Strikes, general assemblies and institutional insurgency: explaining the persistence of the Québec student movement

The authors describe protest patterns at U.S. and Canadian universities in the 2010s. The research draws on a new dataset, the Higher Ed Protest Event Dataset, which combines machine learning and sociological hand coding of 16,069 campus newspaper articles. The sample consists of 5,553 higher ed protests involving 584 universities and colleges between 2012 and 2018. The dataset also includes university and police responses to a subset of protests. The authors find that protest frequency is patterned by the academic calendar. The top issue in both U.S. and Canadian higher education protests was university administration and governance. The comparative analysis reveals distinctive patterns in other issues raised and protest intensity. In the United States, the periods of greatest protest activity were waves of mass mobilization across the country on often racialized issues with a national dimension: racist police violence, racially hostile campus climates, and Donald Trump’s presidency. In Canada, protest activity was most intense during provincial or local campaigns led by formal student organizations and unions on issues of economic security: public tuition, austerity, and labor conditions. Across both countries, university administrations and police usually avoided extensive intervention during protests. The findings contribute to social movements research through methodological innovations and new empirical insights on movements in higher education.

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Strikes, general assemblies and institutional insurgency: explaining the persistence of the Québec student movement

Cited by 3 publications

References 36 publications

Same Same, but Different? Comparing the Politics of Higher Education Policy in Western Europe, Canada, and the U.S.

Same Same, but Different? Comparing the Politics of Higher Education Policy in Western Europe, Canada, and the U.S.

Strike versus Boycott: discursive repertoires and contention in the 2012 Quebec student strike

U.S. and Canadian Higher Education Protests and University and Police Responses, 2012 to 2018

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