"Our Generation, Our Choice": Student political activism and the development of political citizenship in higher education

Since the expression of the concept of 'civic virtue' in
early doctrines of republican democracy, the role of the
university campus as a site of citizenship has been
prominent in discourses of the civic role of higher
education in Britain. Although existing literature on
political socialisation has focused on school-age
children, evidence suggests that student activism at
university plays a key role in developing future political
values and behaviours. However, recent literature also
suggests that students are less radical and politically
active than even ten years ago. This presents not only
a gap in the scholarly literature on the topic but also a
clear societal and educational problematic: if a
relationship between student engagement with politics
and the development of political citizenship is as
described, and students have indeed become 'less
activist' in recent years, what does this mean for
political values and behaviours in the current and future
graduate populations? The proposed study aims to
investigate the development of students' 'active'
political citizenship behaviours and values in the
context of student political activism through a form of
Przybylski's (2021) 'hybrid ethnography', blending
online and offline comparative ethnographic study of
grassroots student activist groups at British
universities. In doing so, this research aims to
conceptualise and theorise the roles, motivations,
perceptions and relationships lying behind student
activism at British universities, and consider the
relationship these have with the development of
political citizenship and, ultimately, the civic role of the
university in the contemporary HE setting.