Where are all the students? Demobilisation and re-engagement in higher education in Turkey and beyond
The uprisings that erupted unexpectedly in the Middle East between 2010 and 2011 propelled the region’s youth to the forefront of the political and media spheres. According to some scholars, we are witnessing a re-politicisation of Middle Eastern youth, a marked contrast to their ‘depoliticisation’...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Association pour la Recherche sur le Moyen-Orient
2020-02-01
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| Series: | European Journal of Turkish Studies |
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| Online Access: | https://journals.openedition.org/ejts/6855 |
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| Summary: | The uprisings that erupted unexpectedly in the Middle East between 2010 and 2011 propelled the region’s youth to the forefront of the political and media spheres. According to some scholars, we are witnessing a re-politicisation of Middle Eastern youth, a marked contrast to their ‘depoliticisation’ and ‘apathy’ as a group in recent years. Yet, although the youth (incidentally, the majority of the population in the region) have unquestionably participated in popular protests, student unions seem not to have played a role thus far. From a macro-level perspective, the marginal role of student associations may seem natural; whilst nationalist and revolutionary leaders encouraged students to actively participate in politics ‘for the sake of the nation’ until the 1960s, both revolutionary and conservative regimes progressively sought to ‘depoliticize’ them. This turned higher education into a privileged ‘sandbox’ for testing methods of repression which would then be extended to all segments of society. However, while scholars should consider the political context of a given society, namely, the authoritarian or semi-authoritarian regimes of most Middle Eastern countries, we must ask: what can meso- and micro-level analysis reveal about the complex and multi-layered phenomena of collective demobilization and individual disengagement? This special issue offers some responses to that central question, analysing different case studies within higher education, from Turkey and Egypt to Morocco and Mexico, over the last forty years. |
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| ISSN: | 1773-0546 |