"This Building Is Ours!" Student Activism against the University's Neoliberal Policy

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Main Authors: Perttu Ahoketo, Juha Suoranta
Format: Recurso educativo Open Access
Language:en
Published: 2024
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author Perttu Ahoketo
Juha Suoranta
author_facet Perttu Ahoketo
Juha Suoranta
Perttu Ahoketo
Juha Suoranta
collection Education Resources Information Center
contents "This Building Is Ours!" Student Activism against the University's Neoliberal Policy Perttu Ahoketo Juha Suoranta Activism Neoliberalism Student Attitudes Ethnography Universities Social Media Democracy College Students Social Change Power Structure College Administration Foreign Countries Higher Education Educational Policy Organizational Change Educational Legislation Educational Facilities This article is an ethnography of a student protest against a Finnish university's plans to give up 25 percent of its campus buildings until 2030. The Finnish universities faced financial deficits primarily due to education cuts implemented by Finland's right-wing government between 2015 and 2019. To balance the budget, Tampere University proposed surrendering some of its buildings, including the Linna, the home of social sciences, and the main library. The students organized the We Will Not Give Up the Linna Building movement (WWGU) to oppose the university's decision. This article is an ethnography of the movement's resistance and outcomes and analyzes what the student activists learned and how they changed during the protest wave in 2021. Our analysis uncovered six key insights the student activists learned on democracy, social media in activism, activism's temporality and persistence, the role of emotions in activism, and the university's power structures. The study contributes to a general understanding of the student protest movement, the social transformations that student activists undergo, and how they learn to perceive democracy, develop political imagination, and understand power structures.
format Recurso educativo Open Access
id eric_EJ1432896
institution ERIC Institute of Education Sciences
language en
publishDate 2024
record_format eric
spellingShingle "This Building Is Ours!" Student Activism against the University's Neoliberal Policy
Perttu Ahoketo
Juha Suoranta
Activism
Neoliberalism
Student Attitudes
Ethnography
Universities
Social Media
Democracy
College Students
Social Change
Power Structure
College Administration
Foreign Countries
Higher Education
Educational Policy
Organizational Change
Educational Legislation
Educational Facilities
"This Building Is Ours!" Student Activism against the University's Neoliberal Policy Perttu Ahoketo Juha Suoranta Activism Neoliberalism Student Attitudes Ethnography Universities Social Media Democracy College Students Social Change Power Structure College Administration Foreign Countries Higher Education Educational Policy Organizational Change Educational Legislation Educational Facilities This article is an ethnography of a student protest against a Finnish university's plans to give up 25 percent of its campus buildings until 2030. The Finnish universities faced financial deficits primarily due to education cuts implemented by Finland's right-wing government between 2015 and 2019. To balance the budget, Tampere University proposed surrendering some of its buildings, including the Linna, the home of social sciences, and the main library. The students organized the We Will Not Give Up the Linna Building movement (WWGU) to oppose the university's decision. This article is an ethnography of the movement's resistance and outcomes and analyzes what the student activists learned and how they changed during the protest wave in 2021. Our analysis uncovered six key insights the student activists learned on democracy, social media in activism, activism's temporality and persistence, the role of emotions in activism, and the university's power structures. The study contributes to a general understanding of the student protest movement, the social transformations that student activists undergo, and how they learn to perceive democracy, develop political imagination, and understand power structures.
title "This Building Is Ours!" Student Activism against the University's Neoliberal Policy
topic Activism
Neoliberalism
Student Attitudes
Ethnography
Universities
Social Media
Democracy
College Students
Social Change
Power Structure
College Administration
Foreign Countries
Higher Education
Educational Policy
Organizational Change
Educational Legislation
Educational Facilities
url https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1432896