not a monolithic class and a more dynamic, evolving network, I borrow theoretical paradigms from Peter Stallybras’ use of the Marxist term “lumpenproletariat,” to discuss a group of people outside of a definitive class structure that move collectively with and yet externally to the class. Built upon the theoretical framework of anti-systemic movement literature, I perform a rhetorical analysis on political speeches, manifestos, and media reports from student bodies as well as authority figures/groups around the protests for a ceasefire in Gaza, to explore the widening gap between the democratic ideals promoted in academic discourse and the undemocratic practices that are often perpetuated within the academic institutions. This conflict is grounded in historical moments of student action, interrogating how student networks navigate, embody, and form networks around the inherent tensions between their roles as learners as well as agents of political change within the industry and employment-generating framework of the university. To support my analysis of the student body as an embodied network, I also explore transnational networks of solidarity between students (through digital media, as well as historically, pre-digital networking) to illuminate the collective “moral economy” of the student body, acting to protest against injustices that may not directly be impacting them locally.

By critically examining the intersections of labor, education, and resistance, this paper sheds light on how student organizations disrupt the systems of academic institutions, asserting their democratic role (even as it conflicts its role as a dutiful learner). Conclusively, I discuss the student body as a networked identity that sustains and enacts political consciousness, creating a shared culture of resistance that extends beyond the temporality of their identities as students. Even as individual actors interact with the network, it reaffirms the role of the student network as an essential agent in systemic political action.

Author

• Srishti Chatterjee, Northwestern University