The Student's Two Bodies: Civic Engagement and Political Becoming in the Post‐Socialist Space |
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| Authors: | Bojan Baća |
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| Affiliation: | Department of Sociology, York University, Toronto, ON, Canada |
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| Abstract: | Student activism in Montenegro has remained largely unaccounted for in the growing body of literature on civic engagement and popular politics in the post‐Yugoslav space. When students took their discontent to the streets of the Montenegrin capital in November 2011, the dual nature of the student body was rendered visible and audible: while the official student organizations framed their activity as an apolitical expression of discontent over studying conditions, several independent student associations positioned themselves as an extra‐parliamentary opposition to the ruling establishment and called for the creation of a wide anti‐austerity/anti‐corruption coalition. Drawing from critical theory, political sociology, and human geography, this article addresses the questions of why, how, when, and where a part of the student body became political. I argue that a social context that lacks a tradition of politically engaged student movements provides opportunities for a nuanced understanding of political becoming of a hitherto apolitical social group. |
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| Keywords: | political becoming student activism contentious politics social movements post‐socialism Montenegro |
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