Student Activism in the Neoliberal University: A Hermeneutic Phenomenological Analysis

Abstract

Student activism is a highly underresearched topic in psychology despite the field’s commitment to studying person–environment interactions and advancing social justice aims. Furthermore, less is known about the ways in which student activists navigate the neoliberal or “corporatized” university in the United States. This research study utilizes a hermeneutic phenomenological qualitative method in order to attempt to describe the experience of being a student activist within a “corporatized” or neoliberal university. The results demonstrate that the apolitical rhetoric and the consumerization of student life, characteristic of neoliberalism in higher education, influence the process through which students become activists and become explicit targets of discipline as well. Students understand their activism in terms of repoliticizing the university and reconfiguring their approach toward education away from consumer metaphors. The results also have significant implications for understanding how the experience of student activism interacts with the other social and economic stressors, simultaneously increasing demands on students while creating possibilities for connectedness and purpose.

Internationalization, Whiteness, and Biopolitics of Higher Education

“…That speaks both to the importance of higher education in maintaining white supremacy and the opportunity for higher education institutions to engage in dismantling it. Contrary to the popular institutional position of neutrality and objectivity, this engagement requires re-politicization of universities and their explicit recognition of their role in correcting or abetting social ills (Karter et al, 2020). Repoliticization of internationalization is similarly important in order to: acknowledge the ideological differences and inequalities between international partners; question the hegemony, ethnocentricity, and paternalism in the Global North-South encounters; examine the colonial legacy of partnering institutions and systems; and safeguard collaborations against self-serving agendas and easy solutions (Andreotti, 2015).…”

The conceit of activism in the illiberal university

“…This means that health becomes accepted as primarily the responsibility of the individual citizen requiring less government expenditure in the process on front line services. It is about a responsibility-shift for welfare from the state’s health service, on the basis of calls for individuals to take ‘personal responsibility’ and exercise ‘self-care’ (Lemke, 2001: 203).…”

“…The notion of 'activism' is conventionally associated with socially and ethically motivated individuals wishing to bring about change in society -through lobbying, campaigning and protest -seeking to use the power of persuasion to influence a shift in the prevailing attitudes of society. The typical contemporary image of student activism involves agitating for social, racial and ecological justice and resisting the neo-liberalisation of the university (Cole and Heinecke, 2020;Karter et al, 2019). Student activism is further related to volunteering for humanitarian ends through so-called 'gap years', the service-learning movement, and nationwide schemes such as the US Peace Corps established in the 1960s.…”

Intersectional sustainability and student activism: A framework for achieving social sustainability on university campuses

“…This second approach is problematic, because as scholars have noted, the financial situation and labor conditions of contemporary university students are more precarious than ever, and this has significant ramifications for student activists who find themselves vulnerable to expulsion or repression (Fernandez, 2012; Linder et al, 2019). Indeed, the ‘neoliberalization of academia’ has created precarity at numerous levels and has fostered a problematic landscape of activism that leaves students and faculty increasingly vulnerable while simultaneously promoting solutions that require self-funding and the formation of commodifiable ‘products’—most commonly in the form of a marketable image that can be used to attract donors and prospective students (Karter et al, 2019; Linder et al, 2019; Mohanty, 2013). As a result, we strongly suggest that—when possible—the goals of student activism be directed toward official, written university commitment to these initiatives.…”

“…Ultimately, while it seems that there is momentum on university campuses in recent years to acknowledge, frame, and take action on issues of social justice and sustainability, it is too early to know if these efforts will be sustained. As Karter et al (2019: 1) state, ‘student activism is a highly underresearched topic’ and ‘even less is known about the ways in which student activists navigate the neoliberal or “corporatized university”’. We hope that this article is one step in the direction of remedying the absence of scholarship on this topic while also offering a useful framework for students, faculty, and staff to recognize and act upon issues that lie at the intersection of social justice, sustainability, and inclusion.…”