To study the student movement ethnographically shows that protesting comes in many more forms than may be expected.
Many years ago I came across James C Scott's work on the Arts of Resistance where he showed that there were 'hidden transcripts' in play among subordinate communities to express in thinly disguised ways effective ways of subverting the dominant order and resisting everyday exploitation.
Among the most memorable parts of this work was to me his description of various art-forms of resistance, like dances and plays; processions; songs and chants; rituals; paintings.
Chapter 6 of my current book project on #FeesMustFall and related student movement campaigns of 2015/16 also deals with the aesthetic and artistic (but not quite hidden) forms of protesting. South Africa has a rich protest culture.
Many will know that under apartheid, funerals were often a combination of mourning the death (and celebrating the life) and political protest. Struggle songs, protest dances, and so forth are so common that many a youth knows them intimately. They have been part of their lived reality, their normality, in their communities.
I also remember reading Barrington Moore’s work in my undergraduate years, making precisely this argument about social movements, or in my case a student movement, arising from the everyday normality. 
