Activists in the Making: A Diachronic Analysis of the 2010-14 UK Student Movement

Abstract

This thesis explores the impact of activism on activists, how the experience of activism fosters a politicisation process, and how this process continues throughout an activist’s political life. During the winter of 2010 and the years following the reform of UK higher education many students went through the process of becoming social movement activists. They were highly visible during this period, but after the free education movement had gone into abeyance, these people did not disappear, and they did not forget the experiences that had shaped them. Building on the social history of EP Thompson (1963) and Paulo Freire’s (1970) praxis theory, this thesis explores the experience of social movement activism, and the importance of understanding activists as people in a process of becoming. Utilising an oral history method that illuminates the narratives of student movement activists, processes of confirmation, realisation and radicalisation are developed as ways of understanding the making of activists. These activists, both as individuals and a cohort, have a legacy beyond the end of the period of high intensity activism they forged their political consciousness in. This approach contributes to the historical sociology of social movements by emphasising the importance of understanding social movements, and the people that create them, as phenomena that happen over time. Social movements are revealed as processes, in a world of interacting processes, which opens the horizon for a more dynamic understanding of social movements and social change.

Date of Award	1 Aug 2024
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	The University of Manchester
Supervisor	Nick Crossley (Supervisor) & Gemma Edwards (Supervisor)