Solidarity in Action: City and Suburban Students Fighting for a Metropolitan Community

• In Event: Sociology of Education Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 3. Building Civic and Community Engagement in Education

Abstract

Right now, there are countless, serious threats to the health and safety of our young people and their ability to reach their dreams. The powers arrayed against our most vulnerable kids are so strong that one person, and even one community, cannot fight them alone. This is a moment where solidarity across communities is called for, yet it can be hard to envision the possibility in a society so fractured and polarized. The purpose of this paper is to put forward a concrete example of solidarity in action, by featuring city and suburban students’ activism for equality between their schools. The paper builds out conceptions of solidarity using data from a book manuscript in process (Author, 2026). In the events highlighted by this paper, students with disparate educations but common aims interact directly with politicians, and experience setbacks and victories in their quest for justice. The intention is to make solidarity, and action, feel less like magical thinking, and more like something “doable” (Schulman, 2025).

Author

• Cynthia Taines, Northern Illinois University