Coming soon: Rachel Brooks' book "Student Politics and Protests"

Rachel Brooks is Professor of Sociology at the University of Surrey (UK) and her research interests lie in the sociology of education, including higher education; transitions from school to university and from education to work; lifelong learning; international education; citizenship education and political participation; the impact of friends and peers on experiences of education; and education policy. Clearly, there are many interests we have in common! Thus, it was wonderful to be invited to participate in her international book project "Student Politics and Protests: International Perspectives" (Routledge, forthcoming 2016) and contribute with Manja Klemenčič (Harvard), the chapter on student politics in Africa. The original book outline includes:

An introduction and conclusion chapter by Rachel Brooks, University of Surrey, UK

• Chapter 2. Complexities of a Student Political World by Joseph Ibrahim, Leeds Beckett University, UK and Nick Crossley, University of Manchester, UK
• Chapter 3.Affinities and Barricades. A Comparative Analysis of Student Organizing in Quebec and the USA by Rushdia Mehreen and Ryan Thomson, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA
• Chapter 4. ‘Free Education’: a Totemic Issue of Student Politics by Debbie McVitty, National Union of Students, UK
• Chapter 5. Resisting the ‘Neo-Liberal University’. Struggles and Power Relations in Today’s Universities in Italy and England by Lorenzo Cini, European University Institute, Florence, Italy
• Chapter 6. Student Protests, Austerity and the ‘Value’ of Education by Gritt Nilsen, Aarhus University, Denmark
• Chapter 7. Student Power in 21st Century Africa: the Changing Role and Character of National Student Associations by Thierry Luescher, University of the Free State, South Africa, and Manja Klemenčič, Harvard University, USA 
• Chapter 8. Students’ Unions. The New Zealand Experience by Sylvia Nissen and Bronwyn Hayward, University of Canterbury, New Zealand 
• Chapter 9. Campaigning for a Movement: Collective identity and Student Solidarity in the 2010/11 UK Protests against Fees and Cuts by Alexander Hensby, University of Kent, UK
• Chapter 10. ‘If not now, then when?’ The Student Protest Movement in Hong Kong by Bruce Macfarlane, University of Southampton, UK 
• Chapter 11. From Silent Conformists to Post-Modern Rebels: Student Mobilization during Turkey’s Gezi Resistance by Begum Uzan, University of Toronto, Canada.
• Chapter 12. The Chilean Student Movement: Neoliberal Discourses and Agentic Responses Towards Social Transformation by Carolina Guzman Valenzuela, University of Chile, Chile

Manja and I settled for an analysis of the key trends in student organising in Africa with specific focus on national systems of student representation. This is what our 'blurp' reads like:

"This chapter provides a systematic overview of African student politics and the character of systems of student representation in national and higher education politics. It outlines key trends in contemporary African student politics, including the emergence of internet-age student movements such as #FeesMustFall, followed by an analysis and classification of national systems of student representation in a selection of ten countries. The chapter thus shows the impacts of democratisation and economic growth, neo-liberal reforms and higher education expansion, and the ICT revolution, on the changing character and role of student organising in 21st century Africa."