The Contentious Politics of Higher Education : Struggles and Power Relations within English and Italian Universities
Movement scholars have generally overlooked the study of mobilizations within institutions. Even less known are the effects that mobilizations within institutions provoke. By combining field theory and social movement approach, my thesis aims to shed light on the variety of institutional impacts that the recent global wave of student mobilizations has produced within some Italian and English universities. More notably, I have looked at the way and to what extent student mobilizations have brought about changes in the university life in terms of student services and facilities, courses and curricula reorganization, and governance structure. To explore it, I have singled out three English (University of Birmingham, Sussex University, and University College of London) and three Italian universities (University of Turin, Sapienza of Rome, and Federico II of Naples), which have witnessed high levels of student mobilization over the past years (2008/2013). Have these mobilizations produced an impact within the university field? My argument is that the institutional context of universities does matter in explaining the variety and diversity of impacts that such mobilizations have brought about.