Type

Text

Type

Dissertation

Advisor

Moran, Timothy | Schwartz, Michael | Gootenber, Paul | Markarian, Vania.

Date

2015-05-01

Keywords

Sociology | Argentina, Chile, Countentious politics, Leverage, Students movements

Department

Department of Sociology.

Language

en_US

Source

This work is sponsored by the Stony Brook University Graduate School in compliance with the requirements for completion of degree.

Identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/11401/76816

Publisher

The Graduate School, Stony Brook University: Stony Brook, NY.

Format

application/pdf

Abstract

This project provides a comparative cross-national study of high school and university student power during the last decades in Argentina and Chile to assess the extent to which there is something specific about students vis-à-vis other social movements. The study analyzes contentious events to assess their main demands and repertoires of contention, their relations within a complex network of social and political organizations, generational continuities, and ruptures between student movements. Beginning with a critique of the individualistic and behavioral focus on social movement power, the study scrutinizes at the operation of social forces and institutional practices that eliminate overt conflict form the public agenda, and finds that students play distinctive roles in bringing previously unarticulated issues into explicit contention. Through a combined method approach, the study shows that; a) generational references and generational boundary-making are a paramount feature of student mobilization in the present; b) student´s identities have concrete effects on their selection of tactics and alliance-building; c) though students are impacted by process of global circulation of ideas, these are always mediated by the historical and contextual characteristics of conflicts; d) when students move outwards of the education system to make non-student demands, this process yields a thickening of social networks and social alliances. The comparison between Chile and Argentina shows that both the institutional arrangements of the existent educational systems and the nature of capitalism in both countries are fundamental elements for understanding the differences in terms of a) the perceived threat by authorizes, b) the degree of visibility and public support and c) the relative leverage exercised by student movements in both countries. Educational systems where the state plays a central role in regulation, management, delivery and financing have greater capacity to grant concessions and negotiate with students, avoiding ongoing escalation of conflicts. | This project provides a comparative cross-national study of high school and university student power during the last decades in Argentina and Chile to assess the extent to which there is something specific about students vis-à -vis other social movements. The study analyzes contentious events to assess their main demands and repertoires of contention, their relations within a complex network of social and political organizations, generational continuities, and ruptures between student movements. Beginning with a critique of the individualistic and behavioral focus on social movement power, the study scrutinizes at the operation of social forces and institutional practices that eliminate overt conflict form the public agenda, and finds that students play distinctive roles in bringing previously unarticulated issues into explicit contention. Through a combined method approach, the study shows that; a) generational references and generational boundary-making are a paramount feature of student mobilization in the present; b) student´s identities have concrete effects on their selection of tactics and alliance-building; c) though students are impacted by process of global circulation of ideas, these are always mediated by the historical and contextual characteristics of conflicts; d) when students move outwards of the education system to make non-student demands, this process yields a thickening of social networks and social alliances. The comparison between Chile and Argentina shows that both the institutional arrangements of the existent educational systems and the nature of capitalism in both countries are fundamental elements for understanding the differences in terms of a) the perceived threat by authorizes, b) the degree of visibility and public support and c) the relative leverage exercised by student movements in both countries. Educational systems where the state plays a central role in regulation, management, delivery and financing have greater capacity to grant concessions and negotiate with students, avoiding ongoing escalation of conflicts. | 398 pages

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